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Altadena Trails
Information about Hiking, Mountain Bike and Equestrian Trails in the Altadena Foothills.
Altadena, CA is at the foot of the San Gabriel range, 15 miles north of Los Angeles.
NEWS
Homeowners' Signs Bar Access to Trail
County Says Action Violates Pact Reached With Developer
By Liz Valsamis, Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES - For hundreds of years, people have freely used the pass that cuts through the foothills above Altadena for travel and recreation. That is, until last year, when the La Vina Homeowners Association decided to post no trespassing signs on a trail that once served as the trade route of the Gabrielino Indians.
Now, county government and local environmentalists are gearing up to sue over what they say is a flagrant violation of an agreement developers made to maintain public access to the hills and canyons that serve as a backdrop to the gated community.
Unless the association agrees to honor an easement for a 12-foot-wide trail behind the houses, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich could file suit in early February, an aide said.
"We are preparing litigation," Antonovich's planning deputy Paul Novak said. "We are close to having all the research done on that. This is obviously not our first resort. It's our last resort. We prefer to resolve issues amicably, if we can."
The Millard Canyon trail is especially important to Antonovich because it is one of the remaining parcels of land needed complete a continuous trail system that would link Hahamonga Park to Eaton Canyon. The creation of the seamless trail is being spearheaded by the Altadena Crest Trail Restoration Working Group.
Meanwhile, The Center for the Law in the Public Interest is expected to bring a separate action against the association in the coming weeks. The Santa Monica-based public interest law firm plans to add Los Angeles County as a defendant, for allegedly dropping the ball by failing to ensure public access to the trails that course through the property, according to executive director Robert Garcia.
"We are trying to prevent the continued privatization of public space in Los Angeles," Garcia said.
Antonovich's spokesman Tony Bell referred questions about the public interest lawsuit to senior deputy county counsel Peter Gutierrez, who did not return a call.
An attorney for the homeowners' association declined comment.
"It is our policy not to comment on threatened litigation," said Michael Smooke, a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski.
In the early 1990s, a partnership of developers agreed to assure access to the open space behind the homes as a condition of gaining permission to build the 279-home upscale development that hugs the local mountains, according to those knowledgeable about the agreement. But when the developers transferred the property to the La Vina Homeowners association in the early 1990s, all talks of trail easements stalled, according to those involved in the pending lawsuits.
"When ownership of the open space lots passed from the developer to the homeowners association that obligation to provide the trail easements passed on to the homeowners association," Novak said.
The La Vina Homeowners Association Web site calls the 108 undeveloped acres of land behind the homes the "La Vina Wilderness Area", and says they are owned exclusively by the homeowners for the private use of residents. The site asks that residents to report any "vandalism, hunting, or other misuse" to the board immediately.
Novak said the county is still open to negotiations with the association.
"We have had extensive communications with the members of the board of directors of the La Vina Homeowners Association," he said. "At this point, they are not cooperating with the county in providing the necessary trail easements.
"I think at this point, the county is receptive to any offer that the homeowners association would make, but the supervisor is committed to securing the trail easements," he added.
The Center for the Law in the Public Interest says the homeowners association is reneging on a promise.
"Ultimately much of the legal theory depends on the fact that developers promised the public access to trails and the county conditioned the approval of the development on those promises," Garcia said. "And we are enforcing the right of the public to access the trails."
People continue to use the trails, but there have been times when homeowners harassed hikers, according to Garcia. Garcia says that he and his 13-year-old son were called "terrorists" by someone he believed to be a homeowner when they parked their car near the trailhead just to look at the canyon.
Altadena historian Michele Zack says that Millard Canyon should be open to everyone because of its cultural and historical significance. The Gabrielinos used Millard Canyon to trade items, such as tar from the Los Angeles tar pits, with tribes living to the east, according to Zack.
"The bigger issue is public access," Zack said. "As it is there are more and more buildings at the very edge of our urban interface with mountains, we're just going to have more and more problems like this. We're a huge metropolis and people need recreational activities.
"Altadena lost on this big time," she added. "All we want is to get into our mountains."