Photo: Diane Edwardson, January 3, 2011. The Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract lots destined for 15-home development are roughly outlined and adjacent to the 2 Freeway. (Click on photo to enlarge.)Another speculator intends to build the 15-home small lot subdivision in the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. See The Eastsider for the complete story.
Considering the other home developments on the Orange County-based developer's website seem to be on already flat land, it is highly likely we'll see another failed development on this site.
Hillside construction in this corridor has a long Legacy of Failed Development. Let's hope they give up before they start cutting down trees and cutting into the hillside leaving a denuded slope to build slab-on-grade flat pads.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, February 27, 2011. In February, new test pits for soils were dug. (Click on photo to enlarge.) In 2009, neighbors lost the appeal against the 16-lot subdivision. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy supported the appeal and objected to the plan as it included no mitigations for the well used urban wildlife corridor through the site.
The approved plan calls for complete destruction of all but 5 trees on the lot and a complete reshaping of the hillside. Last month, adjacent neighbors received City notice that an application for grading permits was submitted for the project, which includes considerable earth moving:
6,465 cubic yards of cut
195 cubic yards of fill
15,000 cubic yards of remove & recompacted soil
6,270 cubic yards of export
According to the plan, which calls for 1/3 of the property to be "open space," it is unlikely the open space will ever be functional as it will be a compacted slope. Native plants do not grow in compacted slopes.
Click here for all our Semi-Tropic Spiritualists' Tract posts.
Of course there's the stalled development of single family homes in the Red Car Neighborhood that developers who don't know what they're doing in Hillside construction should consider.
