A land owner who’s been fighting L.A. County for years over how he wants to develop his 20-acre plot south of Sand Canyon Road and Sierra Highway got his approval with conditions on Tuesday.
The Board of Supervisors approved James C. Ball’s plans for water distribution and permits for six 2.5-acre parcels and a driveway from the road in the 16600 block of Sierra Highway.
And after an unsuccessful appeal of the Department of Regional Planning’s conditions, he will also have to have a tribal monitor watch significant portions of the grading to make sure that
potentially significant cultural artifacts are not disturbed during the project’s construction.
“The proposed floor plans depict each of the two floors for the single-family residence,” according to the county’s agenda, which are each expected to be four bedrooms with two and a half bathrooms over approximately 2,700 square feet.
Part of Ball’s initial objection to the monitoring, which the county felt was called for under Assembly Bill 52 — a law that codifies protections for Native American artifacts by adding to the California Environmental Quality Act — was that the Fernandeño Tatavium Band of Mission Indians didn’t have any proof that such artifacts were present.
Supporting documents for the item that called for the approval of Ball’s project noted that the group requested the project’s excavation plans for review but they were never sent.
