RARE PLANT PUTS WORK ON HOLD AT SITE IN SIMI.Byline: Lisa Mascaro Daily News Staff Writer A pink and purple flowered weed temporarily halted grading Monday on part of a massive Oak Park development project while environmentalists and the developer try to work out a way to save the federally protected plant. The agreement to stop construction comes as the two sides met Monday to resolve a lawsuit brought last month by the California Native Plant Society The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a California not-for-profit organization that seeks to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve that flora. The CNPS was formed in 1965 in the East Bay. claiming Ventura County and the developer failed to enforce measures to save the plant from destruction as required under the project's approval. While the defendants were confident the two sides could come to an agreement Monday, the environmentalists were less optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op they could undo the stalemate and avoid further legal action. ``They had done much of the damage already,'' said John Buse, a lawyer for the Environmental Defense Center in Ventura that is representing the plaintiffs. ``It's a meeting we need to explore whether there are irreconcilable differences The existence of significant differences between a married couple that are so great and beyond resolution as to make the marriage unworkable, and for which the law permits a Divorce. .'' However, Robert Orellana, an attorney for the county, which is ultimately responsible for the developer's action, said the developer, Pardee Construction, would be willing to consider relocating the plant ``(anywhere) that will work that isn't already set aside.'' Grading on Monday was halted on a portion of the facility that is to become a park in the Rancho Simi Rancho San José de Nuestra Senora de Altagarcia y Simi is one of the land grants in California by the Spanish government. The name derives from Shimiji, the name of the Chumash village here before the Spanish. Recreation and Park District. A work stoppage stoppage - /sto'p*j/ Extreme lossage that renders something (usually something vital) completely unusable. "The recent system stoppage was caused by a fried transformer." was not expected to cost the firm, a county attorney said. Construction continues on the residential portion of the project, a 315-unit development in the Simi Hills The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range in Southern California. Geography Simi Hills is located on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley, United States. They run east-west and they extend 26 miles east-west, and 7 miles north-south. . At issue is a federally protected plant, Braunton's milkvetch, that was to be guarded under a state-mandated environmental review of the project approved by the county supervisors in 1991 and amended in 1995. The plant, a year-round weed found in just a few locations around Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , was to be set aside in preserves on the site to allow its growth. The park district was to administer a monitoring program of the preservation sites. Environmentalists claim, however, that the initial plant-saving measures approved in 1991 were shelved in favor of alternative plans approved by the county in 1995 that are not being successful in protecting the weed. Members of the ecology group who went hiking in the area last winter said they found dozens of the relocated plants dead or dying. The society is calling for a return to the original plant-saving measures, which called for preserves on the site and monitoring by the park district. However, assistant county counselor Orellana said the alternative approved by the supervisors in 1995 was considered an acceptable replacement. If environmentalists had concerns, they should have spoken up during public meetings held that year, he said. The milkvetch, a member of the pea pea, hardy, annual, climbing leguminous plant (Pisum sativum) of the family Leguminosae (pulse family), grown for food by humans at least since the early Bronze Age; no longer known in the wild form. family, is one of the latest additions to the federal endangered species endangered species, any plant or animal species whose ability to survive and reproduce has been jeopardized by human activities. In 1999 the U.S. government, in accordance with the U.S. list, added in January 1997. |
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