Pasadena Star News

Access to trails a rocky road
By Kimm Groshong, Staff Writer

Sunday, June 26, 2005 - ALTADENA -- Homeowners battling trail advocates in and around Millard Canyon spoke of conspiracy, extortion and intimidation as they described what they view as a growing pattern of property-rights violations before the Altadena Town Council.

In their coordinated testimonials during public comment Tuesday, six speakers pulled no punches as they described what they see as a small group of public access activists backed by the county who are attempting to steal land from its rightful owners.

The speakers represented nearly all of Altadena's contentious battles between trail advocates and property owners disagreements over public access rights near abolitionist Owen Brown's grave site, through Lower Millard Canyon and in the area of the 272-home, gated community of La Vina.

Homeowner Wayne Traylor said he and his neighbors are appealing a Superior Court decision from last June, which required that the public be allowed access to a portion of the El Prieto Fire Road over their common driveway.

"These violations have been acted out by special-interest individuals who have banded together and found a strategy of targeting prime real estate in our Northwest Altadena foothills area, harassing the owners of the same real estate, then suing those owners when arrogant demands were made and not accepted by the owners." Traylor said.

In the same area, near the final resting place of John Brown's son Owen, Mike Cichy owns another piece of property and is facing litigation. Save The Altadena Trails, the same unincorporated association that sued the Traylors and their neighbors, filed suit in October for public access to the gravesite through Cichy's land.

Cichy told the Town Council that as soon as he purchased the property in 2002, "the hostility towards me and my property was unbelievable.' The county and the District Attorney's office have monitored the land violations on Cichy's property for more than two years.

Like Traylor, Cichy named numerous members of the Altadena Foothills Conservancy and the county's trails advisory body, the Altadena Crest Trail Restoration Working Group, as participants in the alleged harassment.

The trails groups had no representatives present at the meeting to respond and the six speakers declined to take questions.

But Lori Paul, vice president of the Altadena Foothills Conservancy and one of those named, said Thursday that she was shocked, especially by Cichy's participation since "the Altadena Foothills Conservancy has been on very cordial terms" with him.

She said somehow the landowners have lumped together all the trails groups and interests, despite the fact that many of those named in the statements Tuesday night are not involved in any litigation. "There's no over-arching conspiracy here," she said.

Three lawsuits have been threatened in the highest-profile skirmish in the Altadena public access battle whether public trails will run around the upscale La Vina development.

Sussy Nemer, deputy for Supervisor Michael Antonovich, said he is committed to seeing that the county's conditions of approval, which included trails around the development, are enforced. "It is not an assault on private property rights by any means," she said.

June Cowgill, arguably the most vocal La Vina homeowner, and her husband spoke at the meeting, as did the homeowners association secretary, Jim Haw. Cowgill, the association's archivist, said, "It appears that a strategy dominated by JPL current and ex-employees along with the County of Los Angeles and some of its ex-employees is in place to strip away property rights of my neighbors and my property rights."

Rob Staehle, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory employee and ACTRWG co-chair, said, "Only a small fraction of the (meeting) attendees are from any one employer."

Cowgill and Haw said the homeowners association has hired investigators to get to the bottom of the disagreement. Haw read excerpts from a draft statement approved by the association's board saying they are committed to understanding who is responsible for deletion of the proposed equestrian and hiking trails from the Conditional Use Permit and final tract map.

"Finally," Haw said, "we are committed to understanding whether these very complex documents do in fact require public trail access on La Vina property, as a few have claimed, or whether the final tract map signed by the Board of Supervisors and 270 California real estate reports are indeed accurate, that none of the disputed proposed trails are required."

Cowgill also pleaded with Altadena historian and Town Councilwoman Michele Zack to share her primary sources for asserting in her book "Altadena: Between Wilderness and City" that several mountain trails existed historically running in and around La Vina.

Zack said she doesn't want to discuss an issue that will probably enter litigation and prefers to remain focused on positive projects for the community.

But she said, "The mild and even-handed discussion of La Vina in my book is based on sources that are a matter of public record and listed in the bibliography, on maps, on my own experiences in Altadena since 1986 and on interviews with people who have been around for much longer."

Cowgill said she was troubled by a sentence in Zack's book that questions whether La Vina will integrate into Altadena's fabric. Responding, Town Councilman and trail advocate Steve Lamb said, "They're doing a good job of showing to us that they're not really well integrated into the community."