JUDGE WON'T DELAY DAM TREE REMOVAL.Byline: - Sabrina Decker Forty oak trees will be removed and construction will commence at the proposed Lang Ranch dam site despite the efforts of an environmental group to halt the process, a Ventura Superior Court judge said Friday. Judge Thomas Hutchins Thomas Hutchins (1730 – April 28, 1789) was a Military Engineer, Cartographer, Geographer and Surveyor. Hutchins was Geographer of the United States (see Department of the Geographer to the Army, 1777-1783) from 1781. denied the motion for a preliminary injunction A temporary order made by a court at the request of one party that prevents the other party from pursuing a particular course of conduct until the conclusion of a trial on the merits. A preliminary injunction is regarded as extraordinary relief. filed by Save Lang Oaks, which had won a temporary restraining order temporary restraining order: see injunction. two weeks ago to prevent developers from trimming the trees' branches - and wanted to stop the removal until litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. was complete. Hutchins said there was little evidence that the group's efforts to have the county perform a supplemental environmental report would be granted, or that the basic footprint of the dam would ever really be changed. ``It appears to the court that these trees are going to be removed in any event, so why delay the inevitable?'' Hutchins said in a tentative ruling that was later upheld after hearing arguments from both sides. Attorneys representing the Ventura County Flood Control District had argued that they could begin removing the trees as soon as Monday. ``We need to get started right away because we have a very short time frame to get this done,'' Assistant County Counsel Daniel Murphy said. ``If we waited until the litigation was completed, that delays the dam for over a year. And besides, they have no likelihood of succeeding on the merits on the merits adj. referring to a judgment, decision or ruling of a court based upon the facts presented in evidence and the law applied to that evidence. A judge decides a case "on the merits" when he/she bases the decision on the fundamental issues and considers (of their arguments), so why should we wait?'' However, Alyse Lazar, attorney for Save Lang Oaks, countered that once the trees were removed, construction would proceed at such a pace that the project could be almost completed before it could be effectively challenged in court. ``Today if your honor vacates the (temporary restraining order) and allows the dam to be built without allowing us to show you the case on the merits, there will be serious irreparable injury Any harm or loss that is not easily repaired, restored, or compensated by monetary damages. A serious wrong, generally of a repeated and continuing nature, that has an equitable remedy of injunctive relief. ,'' Lazar told the judge. Save Lang Oaks has alleged that there are outstanding landslide dangers, liquefaction liquefaction, change of a substance from the solid or the gaseous state to the liquid state. Since the different states of matter correspond to different amounts of energy of the molecules making up the substance, energy in the form of heat must either be supplied to issues and endangered plant life, in addition to the trees, that need to be more fully studied prior to dam construction. The proposed dam site is highly controversial because it sits between two upscale neighborhoods, sprawling Lang Ranch at the bottom of Westlake Boulevard, and two new developments with million-dollar estates farther up the roadway. |
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