Altadena : Housing Foes Appeal Ruling

Opponents of the 272-unit La Vina housing development have appealed a judge’s decision to dismiss their lawsuit against the county for approving the project.

The Friends of La Vina, a group of Altadena residents, appealed to the Court of Appeals on May 10 in the latest round of a three-year legal battle to stop the project on an old sanatorium site at the north end of Lincoln Avenue.

The County Board of Supervisors approved the development last October.

In January, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien ordered the group to pay $55,000 in legal fees to the county and project developers Cantwell Anderson Inc. and Southwest Diversified Inc. because the group missed a court filing deadline.

The group failed to raise the money and the judge dismissed the case. Attorney Matthew Farcett said the appeal asks the court to hear the claim and overturn the dismissal, which the group claims was based on a technicality.

The original lawsuit filed in 1990 contended that the county failed to properly review the project’s environmental impact and violated its own general plan.