One of the things I’ve learned in 30 years as an environmentalist fighting legal and political battles to save and preserve wilderness open space in the Santa Monica Mountains is, there are no permanent victories.
Just when you think you have achieved something final and forever, ten or twenty years later, the beast re-awakens and roars back to life. A wealthy developer or builder, eyeing a jewel of a parcel of pristine open space, armed with seasoned high-priced lawyers from the city’s premier land-use firms, makes a move.
This can be depressing and discouraging, but requires us as environmental activists to remain vigilant, intrepid, determined, and ready to keep fighting.
That is where we find ourselves today with the so-called Berggruen Institute in the Sepulveda Pass in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Last week (as I write this) was the official City of Los Angeles “Scoping Meeting,” the first step in entitling this massive project under the City’s codes and process, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
You can learn more about this project here at www.protectourwildlands.org
Swiss billionaire Nicolas Berggruen is currently planning to build a vanity project “think tank” supposedly dedicated to “advancing good governance and environmental stewardship” on the 447 acres of open space in the former Mission Canyon landfill area of the mountains. The area in question spans from upper Mandeville Canyon to Mountaingate and consists of two ridges: Ridge 2 above Mandeville Canyon, and another north of Mountaingate and south to Mount Saint Mary’s College (Ridge 1, Stoney Hill Ridge). More than 420 acres of this land is protected open space, including the heavily trafficked Canyonback Trail and Mount Saint Mary’s Fire Road, outdoor treasures which the surrounding communities have fought long and hard to protect.
According to agreements between Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) — a government agency, and the former owners of Berggruen’s property — much of the area currently being discussed for development cannot be developed. In 2017 their plans showed serious encroachments into protected land. These protected areas do not belong to a developer, but rather belong to the people of California, held in trust for future generations. This precious wilderness houses native plants, coyotes, great horned owl, quail, deer, mountain lions, etc. Overdevelopment of these lands presents significant other immediate risks to the community — from fire hazards and higher traffic to increased noise and light pollution.
Berggruen’s goal is to rival, in regal splendor, the Getty Museum to the south (J. Paul Getty) and the Skirball Center to the north. Except those institutions are open to the public, but Berggruen’s private “think tank” will not be. It will impact important trails used by hikers and the public, including the Mount Saint Mary’s Fire Road from the college up to Mountaingate, and also the epic Riordan Trail linking that fire road down into Bundy Canyon (a beautiful riparian Oak and Sycamore-studded canyon) and up the other side to Canyonback Road. Creation of the Riordan Trail was an important Sierra Club victory ten years ago, for which I as your Chair was honored ten years ago.
Importantly, Berggruen has no right to build this project. It may violate numerous easements, including a Conservation Easement held by the MRCA, and City codes and regulations. Berggruen’s answer to that is for his lawyers to propose to change the rules, enact an unprecedented amendment to the City’s General Plan, and ask for zoning variances and other deviations from the Building Code, and the Baseline Hillside Ordinance. The MRCA hired counsel to vigorously defend the public easement, and the neighboring Mountaingate community has won the first important skirmish in their lawsuit against him.
But when you’re a billionaire, nothing is too much to ask for: you never hear the word “no.” The world is your oyster.
Speaking of the world, Berggruen has built vanity projects allegedly dedicated to “good governance” all over the world. According to reporting, his normal modus operandi is allegedly to make “gifts” and contributions to whatever local officials need to approve his projects.
As anyone knows who has been reading the newspapers lately, local officials in Los Angeles who have taken large contributions from developers are disgraced or pleading guilty to bribery and corruption, including former Councilmembers Jose Huizar and Mitch Englander, and a former deputy mayor and the head of Building and Safety. But Berggruen has feathered his nest with many elected officials who support his goals of “good government,” democracy and reexamining capitalism. And who, incidentally, would like a splashy prestige project to go up in their district.
We fought this battle 15 years ago. The prior owner of the property, developer Castle & Cooke (who built Mountaingate) sought permits from the City to build 29 luxury homes on the subject property. But that would have entailed cutting off the Mount Saint Mary’s Fire Road and other hikers’ access to this portion of the mountains. We sued to protect those rights, and after intense litigation, achieved a City-brokered settlement that protected 95 percent of the land as a public Conservation Easement, protected or preserved historic Canyonback Trail, and created a new hiking trail down into Bundy Canyon, and a new trail, and up the other side. Victory achieved! Or so we thought.
As I said at the beginning of this piece, no victories are permanent in the Santa Monica Mountains. Constant vigilance, intrepidness and stomach for battle are required. That’s where we are now, folks.
Fortunately, the Sierra Club is part of a great coalition of activists, environmental land-use lawyers, organizations and HOAs opposed to this project and dedicated to fight. Stay tuned for updates about the City’s land-use and CEQA process. We’ll keep you informed.
Eric Edmunds, Chair
Santa Monica Mountains Task Force