Griffith Park Sycamore Tree Protest: 100-Plus, Lawsuit Announced

SAVING GRIFFITH PARK-More than one hundred tree lovers came to the Friends of Griffith Park'sHeritage Sycamore event on Saturday.  

Friends board member Gerry Hans announced that Friends along with the Griffith J. Griffith Trust will indeed be filing a lawsuit on the Crystal Springs Little League fields EIR approved by City Hall. 

It's very sad that Angelenos are forced to sue their own government to force them to obey the law, but recently it seems that this is becoming all too common.

Given the heat on Saturday which topped out in triple digits by early afternoon, this many at a Saturday event is a great turn out! The news about the lawsuit made it all worthwhile. 

If you would like to support this lawsuit, you can go to the the Friends of Griffith Park's web site and join the organization or maybe PayPal them a little extra love if you are already a member. 

Text of the announcement: 

The Griffith J. Griffith Charitable Trust and Friends of Griffith Park will file a lawsuit this week against the City of Los Angeles to stop the construction of ball fields at these four acres of Crystal Springs Picnic Facility. The petition will claim that alternative sites and mitigation were not properly considered.

In reality, this particular location for the ball fields was pre-determined from the start. Other alternatives never had a chance. It was the responsibility of the City to consider all alternatives seriously, including the idea of separating the two ball fields into two separate locations.

Having the two fields here in Crystal Springs produces SIGNIFICANT adverse impacts to the biological resources of this area. It produces SIGNIFICANT adverse impacts to the aesthetics of these historic picnic grounds. Those were the results of the City’s own CEQA findings, not ours.

The project is moving forward any way, after our Commission signed-off on a STATEMENT OF OVER-RIDING CONSIDERATIONS regarding the adverse impacts without even batting an eye.

The project is moving forward any way, after our City Council denied our APPEAL to the CEQA findings.

Do we really need to play ball in court? Maybe so.

LINKS:

● CityWatch story

● Griffith Park Wayist 

 

(Kristin Sabo is an LA parks advocate, an occasional CityWatch contributor, and blogs at griffithparkwayist.blogspot.com) 

-cw

 

 

---

 

{module [862]}
{module [662]}

---

 

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 12 Issue 75

Pub: Sep 16, 2014