Altadenans Irate Over Proposal for 22 Houses

Irate residents charged this week that a plan to build 22 single-family homes on the edge of Eaton Canyon is a threat to wildlife, an interruption of longstanding hiking and equestrian trails, and a potential flood hazard for people who might live in the homes.

“It would be immoral for the county to permit this plan to go forward,” said Duane Merrill, a member of the unincorporated community’s Town Council, citing past floods which have swept away structures built along the canyon.

A Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning hearing officer is scheduled Tuesday to consider the plan by Monterey Park developer Lao-Ko Chu to build the 22 houses on a six-acre site north of New York Boulevard and west of the canyon.

On Monday, the Town Council held a special session of its own to consider the plan. As about 80 Altadena and Pasadena residents cheered them on, the 12 members present voted unanimously to recommend that the county require the developer to prepare an environmental impact report.

Many of those in the audience are already involved in a 3 1/2-year battle against a proposed 272-home development on the site of the old La Vina Sanitarium, in the foothills north of Lincoln Avenue.

Also present at the meeting were Chu, who bought the parcel 2 1/2 years ago for $1.6 million, and consulting engineer Patrick J. Conley. Both said that planned measures to bolster the terrain would eliminate serious flood hazards.

“Where are you guys going to be when those houses get washed out?” one critic asked.

Chu contended that past floods were the result of illegal dumping in the canyon. “People dumped trash and there was no place for (water and debris) to go,” he said, as those attending the meeting watched videotapes of a 1969 flood that swept away a restaurant near the site of Chu’s project.

The developer plans not only to bolster the west bank of the canyon, narrowing the channel through which potential floods could pass, but also to build the houses above the maximum flood stage, the highest point that water could be expected to reach in the event of a major deluge, Conley said.

“Minimum protection would be one foot above the maximum flood stage,” Conley said. “The project will be between two and three feet above it.”

Chu added that he has been conservative in planning for the development. The size of the project is substantially less than zoning would permit, he said. “We could build 36 homes there,” he said.

“The property was on the market for development,” he added. “I’m a developer.”

Critics agreed that Chu has a legal right to build there, but they insisted that there are moral considerations that dictate that the site remain undeveloped.

The site, a stable until a year ago, abuts on the county’s Eaton Canyon Park and McCurdy Nature Center. Critics said new houses in the area would drive wildlife away. “There are deer, quail, rabbits and our own mountain lion,” said Loren Lutz, who runs a nearby private nature preserve. “People living up there will head right for the (canyon) for their recreation. That will have an adverse effect on wildlife.”

Jerry Acker, head of a local equestrian group, said Chu has already blocked longstanding horse trails. Acker and others would like the county or a public-interest group to take over the property and convert it into an equestrian center.

Chu denies blocking any trails and said he has tried to be sensitive to horse lovers’ interests. As for wildlife, Chu said, a nearby rifle range creates far more disturbance than his houses would.

The county so far has required no environmental impact report for the project, although it has required Chu to pay a $33,000 fee rather than meet the requirement of turning a portion of the land over to the county for parkland.

Conley said the developer would prepare a detailed environmental impact report only if the county requires it.