Pile of Trouble : Tuna Canyon Road Homeowners Kick Up Dust Over Rocks

About a year ago, Evan Archerd stood fuming before a 35-foot-high mound of rocks, an eyesore that was just a stone’s throw from his La Tuna Canyon Road home.

On Friday he stood at the same spot facing an even larger pile of coarse sand and gravel. His anger had mellowed into cynical amusement.

“This has been going on for four or five years,” Archerd said. “Last year, I was really angry, but at a certain point something becomes so absurd that there’s nothing else for it to be but funny.”

More than a year had passed since he and other residents of this rural enclave in Sunland had begun their efforts to remove the unsightly rock pile, which had been illegally dumped on the undeveloped property in 1981 by a contractor hired to excavate a nearby site for a county sewer project.

In May, 1986, the Los Angeles City Council approved a variance permitting the 80,000 cubic yards of rocks and sediment at 7001-7151 La Tuna Canyon Road to be crushed and sold for building materials. The process of crushing the rock and removing the residue was to be completed in a year.

The owner of the property, Keith E. Card, had bought the land at a foreclosure sale in 1984 with the rocks on it, said Robert Albrecht, an inspector with the Department of Building and Safety. When the variance hearing was held last year, Card told City Council members that removing the rocks by truck, which he estimated at $400,000, would cause him an economic hardship, but crushing them and selling the material would provide him with income.

Mary Ann Geyer, land-use chairwoman of the La Tuna Canyon Community Awareness Assn., said Card could have made $280,000 by selling the material for construction use.

By October, 1986, the rock pile had been crushed, but a 50-foot pile of residual dirt and sand remains in its wake, Geyer said.

“This is really ironic, here we are a year later, the stuff hasn’t been hauled away and the city isn’t doing anything,” said Archerd, the acting president of the La Tuna Canyon Community Assn.

According to the terms of the variance, the pile should have been completely removed by April 18, 1987, Albrecht said. He estimated that about 40,000 cubic yards have been left behind.

On April 21, 1987, the city ordered Card to “immediately remove the several thousand cubic yards of earthen material still remaining on the property.” Card has declined to comment on the case.

Variance Granted

The rock-crushing variance was granted last year by the City Council largely because of the urging of the late Councilman Howard Finn. Originally, Finn had been against crushing the rocks at the site, but later changed his mind, saying that the city could impose stricter controls on the activity by granting a variance. Card was required to post a $400,000 performance bond that city officials say they may collect on in the next few months.

But homeowners charge that city officials did not watch the process closely enough.

“The city gives them a variance and they don’t police it,” Geyer said. “They wouldn’t even be on it if it wasn’t for the constituents.” The matter has been turned over to the city attorney, according to Arline De Sanctis, aide to Councilman Joel Wachs, who now represents the area since council districts were redrawn.

Could Face Charges

Supervising Deputy City Atty. Martin Veranicar said the property owner could face misdemeanor charges for violations of the Los Angeles Municipal Code, which governs land use and zoning.

The maximum fine for each offense is $1,000 or six months in County Jail, or both, Veranicar said.

Albrecht said the pile does not present a hazard, but leaving it behind “seems strange,” particularly because the material is valuable for use in construction.

“It’s a problem of aesthetics,” Albrecht said. “It’s not a hazardous condition by any means, but I understand La Tuna Canyon is a scenic corridor, and this thing is an ugly pile of dirt.”