ALTADENA : Developer Gets Go-Ahead for Long-Fought La Vina Project

The long-fought La Vina housing development in the Altadena foothills has cleared the final hurdle to construction.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that it will grant a permit for the 272-house project bordering the Angeles National Forest.

In a letter sent to the developer and federal and state historic preservation officials earlier this month, the corps said it saw no reason to delay issuing a permit allowing the filling of a stream at the site. It also rejected arguments by opponents of the development and preservation officials that the corps had legal authority to stop the destruction of buildings on the site that date from the 1930s.

“We expect to get the permit before the end of the month,” said Andrew Oliver, project manager for Coscan Davidson Homes.

In December, the state Office of Historic Preservation and the Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation asked the corps to extend its jurisdiction from the stream area to the site of the old buildings, to prevent the razing of the former sanitarium facilities.

Cherilyn Widell, state historic preservation officer, wrote that the La Vina Sanatorium’s buildings qualify for the National Register of Historic Places. The register is a federal list of historical or culturally significant buildings. Three of the sanitarium’s 14 buildings were designed by Rose Bowl architect Myron Hunt, who also designed Pasadena’s City Hall. All but one of the sanitarium buildings would be destroyed under Coscan’s plans.

John H. Gill, chief of the corps’ Regulatory Branch, said the former sanitarium buildings, which he describes as a “potential safety hazard” after years of vandalism, were too far from the stream to be under corps jurisdiction and could be leveled without affecting the waterway. All waterways are overseen by the corps.

Oliver said the preservation argument is the latest in a series of trumped-up challenges to the project by a few Altadena residents. He said no state or federal preservation officials had ever visited the site.

But Adolfo and Maria Miralles, leaders of Friends of La Vina, an Altadena environmental group, vowed to continue to fight the project, saying case law allows the corps to have jurisdiction over the old buildings, and that they are prepared to go to court to force the corps to act.