The California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) Board of Directors today certified the Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) and unanimously approved the approximately 90-mile San Jose to Merced project section in Northern California. This action completes the environmental clearance for nearly 400 miles of the high-speed rail project’s 500-mile Phase 1 alignment from San Francisco to Los Angeles/Anaheim – including a contiguous stretch between Merced and Palmdale plus January’s clearance of the Burbank to Los Angeles section.

The real estate industry in Antelope Valley, Los Angeles is expecting a major boom due to the development potential of its underutilized land. This is good news after a tumultuous few years for the local property market, and the economy as a whole. Antelope Valley has a vacancy rate of 5.4% in more than 4.5 million square feet of office space, meaning that there is huge potential for buyers, whether commercial or residential, to make profitable use of the land.

LANCASTER — The City of Lancaster will get a Sprouts Farmers Market as part of a new food and convenience destination on the northeast corner of Avenue K and 15th Street West.

LANCASTER — The developers of a 114-unit apartment complex proposed on 5.66 acres at the southwest corner of Avenue I and Sierra Highway, received approximately $24.60 million for the project from the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, state officials announced, last week.

While big-city transit agencies are still years or decades away from electrifying their fleets the MTA is aiming for full electrification by 2040; L.A. County’s Metro is hoping for 2030 — the Antelope Valley, a region of about 450,000 people, got there long before anyone else. With the acquisition of its 77th electric bus — the exteriors all painted with those orange poppies — plus ten electric microtransit vans, the Antelope Valley Transit Authority celebrated a milestone last month no other transit agency in the country can claim: the first fleet to be fully electrified, hitting its zero-emission goal a full 18 years earlier than scheduled.

LANCASTER — The city will sell nine surplus commercial properties along the Front Row Center area for approximately $4.38 million to Verdant Lancaster LLC for future development.

Metrolink will reinstate service on 24 of the most in-demand trains and add two new trains on April 4 as it restores service that was suspended when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Antelope Valley Line: Six added trains and schedule updates offering increased flexibility for weekday

This approximately 31 to 38-mile project section will connect two key population centers in Los Angeles County with multi-modal transportation hubs in Palmdale and Burbank. The Palmdale Station is included as part of the Bakersfield to Palmdale Project Section, and will serve along with the Hollywood Burbank Airport Station to provide a critical link between the Antelope Valley and the Los Angeles Basin to complete the overall statewide program.

A proposed 170-unit affordable housing development has taken a step forward by securing nearly $70 million in financing. KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investment and KeyBank Real Estate Capital announced that they partnering with Ravello Holdings to develop Maison's Village, an affordable housing community in Palmdale, about 60 miles from Los Angeles.

PALMDALE — The Palmdale Water District Board of Directors agreed to contract with a firm to provide the engineering for a proposed water augmentation project that would treat recycled wastewater to a higher level, then inject it into the ground to be retrieved for future use.

LANCASTER — BYD (Build Your Dreams) welcomed Qin Gang, China’s ambassador to the United States, on Tuesday, to its Lancaster manufacturing plant.

NASA’s airplane designed to fly supersonic without sonic booms is undergoing extensive structural testing in preparation for its maiden flight, later this year

Northrop Grumman is hiring workers in Palmdale. There will be “pre-screening” March 21-25. Job seekers must apply online. Northrop Grumman plans to hire more than 450 new employees this year.

Brightline West, a proposed high speed rail project that would connect Las Vegas to the Los Angeles-area has announced a new date to break ground to build the project. Brightline West tentatively set to break ground in 2023

PALMDALE — The first public CNG (compressed natural gas) fueling station in the city is open. City officials joined WM (formerly Waste Management) and SoCal Gas officials and other dignitaries, on Wednesday, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Antelope Valley Recycling and Disposal Facility.

LOS ANGELES — More than $26 million in Measure A funding has been awarded to park development projects across Los Angeles County.

PALMDALE — Water is flowing through the Palmdale Ditch, between the Littlerock Dam reservoir and Lake Palmdale, as part of the Palmdale Water District’s water supply.

MOJAVE — The multiple landing gear on Stratolaunch’s massive airplane is being put thorough their paces in ground tests, in preparation for the aircraft’s next test flight, the company reported in a social media post.