{"id":63,"date":"2004-02-05T18:47:54","date_gmt":"2004-02-06T02:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/?p=63"},"modified":"2022-08-12T16:04:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T23:04:35","slug":"blocking-castro-peak-motorway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/2004\/02\/05\/blocking-castro-peak-motorway\/","title":{"rendered":"Blocking Castro Peak Motorway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tycoon revels in the battle of Castro Peak. Radio tower owner fights the feds, county, state and neighbors in his bid to build a ranch above Malibu.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source of this article<\/a> – Los Angeles Times, February 5, 2004.<\/p>\n

James A. Kay Jr., a radio tower tycoon from Las Vegas with houses\u00a0in four states and Mexico, says all he wants to do is build a\u00a0weekend home and hobby ranch on Castro Peak in the Santa Monica\u00a0Mountains.<\/p>\n

As modest as he makes it sound, his project has pitted him\u00a0against Los Angeles County, the National Park Service, the California\u00a0Coastal Commission and two dozen neighbors, whom he dismisses\u00a0as\u00a0\u201chillbillies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Blunt: James A. Kay Jr., the target of a federal investigation over an illegally cleared road across neighboring national parkland, stands by his sign with a message for National Park Service rangers. He has also been cited by the county for violating building codes.<\/p><\/div>\n

And he\u2019s likely to attract more critics if he carries out\u00a0his threat to pave a nearly mile-long stretch of the Backbone\u00a0Trail, which runs through state and federal parkland along the spine of\u00a0the Santa Monicas. His right of way, he says, is 60 feet\u00a0wide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI intend to pave it like the Ventura Freeway expansion\u00a0project,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Kay insists that he didn\u2019t start the fight, though he is\u00a0clearly enjoying himself. The 47-year-old businessman said his\u00a0successful career in the dog-eat-dog commercial radio tower industry had\u00a0taught him that a fierce counterattack was the best strategy to get what\u00a0he\u00a0wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my competitors in the radio industry called me\u00a0\u2018an enraged, rabid pit bull chewing his calf to the bone.\u2019 I took that\u00a0as a compliment. No matter how he tried to beat on me, I kept\u00a0on\u00a0chewing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kay\u2019s neighbors say he is a\u00a0bully.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just plain meanness,\u201d said Linda Palmer, a longtime\u00a0leader of the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council. \u201cHe\u2019s not hurting\u00a0the Park Service\u201d as he intends, she said. \u201cThe Park Service doesn\u2019t\u00a0have any feelings. He\u2019s hurting\u00a0people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kay has been cited by the county for violating building\u00a0codes, drawn a cease-and-desist order from the Coastal Commission\u00a0for blazing roads without permits and become the target of a\u00a0federal investigation over an illegally cleared road across\u00a0neighboring national\u00a0parkland.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

View Lot: James Kay, with Companion Kathy Hock, stands on land where he wants to build a weekend home and hobby ranch.<\/p><\/div>\n

Kay says he has done nothing wrong in the process of\u00a0acquiring about 400 acres of mountain land between Westlake Village and\u00a0Malibu and laying the groundwork for his ranch, though he admits that a\u00a0work crew mistakenly dug into a hillside and regraded a short stretch\u00a0of road on his\u00a0property.<\/p>\n

Nancy Goldstein, a lawyer defending 16 of Kay\u2019s neighbors\u00a0against a lawsuit he filed, said she is familiar with his tactics\u00a0from previous court fights. \u201cHe enjoys the battle,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u00a0enjoys matching his wits against attorneys. He thinks it\u2019s great\u00a0sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Kay brags that he has been engaged in \u201cthe longest,\u00a0most expensive, most acrimonious fight\u201d in the history of the\u00a0Federal Communications Commission, which he said tried to strip him of\u00a0his FCC licenses. He emerged from the decade-long battle richer\u00a0than ever; he calls himself a \u201ccenta-millionaire,\u201d someone worth\u00a0$100\u00a0million.<\/p>\n

He owns or leases radio towers at 22 mountaintop locations.\u00a0The towers relay signals used by ambulances, tow trucks and\u00a0security firms. He also operates a condo rental business in the\u00a0Baja California community of Rosarito\u00a0Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the bureaucrats think they will beat me down by running\u00a0up lawyers\u2019 bills, they are barking up the wrong tree,\u201d Kay said.\u00a0He figures he has spent $5 million on Santa Monica Mountains\u00a0land acquisition and $300,000 on related legal fees so far. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0all business expenses. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m going to miss\u00a0it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kay is taking the fight to the National Park Service\u00a0on another front, buying up property before the government can\u00a0acquire it as parkland. Kay purchased most of that acreage from\u00a0Brian Sweeney, a land speculator who gained notoriety for hiring\u00a0a professional hunter to try to track down the last male mountain\u00a0lion in the Santa\u00a0Monicas.<\/p>\n

One parcel Kay has acquired entitles him to a right of way\u00a0that happens to coincide for almost a mile with the Backbone Trail\u00a0near its intersection with Kanan Dume Road. Surveyors hired by Kay\u00a0have put in orange poles, marking the easement he plans to bulldoze\u00a0and then\u00a0pave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is one thing I learned from the radio industry. You\u00a0don\u2019t just keep the fight at the place they attack you. You go find\u00a0where they are vulnerable and do it back,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Kay also has erected metal gates, strung barbed wire and\u00a0posted \u201cNo Trespassing\u201d signs to block public access to another\u00a0popular hiking and equestrian trail that crosses his land on Castro\u00a0Peak, where he owns a cluster of commercial two-way radio\u00a0towers.<\/p>\n

One \u201cNo Trespassing\u201d billboard orders National Park\u00a0Service rangers to \u201cget the hell off our land and don\u2019t come\u00a0back!\u201d<\/p>\n

Kay has sued 23 of his neighbors who own land along the\u00a0seldom used, largely unpaved Castro Peak Motorway, which winds its way up\u00a0to Kay\u2019s property on the mountain. He said he sued them after\u00a0they failed to sign over formal access to the motorway, a little-used\u00a0dirt road that crosses their land \u2013 an easement long used by radio\u00a0tower maintenance\u00a0workers.<\/p>\n

He also has sued the Coastal Commission to force it to grant him\u00a0a retroactive permit for the more than two miles of roads he\u00a0has cleared on his property. The commission requires permits for\u00a0grading roads and other privately owned development in the designated\u00a0coastal\u00a0zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t go out of my way to pick a fight with the National\u00a0Park Service, the Coastal Commission or the county of Los Angeles or\u00a0the neighbors,\u201d Kay said. \u201cThey came after\u00a0me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the Park Service wants to get control of his land and\u00a0is working with the commission to challenge everything he\u00a0does.<\/p>\n

They just didn\u2019t know who they were pushing around, he said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s like when a mugger tries to take someone down and discovers it\u2019s\u00a0Mike Tyson in a bad\u00a0mood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the Park Service and the Coastal Commission deny that\u00a0they are trying to force Kay\u00a0out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have evaluated his claim of collusion and see no validity\u00a0to it,\u201d said Woody Smeck, superintendent of the Santa Monica\u00a0Mountains National Recreation\u00a0Area.<\/p>\n

Smeck, as well as state and county officials, say they\u00a0respect Kay\u2019s private property rights, but have insisted that he\u00a0follow development rules that ensure public safety, protect habitat\u00a0for wildlife and make sure neighboring development is compatible\u00a0with park wild-land areas set aside for the\u00a0public.<\/p>\n

Kay inherited some of the problems from the previous owner of\u00a0a cluster of radio towers and buildings on Castro Peak. Before he\u00a0took control of the property in 1999, his predecessor had built a\u00a0120-foot radio tower on the property line shared with the National\u00a0Park Service so that two of the tower\u2019s three feet were planted on\u00a0public parkland. The Park Service has spent years trying to get the\u00a0tower moved \u2013 without\u00a0success.<\/p>\n

The previous owner also installed an 800-square-foot trailer for\u00a0a caretaker without a permit and built several other facilities,\u00a0which lacked permits or failed to meet building\u00a0codes.<\/p>\n

Kay says he has spent years trying to rectify these problems\u00a0but has hit bureaucratic snags. He won\u2019t take down the radio tower,\u00a0he said, until he gets permission to rebuild it on his property.\u00a0He cannot get permits for the caretaker\u2019s trailer until he can\u00a0prove that he has legal access to the property by way of Castro\u00a0Peak\u00a0Motorway.<\/p>\n

Goldstein, the lawyer who represents 16 of the 23 neighbors\u00a0named in Kay\u2019s lawsuit, said Kay never tried to work out the access\u00a0issue with the neighbors, who are concerned about increased traffic on\u00a0the winding dirt road. She said his workers had already been in\u00a0one accident with a neighbor \u2013 a mishap that is the subject of\u00a0yet another\u00a0lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Instead, Kay\u2019s lawyers sent each neighbor along the\u00a0motorway between his land and the paved Latigo Canyon Road to the west\u00a0a letter threatening a lawsuit within 10 days if they didn\u2019t sign\u00a0a document giving him access to the dirt road. Only one\u00a0signed, Goldstein said. Kay sued most of the others within the\u00a0month.<\/p>\n

He increased the tension with government agencies when he\u00a0hired work crews to clear more than two miles of brush. The\u00a0Coastal Commission accuses Kay of creating roads on his own land where\u00a0none had existed. Kay argues that he only cleared chaparral from\u00a0existing\u00a0roads.<\/p>\n

The Park Service contends that Kay\u2019s crews continued\u00a0clearing brush for half a mile across national park land to give him a\u00a0second way onto his\u00a0property.<\/p>\n

Smeck, the park superintendent, said the U.S. attorney\u2019s office\u00a0is reviewing possible charges involving the brush clearing on\u00a0public parkland. \u201cWe have a strong case,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Kay denies that he or his crews cleared any brush on national\u00a0park land. When asked about the federal investigation and the\u00a0possibility of charges against him, he responded: \u201cBring it on.\u201d After he\u00a0beats the charge, he said, \u201cI\u2019ll sue them for malicious\u00a0prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kay acknowledges that he cleared the other two-plus miles of\u00a0road on his own property. He said he took pains to avoid scarring\u00a0the land, requiring work crews to use hand tools, such as shovels\u00a0and rakes and pickaxes, instead of\u00a0bulldozers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Battle in the mountains: James A. Kay Jr., a commercial radio tower owner, wants to build a luxury home and ranch around Castro Peak. Annoyed at neighbors and park officials, he has bought property earmarked as future parkland, erected gates to block a popular trail that crosses his land and treatened to pave a piece of the Backbone Trail.<\/p><\/div>\n

Such regular maintenance of preexisting roads with hand tools\u00a0is routinely exempted from permits required by the Coastal\u00a0Commission, said Don Schmitz, a land planner whom Kay retained. Schmitz told\u00a0the commission that, unfortunately, Kay\u2019s crews mistakenly cut\u00a0into hillsides and moved rocks and dirt at a couple of places along\u00a0the\u00a0route.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to me,\u201d Schmitz later said, \u201cbecause it\u00a0calls into question the credibility of the entire\u00a0property.\u201d<\/p>\n

The roadwork done on Kay\u2019s land without a permit prompted\u00a0the commission in December to order him to halt all road building\u00a0and restore the area with native\u00a0chaparral.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an obscene amount of development in this area\u00a0without anyone bothering to seek a permit,\u201d Commissioner Trent Orr said\u00a0at the\u00a0time.<\/p>\n

Kay has since won a court order that suspends the\u00a0commission\u2019s order to restore the area until the commission considers\u00a0an after-the-fact permit for these roads. The matter will be taken up\u00a0at the coastal panel\u2019s meeting this\u00a0month.<\/p>\n

Standing on Castro Peak, Kay indicated where he wanted to build\u00a0a home, with a spectacular 360-degree view that takes in the\u00a0Channel Islands, Mt. Baldy and the Simi\u00a0Hills.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could retire, travel the world and get bored,\u201d Kay\u00a0said. \u201cEveryone who did this in my industry has\u00a0died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sparring with the government bureaucrats, he said,\u00a0invigorates him. \u201cThis is my\u00a0entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tycoon revels in the battle of Castro Peak. Radio tower owner fights the feds, county, state and neighbors in his bid to build a ranch above Malibu. Source of this article – Los Angeles Times, February 5, 2004. James A. Kay Jr., a radio tower tycoon from Las Vegas with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,5,19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hiking","category-horse-riding","category-mountain-biking","category-santa-monica-mountains","category-trail-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","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=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3604,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions\/3604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}