By Ann M. Simmons
Los Angeles Times
A Los Angeles real estate developer must allow hikers to use the popular Hastain Trail across his private property in Franklin Canyon, a judge has tentatively ruled.
Mohamed Hadid, who has designed and built more than a dozen Ritz-Carlton hotels and many Beverly Hills mega-mansions, has been ordered to stop “interfering with the public recreational use” of the trail, which runs across nearly half of the 97 acres he owns next to Franklin Canyon Park between the San Fernando Valley and Beverly Hills.
Tuesday’s tentative decision by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos directed Hadid and his companies Coldwater Development LLC and Lydda Lud LLC to “remove all items,” including fences and equipment, from the portion of the trail that traverses Hadid’s land and leads to a peak with sought-after views.
“All of us just felt that it was the right thing that this land should be saved,” said Ellen Scott, whose grassroots group Friends of Hastain Trail sued Hadid’s companies.
Hadid did not return calls to his cellphone seeking comment. One of his attorneys, Matthew Pahl, said Thursday that he was not ready to comment in detail. “We’re naturally disappointed by what it appears the tentative judgment is,” Pahl said. “We need to review it a little more before we decide what our next step will be, if there will be one.”
