Canyon Neighbors Gird for Another Legal Battle

In the early 1990s -- a time angrily recalled in Altadena -- developers offered a swath of historic Millard Canyon as public open space for hiking in return for permission to carve an upscale tract into the hills at the edge of the Angeles National Forest.

Yet “No trespassing” signs were recently posted to keep out hikers and equestrians who have traversed the lush canyon for decades, even without the trails that were to have been built as part of the agreement with Los Angeles County.

The appearance of those signs was the final straw for people who felt their rights to Millard Canyon’s natural riches -- trails, vistas, forests and wildlife -- were secured under the agreement.

Now, they are fighting back. The Center for Law in the Public Interest and the Los Angeles firm of Reed Smith are preparing to sue the La Vina Homeowners Assn. and the county on behalf of a group called Save the Altadena Trails.

Robert Garcia of the Center for Law, a national nonprofit firm based in Los Angeles, said the suit will seek to enforce conditions of the developers’ deal, including construction of a trail around the gated community and the donation of 108 acres of open space to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Instead of complying, Garcia said, developers attempted to convey all of the open parcels to the homeowners’ association, which has now posted the “No trespassing” signs.

Reed Smith will take the lead in the suit and forgo a fee, Garcia said.

In an unusual move, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who once touted the project as a model for others to emulate, urged the county to sue the association as well. He has asked county attorneys to file a separate lawsuit against the association, alleging a broken promise to construct trails.

“In approving the La Vina projects, I made a commitment -- with unanimous board support -- to the Altadena community that trails would be provided,” Antonovich said. “This was mandated in the specific plan, the tract map and conditional-use permit.

“It is unfortunate that the county has been placed in the position of pursuing litigation,” he said, “but the homeowners’ association board has left us no choice.”

That kind of talk rankles association members, who point out that, although developers made such promises, the county failed to enforce them. It is unfair, they say, for the county to now make legal demands of the association that it didn’t make of the developer.

Opinions vary on whether the county tried hard enough to make the developers deliver on their promise.

Adrien Foley, one of La Vina’s original developers, declined to comment about the homeowners’ association. But he said he met all of the county’s requirements except the building of trails. “The county relieved us of that obligation,” he said. “They said they would take care of it.”

County officials denied that assertion.

Homeowners’ association leaders, meanwhile, say they are not about to give up private property in a place where home values are increasing at a rate of about $100,000 a year.

“Yes, developers made some promises in the past,” acknowledged association secretary Jim Haw, who holds an endowed chair in chemistry at USC. “The problem is that the homeowners’ association is being held accountable for them.”

As for the open space, he added, “it’s owned 100% by the association, clear as a bell.... We believe this 108 acres is worth $12 million, and we’d be willing to sell it to any reputable public trust for $6 million to $10 million.”

The dispute is only the latest chapter in the troubled saga of the 272-house gated community, perched in idyllic seclusion on a mesa in the San Gabriel Mountains. Just west is Millard Canyon, with its stream shaded by oaks, sycamores and bay trees.

Legal battles over the practicality of building so massive a project at the edge of the forest tied up the development in court for nearly a decade. No sooner had construction begun than the project was hit by financial and legal scandals.

In 2003, the county investigated claims that mature oak trees had died after being dug up and stored in planters during construction of the luxury homes.

Around the same time, La Vina’s final 26 homes sat unoccupied and incomplete because the builder had defaulted on loans and payments to suppliers. The large stucco homes were eventually completed and, like the other units, sold for between $600,000 and $1 million.

Another controversy over La Vina ended up in criminal court. A year ago, Orange County home builder Timothy N. Roberts was sentenced to three years’ probation in connection with diversion of money meant for upgrades to the unfinished homes, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.

Already one of the most controversial developments in the San Gabriel Valley, La Vina is once again being thrust into a spotlight, this time because the association has declared the open space closed to the public.

Marietta Kruells, 49, who lives just south of La Vina and expects to be a lead plaintiff in the Center for Law’s suit, remembers when “No trespassing” signs were alien to Millard Canyon.

“I moved to Altadena 21 years ago because of trails,” Kruells said. “This is an outrage. Nobody ever stopped us from entering the trails before.”

Among those refusing to obey the signs is Charles Thomas, executive director of Outward Bound Adventures, a nonprofit group devoted to teaching urban youths about nature and the environment. Thomas said he leads about 300 youths a year into the canyon he calls “a beautiful outdoor classroom.”

“When they ask us to get out, I don’t abide,” Thomas said. “I just say, ‘You do what you have to do, and I’ll do what I have to do.’ ”

Millard Canyon has been a center of ambitious activities and enterprises for thousands of years.

Before white people came to the region, it was an important trading route through the San Gabriel Mountains for several bands of Native Americans. Goods carted through the mountains sometimes made their way to the center of the continent.

“Tar from Los Angeles’ La Brea Tar Pits has been found as far east as the Mississippi River,” said local historian Michele Zack. “It started its journey east through Millard Canyon.”

Around 1820, Joseph Chapman felled logs in the area and dragged them into Los Angeles for use in building the pueblo’s first real church, Our Lady Queen of Angels, which still stands near Olvera Street.

Robert Owens, a slave who bought his freedom and moved to Millard Canyon around 1850, used local trails to get firewood and building materials down to the U.S. Army post near the Los Angeles harbor.

Then there was Owen Brown, son of abolitionist John Brown, who moved to Altadena after surviving his father’s ill-fated raid on a government arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in Virginia in 1859. Owen Brown was buried on a peak overlooking Millard Canyon.

The charm that brought people to the canyon persists to this day.

Ask association secretary Haw what he likes best about the canyon and he answers: “The solitude, privacy, security and fire safety we get from this land contributes 10% of the value of our homes. Yet, these activists are asking us to give it away.”

Ambling slowly up a trail leading from the canyon creek to the development’s western head, Haw, who was recovering from neurosurgery, added that the homeowners are prepared to fight the coming lawsuits.

“You can’t get more personal than going after the value of someone’s home,” Haw said. “This is the legacy to my children.”