City of Lancaster warehouse plan threatens future CAHSR right-of-way

A new warehouse plan conflicts with the current plan for future California High Speed Rail tracks

*Rendering courtesy of the California High Speed Rail Authority*

Those who remember the Burbank Airport fiasco will already have an inkling of how this is going to play out. Underfunded from the start, the California High-Speed Rail Authority is already facing right-of-way encroachment. What was previously supposed to be empty land easily acquired for the future trackage of the high speed trains is now being thrown into jeopardy.

Originally found by user menorman on X (Twitter), a set of CEQA (environmental review) documents (1) reveal a costly conflict with CAHSR’s current plans. Behind the warehouse is the City of Lancaster, which wants to annex current unincorporated L.A. County land and convert it to an appealing area for companies. Under the “Westside Annexation and North Lancaster Industrial Specific Plan” DEIR, it’s stated that the project intends to “encourage development of various land use types in northern Lancaster” as well as “attract new businesses to the City” and “[establish] a new industrial development area.” (2)

The Lancaster ROW diagram from the Bakersfield-Palmdale EIR, overlayed on top of maps of several of the facilities planned as part of the Lancaster project.

This is all good and well, except for one problem: the site plans for this facility are directly in the path of the future California High-Speed Rail right-of-way. In fact, I created a collage of the various site plans, (3) as well as the CAHSR EIR for the Bakersfield-Palmdale segment, (4) that shows exactly how this conflict will play out.

In fact, the most egregious example is shown above, where a building is placed directly in the path of the future rail line.

If this gets built, it will be a costly price for the Authority behind CAHSR to pay. High-speed rail tracks cannot simple be ‘moved out of the way.’ High-speed trains need wide curves to keep traveling at high speeds, and moving the tracks out of the way will mean changing the entire profile of the route between Mojave and Lancaster. Not to mention, the Lancaster LMF (Light Maintenance Facility) and MOWF (Maintenance of Way Facility). Finding new locations for these facilities will end up delaying this segment even further, and mean complications with new site selections and property acquisitions (which, not to mention, is the cause of this whole fiasco in the first place).

This has been a recurring problem with the CAHSR project for a while now. Without dedicated funding from the start, it’s impossible to secure all of the right-of-way in advance. When people start using their land for their own uses, CAHSR will have to pay the price when it comes to condemnation, eminent domain, and eventually demolition. In the end, it ends up being more of a headache, just like the Burbank Airport property fiasco.

So what exactly can we do?

Unfortunately, this project came to my attention just after the EIR public comment deadline. Public comments for CEQA review closed yesterday, July 21st (07/21/2025). HOWEVER, I highly recommend that anyone interested in CAHSR’s future to email jswain@cityoflancasterca.org (Jocelyn Swain). Further contact information is available at the CEQA page: https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2024081372.

Thank you to menorman on X (Twitter) for bringing this to my attention.

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1 - https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2024081372/2

2 - https://files.ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/305462-2/attachment/czWGGrSxgWtIpvv9GT8B_McDbRj2pWcHnoAvH0VOvMzJ-9Wyj6zgUKZyMDDIG_zDHgd5UStnCs3Ofnw00

3 - https://files.ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/305462-2/attachment/u4jaPOaW2RaWZX9U7jAYkQ-pcKICr1cq0o4Q7WuqR_eYagiTpvXDM_8g-vL1ru9w8ndfea711Awxr2lY0

4 - https://hsr.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/BP_Final_EIRS_Vol_1_CH_2_Alternatives.pdf, Figure 2-53