This report was written for the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force by Sara R. Nichols, a Sullivan Canyon resident and environmental activist involved in the lawsuit against real estate developers who violated state laws in pursuit of erecting mansions on top of the old-growth forest and natural wildlife habitat of a Santa Monica Mountains hillside.
An update on the status of the properties at 1834 and 1838 Old Ranch Road was inevitable. Sadly, the update is not in our favor. As you may have heard, Sullivan Equity Partners (SEP) wants to build an approximately 15,000 square-foot house with horse barn, swimming pool and guest house on each of these lots. They intend to build a 1,000-foot-long retaining wall on the east side of the lots just under Bayliss Road, Eric Drive, Westridge Terrace and Westridge Road. The lots are two thirds of the way up Old Ranch Road in a steep, wooded canyon. The proposed construction would destroy the natural state of these lots, which can be seen from many homes in the area and enjoyed from paths and trails nearby. Our ultimate aim — endorsed by the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force — is to preserve them as a small park to benefit the public. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has expressed interest in assuming ownership should we ever have the good fortune to get the far!
In 2014 SEP removed 56 trees from the property, including three trees (one, a huge legacy sycamore on City property) they had no permit to remove under the Los Angeles Protected Tree Ordinance. As a result, the City, after hearings in 2016 in front of the Bureau of Street Services and the Board of Public Works, asked the Department of Building and Safety to revoke SEP’s building and grading permits for five years, a penalty provided by the Protected Tree Ordinance. SEP sued the City in both state and federal court for damages and to try to force the City to reinstate their permits.
SEP won the state-court case and in late January 2020 a judgment was entered ordering the City to rescind its permit revocations and its decisions that SEP violated the Protected Tree Ordinance. After settlement talks between the City and SEP that were held behind closed doors, the City decided to appeal the Superior Court’s decision favoring SEP. The outcome of that appeal has not been determined. We are hoping that the Bureau of Street Services and the Board of Public Works will decide in the upcoming months to hold new hearings on SEP’s violations.
We are grateful to all of you who spoke up for the environment by taking our poll and contacting City officials to let them know of your opposition to this wildly inappropriate and dangerous development and asking them to hold new hearings.
We are concerned that the Protected Tree Ordinance could become a legal fiction if it can’t be enforced. The court’s overturning of the City’s enforcement makes a mockery of the City’s duty to protect the environment all over the City, never mind just in places like Sullivan Canyon. That said, as Sullivan Canyon is in a high-risk fire zone, this development deserves special scrutiny. Eighteen-feet-wide Old Ranch Road has been on evacuation orders twice in the last two years.
Climate change is making the risk of catastrophic fires all the more likely with each passing year. Imagine a fire truck trying to access a fire in the canyon with even one cement mixer or hauling vehicle on the road, never mind the hundreds this development would necessitate. Moreover, nationwide, there are almost 4,000 construction site fires every year. Who can guarantee that this site will be fire-free? Those homes on the top of the ridge, up-wind from the construction site, would be the most vulnerable.
In the meantime, there are ways to fight to protect 1834 and 1838 Old Ranch Road from this improper, dangerous and hideously disruptive development. We are asking for donations to pay our attorneys to represent us against this potentially terrible environmental assault.
We have managed to hold the line against this development since September 2014 and we still have a good chance to stop any inappropriate development if we muster our resources and voices at this critical point.
Please give as generously as you can to our law-firm partner in this saga, Advocates for the Environment. (see link for P.O. Box address and option to donate online). Good attorneys are not cheap! It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, so your donations will be tax-deductible. I still hold out hope that we will be able to raise enough money to be able to purchase the land and turn it over to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to forever protect the land from development and our community from the nightmare that an inappropriate development of this magnitude guarantees.