{"id":2431,"date":"2022-05-18T17:17:19","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T00:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/?p=2431"},"modified":"2022-06-26T12:20:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-26T19:20:30","slug":"l-a-hikers-love-temescal-canyon-a-developer-just-got-fined-6-million-for-blocking-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/2022\/05\/18\/l-a-hikers-love-temescal-canyon-a-developer-just-got-fined-6-million-for-blocking-it\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. hikers love Temescal Canyon. A developer just got fined $6 million for blocking it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source of this article: The Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The public restroom and parking lot at the trailhead for the Temescal Canyon Trail in Pacific Palisades.<\/p><\/div>\n

With its striking \u201cskull rock,\u201d blooming wildflowers and panoramic views of the Pacific coastline and distant skyscrapers, the Temescal Canyon Trail is one of the most beloved hiking paths in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Far less cherished, however, is an unkempt trailhead facility tucked amid multimillion-dollar homes in the Palisades Highlands neighborhood. Privately owned, the 12-car parking lot is notorious among locals for its excrement and graffiti-scrawled bathrooms, locked gates and unpaid taxes.<\/p>\n

Now, after years of complaints, the California Coastal Commission has slapped the site\u2019s developer, Headland Properties Inc., with a whopping $6-million fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a disgrace in a civilized country that property owners would expect members of the public and their children to encounter those kinds of things,\u201d Commission Chair Donne Brownsey said recently.<\/p>\n

The action, taken at last week\u2019s commission meeting, follows a convoluted history of trailhead ownership, as well as repeated failures to transfer the property to the city. During that time, commissioners say, Headland violated the access rights of countless would-be hikers who sought enjoyment in the Santa Monica mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very serious violation and the public has been deprived of this trailhead for many years,\u201d said the commission\u2019s executive director, Jack Ainsworth. \u201cIt would only be available to those lucky few folks who can afford to live in this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

While property owners benefit from the privatization of the coast, the burdens are \u201cborne disproportionately by low-income, minority and disabled communities,\u201d enforcement analyst Heather Johnston told the commission members.<\/p>\n

In his company\u2019s defense, Chief Executive Edward Miller told commissioners that problems were the result of disorganized tax-keeping and lost records. Metropolitan Life Insurance Company \u2014 now Headland\u2019s parent company \u2014 owned hundreds of properties and simply couldn\u2019t keep track of them all, he said. They didn\u2019t know the trailhead property had even gone into default.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still parcels here that we have no clue, kind of where they are,\u201d Miller told commissioners. \u201cSometimes they get sold for taxes and sometimes they\u2019re just here lying fallow.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Coastal Commission staff members, the facility\u2019s troubled history began in the 1970s, when Headland Properties sought permission to build 2,000-plus homes in the undisturbed wilderness beside Topanga State Park. At the time, coastal authorities required the developer to preserve thousands of acres of land for open space.<\/p>\n

They also ordered them to create and maintain a trailhead facility for public access to Temescal Canyon trails, with the requirement they would eventually transfer the facility to the city or a nonprofit approved by the coastal commission.<\/p>\n

In 1995, the city agreed to take the parking lot and restrooms, but a smudged notary stamp got in the way. The county recorder\u2019s office deemed it illegible and did not record the transfer.<\/p>\n

Although Headland was notified of the stamp issue, it stopped paying property taxes and handed the trailhead keys to the city, which began maintaining the facilities for public use.<\/p>\n

The property went into tax default in 2000 and was eventually sold to a buyer who quickly realized it was a public facility and reversed the sale.<\/p>\n

Headland Properties claimed it tried to give it to the city again in 2001, but the transaction wasn\u2019t recorded. Coastal Commission enforcement staff said Headland actually attempted to give the property to the neighborhood\u2019s homeowners\u2019 association.<\/p>\n

Headland eventually deeded the property to one of its affiliates in 2010, essentially maintaining ownership under a different name. But the firm still didn\u2019t pay taxes on it.<\/p>\n

When it went into tax default again in 2013, it was purchased by 1205-1207 Wooster Street LLC and locked up altogether at one point.<\/p>\n

Three years later, Wooster reopened the parking lot after the Coastal Commission\u2019s enforcement staff said it was violating the Coastal Act.<\/p>\n

But by 2021, still unable to use the property it had paid $350,000 for, Wooster filed a lawsuit against the city and county of Los Angeles, the state of California and Headland.<\/p>\n

At last week\u2019s meeting, the Coastal Commission unanimously passed a cease-and-desist order and administrative penalty on the Headland development company on the recommendation of staff.<\/p>\n

The penalty includes $6-million fine, with the option of reducing it to $5 million if Headland took immediate action to make amends, including paying for the cleanup and restoration of the restrooms and facilitating transfer of the property to the city, as it was originally required to do. The money will go toward coastal restoration projects.<\/p>\n

Wooster\u2019s role was not addressed at the hearing, as it has been cooperative in trying to find a solution with the Coastal Commission, enforcement staff said. The company\u2019s attorney said it was in the process of working out an agreement to settle the lawsuit with the commission, but not any of the other parties involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider this to be \u2026 one of the most egregious violations that I\u2019ve witnessed during my time on the commission,\u201d said Commissioner Caryl Hart. \u201cThis idea of supposed inability of Headland to know what\u2019s going on while at the same time reaping over $300,000 in benefits, it\u2019s painfully obvious to me that \u2026 what they did was purposeful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community members say they are eager for a resolution to the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely needed as one of the major accesses to the Santa Monica Mountains,\u201d said Temescal Canyon Assn. president Gilbert Dembo. \u201cThere\u2019s lot of trailheads within the Highlands \u2014 this isn\u2019t the only one \u2014but this one has a bathroom. When you have thousands of people hiking in the mountains, you need facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a recent visit to the trailhead, a reporter found the parking lot open, although only one of the facility\u2019s two graffiti-covered bathrooms was unlocked. On the floor lay a blanket of debris and human waste.<\/p>\n

Less than a quarter mile away, up a switchback fire road, the Temescal Canyon Trail begins. Surrounding the path is drought-hardy California sagebrush, whose tiny white aromatic flowers earn it the nickname \u201ccowboy cologne,\u201d and small manzanita trees with leathery oval leaves. Occasionally, single stalks of obtrusive yucca burst forth from rosettes of sword-shaped leaves.<\/p>\n

Hikers Brian and Tobi Coughlin made their way along the trail, which they visit every week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a way to think about the job I\u2019m working on without staring at the computer,\u201d said Brian Coughlin, a 60-year-old documentary writer. \u201cIt\u2019s a great trail, it changes every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so rewarding being out here,\u201d Tobi Coughlin said. \u201cIt\u2019s so good for mental health and physical health.\u201d<\/p>\n

While hiking earlier that week, the husband and wife snapped a photo of a bobcat.<\/p>\n

The two said they knew of the trailhead in the Palisades Highlands neighborhood but had never used the bathrooms because of their disrepair. They were disappointed to hear its back story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just not right for the community, people want to be able to have access to the trail,\u201d Brian Coughlin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source of this article: The Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2022 With its striking \u201cskull rock,\u201d blooming wildflowers and panoramic views of the Pacific coastline and distant skyscrapers, the Temescal Canyon Trail is one of the most beloved hiking paths in Los Angeles. Far less cherished, however, is an unkempt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,35,6,40,12,33,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-california-state-parks","category-development","category-hiking","category-history","category-los-angeles","category-mrca","category-trail-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2433,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2431\/revisions\/2433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}