altadenablog

La Vina homeowner's throw in the towel on appeal

This topic was touched on at Tuesday's town council meeting, but local mountain man (and Hollywood historian) Paul Ayers, who has been following the case, emailed us:

Yesterday, the La Vina HOA’s attorney informed counsel for plaintiffs in the consolidated cases that the HOA will not petition the Supreme Court for review of the Court of Appeal’s affirmation of the judgment and attorney’s fees award in favor of the County in the case of County of Los Angeles v. La Vina Homeowner’s Assn. (In point of fact, the time for the HOA to file its petition expired last Friday May 14th.) As such the County’s victory is confirmed and there is no legal bar to the enforcement of its judgment. The parties will be back before Judge De Vanon on June 9, 2010 for a status conference. At that time the future course of the consolidated cases including that of the remaining two actions against the HOA will probably be clearer.

What this means is that the La Vina homeowners will not only have to keep open the historic trails around the area, but pay about $784,000 in attorney's fees to the county lawyers.

State appeals court affirms La Vina decision to open trails, award fees

The La Vina Homeowner's Association's attempt to keep public trails on the property closed was rejected yesterday in a decision by the state Court of Appeals.

La Vina appealed a decision by the county court last year that the trails be reopened and the warning signs taken down.  In its decision, the appeals court let stand both the county's decision on the trails and the requirement that La Vina pay about $784,000 in attorney's fees.

The court issued a rather testy decision that said (La Vina) "was mistaken at several levels" in the evidence they presented for appeal.

PDF of decision is here.

UPDATE 4/7: PSN's Larry Wilson crows here.

History of La Vina

Sid Gally's Monday column for PSN looks at the history of La Vina, which started as a tuberculosis sanitarium (kind of the swine flu of its day).  Apparently, after its closure as a sanitarium it was briefly considered for the site of a prison.  Today, it's a gated community -- draw your own conclusions!

Court to La Vina: here's the bill, pay up

Just making the rounds that Judge Joseph De Vanon ordered the La Vina Homeowner's Association to pay the county's legal tab of $783,944 in attorney's fees.  La Vina HOA has been involved in extensive litigation to keep promised access trails closed around the gated community.  The court recently said that the trails must be opened, altho' La Vina has filed an appeal.

A hearing was held on the legal bill Sept. 18, and De Vanon announced his decision Sept. 26.  L Vina maintained that the bill should be nothing, or at most $460,000.

La Vina access status

Paul Ayers's "Save the Altadena Trails" update this month give us information the status of La Vina trail access:

Judge to La Vina: take a hike!

PSN front-pages last week's decision by Judge Joseph De Vanon that the La Vina Homeowner's Association must open up the trails around the development, as was agreed to when La Vina was originally approved.  La Vina owns 180 acres of open space around the development that was popular with hikers and horsepeople.  In 2004, they posted "No Trespassing" signs in the area, claiming that the fact that the final tract map approved by the county had no hiking trails negated their previous agreements to provide access. 

Altadena Town Councilman Steve Lamb has the trenchant quote:

"I'm glad the court recognized that a clerk making an error cannot override the Board of Supervisors' vote. But there's a long way to go, there will probably be at least one appeal."

La Vina isn't through with court dates: two more access lawsuits are expected to be heard in September.

Millard and La Vina at odds for 80 years

Sid Gally in Tuesdays PSN says that the woes between the trail users and La Vina have been going on for a long time -- in fact, ever since La Vina was a tuberculosis sanitarium:

"Canyon Owners Seek Access to Cabins" was the headline of a column in the Pasadena Star-News of May 11, 1928.     

The 80-year-old complaint of restricted access to Millard's Canyon reads like something in the news today ...

Gally quotes a letter from Miss Elma Holloway, the resident of a cabin in Millard Canyon:

"I am one of a group of 35 cabin owners in Millard's Canyon, about three miles north of Pasadena. Our cabins are all on ground leased from the government.

"At the time I purchased my lease, about six years ago, there was a good road and wide, smooth trail from the rim of the canyon to the top of the ridge.

"There were 30 cabins in constant use, all kept and owned by refined people who love the out-of-doors. This trail, which crossed the La Vina Sanitarium grounds, had been used for many years as a highway. The trail is a long distance from the sanitarium and is not even within sight of it.

"About two years ago the officials of La Vina, an institution which was placed there long after the cabins had been built in the canyons, set guards at the entrance of their property and refused to allow anyone to pass."

Miss Holloway, in her letter, also described how La Vina had diverted water from the canyon and its falls to a private pipeline, causing trees to die and wildlife to disappear.

The cabin owners were denied access to this water until they went to court and were given permission to pipe water to their cabins.    

Of course, access to trails near La Vina remain a bone of contention (and the subject of lawsuits) to this day!

La Vina trail trial starts

Opening arguments on the dispute over hiking trails in the La Vina development started Wednesday, with La Vina claiming that the county approved plans that did not have hiking trails, and the county and supporters claiming that hiking trails were one of the conditions of approval.  Whitter Daily News has the opening day's comments.