"...suing developer John Laing...of Newport Beach for allegedly breaking a promise to save a 400-year-old oak tree in the path of the Pico Canyon Road widening project. Seeking monetary damages, and injunction and a portable toilet for tree sitter John Quigley...the lawsuit alleges fraud, breach of contract and unfair business practices...alleges Laing reneged on a deal they made in November, 1999...the company said it would realign the road and save the tree. In return, activists said they would not challenge county approval of the nearby Laing housing development..."

Who was it said you can't make a deal with the devil, and expect the devil to keep it?

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3. LATimes stories on Quigley and Old Glory Oak FILES SUIT against John Laing
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tree4dec04.story
"...Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment accuses developer John Laing Homes of fraud, breach of contract and unfair business practices for failing to redesign the road
project that threatens the oak, dubbed Old Glory..."

"'Instead...John Laing used most if not all of its vacant land adjacent to Old Glory to build $500,000-plus tract homes...making it difficult for [the company] to build out the road
construction project to a four-lane width."

So that is the true story, the facts behind it. Just like at Ballona, where the West Bluffs project by Catellus would over-build too much for existing roads, Laing wanted to build past capacity. Is this greed, or what?

http://www.calendarlive.com/visitor/cl-me-tree29nov29.story
Thanksgiving in the tree

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4. LAING ATTACKS CRYSTAL COVE
Another picketing opportunity, if Laing dares build at Crystal Cove:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/pilot/news/la-dpt-briefs04dec04.story
"...Four homebuilders have been selected to design and build the next phase of residential neighborhoods at the gated colony of Crystal Cove...[including] John Laing Homes..."

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5. JOHN LAING HOMES BULLDOZES ANCIENT GRAVES IN SEAL BEACH,
tries end-around the Coastal Commission. For years, citizens struggled against the development of the wetlands and upland habitat on the last portion of the I.W. Hellman rancho. This historic sheep farm had been worked, ironically, by remnants of our Gabrieleno/Tongva Tribe up to historic times. Finally winning a lawsuit against an illegal Coastal Permit granted in Eureka, CA, 700 miles from the site, the litigants were forced to allow 70 houses on the mesa, because there are few protections in the Coastal Act for upland habitat and almost none for Native American sacred sites. Late elder Lillan Robles trekked to Oceanside to plead with the Commission to do what it could. The Commission responded, saying that they could ensure that any developer would respect ancestors' graves, even if the could not stop the development or preserve the cemetery due to weak law and greedy local pols.

The Commission wrote these few but strong protections into the Coastal Permit as "SPECIAL CONDITION 19" which required that there be:
1. Native American monitors, on-site, with archaeologists, and with
2. Power to stop the bulldozing if graves were discovered, and
3. These rules were to be written in every construction document.

Now, the builder hired by Hellman heirs, JOHN LAING HOMES, refuses to follow SPECIAL CONDITION 19 and instead wants freedom to do as they wish, bulldozing bodies and dealing with them as they see fit.

Staff of the Coastal Commission, in a very rare action, was forced to issue a stop work order, but it is only valid for 90 days, unless extended by the Commission. Instead of complying, JOHN LAING just refuses, hoping that the Commission will reverse its own wording and fail to extend the Order. The item comes up on Dec. 10 at the Commission meeting in San Francisco.

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