completed, Pico Canyon Road will have equestrian and bicycle access and be lined with new trees...Community support... has been very positive...the best possible outcome. "Sincerely, MICHAEL D. ANTONOVICH Supervisor, Fifth District"

Now there is something you can do!

RALLY: JOIN Rene Russo in a public rally to support John Quigley + 400-year-old "Old Glory"

WHEN: FRI., DEC 20 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: LA County Supervisor Antonovich's office
869 Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration,
500 West Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90012,
tel 213-974-5555, fax 213-974-1010
HOW: Take 110 North to 101 South, take first exit (Temple St.) County Building on your right.
CONTACT: Jim Stewart 310-390-4366
ALSO: CALL+FAX to Antonovich, FAX copy to 310-362-8400
SIGNS: "SAVE OLD GLORY FROM JOHN LAING HOMES" "SUPPORT OLD GLORY STOP ANTONOVICH" "OAKS NEED A HOME TOO" "MOVE THE ROAD NOT THE TREE" "SAVE THE MIGHTY OAK FROM JOHN LAING HOMES"
NEXT: Protests resume next Monday at Noon outside John Laing Homes HQ in Orange County (http://LAWetlands.org)

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2. ORANGE COUNTY VOTES TO KILL 450 OAK TREES
http://www.myoc.com/community/ranchosantamargarita/news/rsmsuburb021018.shtml
At least they did not lie. The developer's arborist admitted that "oaks that size don't transplant", and, out of 493 oak and sycamore trees (not mentioning other trees, shrubs, plants, animals that will be bulldozed) they plan to transplant about 50...the others would be destroyed, and "mitigated" by planting acorns and saplings. Of course, most would not survive, and you would have to wait hundreds of years to really "mitigate" for these ancient Oaks. There is a reason the Oaks grow where they are, and not in clearings.

Obviously, Los Angeles is a little more deceptive, claiming that the tree would live after being moved. L.A. has been getting away with lying to the public for a long time...

In O.C., the "saddle creek" and "saddle crest" project by Rutter Development impacts Aliso Creek. Rutter has built in Coto, NB, PV, Burbank hills and other upscale places where probably houses do not belong. When FEMA re-imburses homeowners in a wilderness area,
it's the TAXPAYER who winds up getting stuck for the bill.

Mr. Dave Eadie meadie@rutterdev.com
Rutter Development or Cayman Development
Tel=949-863-1298, FAX=949-863-9417
18012 Cowan, Suite 200
Irvine, CA 92614

Contact OC planning staff Chad Brown and Al Gordon, TEL 714-834-5128 and FAX 714-834-4652. Let them know that the Specific Plan was not intended to be altered for individual developers, and, even in OC, a plan is more than a scrap of paper.

The room was packed with about 70 project OPPONENTS while the developer, biostitutes, somewhat strange "master of ceremonies" and hangers-on got it through 4-0. Opponents had to sit for 4 hours listening to the B.S., got 3 minutes to speak, were reviled by the developer's "rebuttal" (which we could not respond to) and taken to task by the Planning Commission, who picked at details but failed to consider major points raised by opponents
including the Sierra Club, Heart and Soul Coalition, Tree People, Monastery, nearby residents, etc.

There is a "Foothill Trabuco Specific Plan" (FTSP) designed to regulate such projects, which the developer found to be too onerous. So O.C. proposed to change the rules to allow thousands of tons of fill dirt to be moved over a stream bed and trees to be destroyed that FTSP would have saved.

They claimed they were just "clarifying" FTSP, but if so, why were the "clarification" only relevant to allowing this project to go forward? Clearly, as one of the Planning Commish said, and I paraphrase glibly, "...this is just a piece of paper, we change the rules all the time here in Orange County to suit the developers...". Amazing for them to admit it, in a hall full of their opponents.

This OK was expected, since the O.C. Planning Dept. always seems to roll over and bark when a housing tract is proposed...NEXT STOP: WRITE A LETTER TO THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, You can use the letter writing utility on

http://LAWetlands.org/oaks.htm

to write to ACE asking them to hold a public hearing and require Rutter to perform a federal
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

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