2.5 Acres for Sale in Tecopa, CA

A 2.5 Acres ranch is north of Charleston View, Ca. and is located in the northern Mojave Desert, perched above the beautiful Pahrump Valley (which is largely in Nevada) on the southeast slope of the Nopah Range. It boasts a stunning view across the valley to the Spring Range and snow-capped Mt. Charleston. It is a fairly typical creosote/saltbush scrub ecosystem. There are known populations of desert tortoises and burrowing owls, bighorn sheep use it to connect adjacent mountain ranges, and it is generally what one might think of as undisturbed. During the Hidden Hills proceedings, a California Native Plant Society survey found seventeen rare plants, many discovered in California for the first time, and only known in the state in this immediate area.

Charleston View is awfully attractive to builders. In recent months, three developers have quietly floated proposals that together would transform barren Charleston View into a city of 150,000 -- an hour's drive from the Las Vegas Strip. Unlike the federal lands surrounding Las Vegas, the property here is privately owned and available for development. Inyo County officials have already hired a Bay Area planning firm to evaluate the three development proposals and help merge them into one coherent master plan.

Inyo County has proposed Charleston View as a Solar Energy Development Area in its Renewable Energy General Plan Amendment.

Southern Inyo County, which also includes the communities of Tecopa, Shoshone, Death Valley Junction, and Furnace Creek in Death Valley, has no more than 500 residents, representing less than 3% of the county’s population. There is near universal opposition to utility-scale solar development in the scenic Owens Valley, 200 miles away on the more populated side of Inyo County, but many feel that the County “has to put it somewhere.” No matter how well-meaning, politicians have voters to please and the CEC to appease, so the REGPA plans for 45% of the utility-scale solar power development in Inyo County to be sited at Charleston View.