Development dreams long gone, but Turners still fighting LV mining firm

Daily Press, Victorville, California

July 11, 1993

By Ruth Mullen

Daily Press

LUCERNE VALLEY -- When Loyd and Carol Turner bought land here 24 years ago, they dreamed of a 1,000-acre housing development nestled on the northern slope of Big Bear Mountain.

Today, they say that dream has died, strangled by eight years of litigation and acrimony that has pitted a small group of property owners against an international mining company -- one of the largest employers in town.

"They ruined my family and everything we had up there on that hill and everything we had planned," Loyd Turner said. "I'm 73 years old, and my time has run out. It's been a bad deal all the way around.

Loyd Turner began purchasing undeveloped parcels in the area in 1969. In the late 1970's, he and some other original property owners formed a group called the Crystal Hills Property Owners Association, investing more than $1 million grading 10 miles of dirt roads and putting in power and water lines.

Pluess-Staufer arrives

Pluess-Staufer Inc. came to town in 1977 to begin quarrying limestone near Holcomb Valley in the Crystal Creek Hills, right next door to the association's holdings. The company leased mining claims from Sentinel Mining Corporation.

Pluess-Staufer and the association co-existed, apparently peacefully, until 1984. That year, the San Bernardino County supervisors denied the association a higher-density zoning request filed four years earlier because, they said, the request would interfere with the mining operation.

Soon after, Pluess-Staufer widened a two-mile section of Crystal Creek Road to accommodate its 85-ton haul trucks transporting ore to its manufacturing plant. The company grew to employ about 70 people. Crystal Creek Road, owned by the county, is the only avenue linking the mill and the area targeted for development by the association. In 1985, Sentinel Mining Corporation and Pluess-Staufer sued the Turners, the association and other individuals claiming the companies have sole ownership of the road and unlimited access to the watershed in the Crystal Hills area.

85-ton trucks

"They went from using street legal dump trucks to 85-ton haul trucks," said Carol Turner, 57. "They widened it as much as a four-lane highway in some areas. If you could see this operation now, compared to the original little shack building that was there, it's phenomenal."

As a result of the suit, the property owners' association dissolved, and development of the land -- already primed with $1 million worth of water lines, power lines and roads -- was delayed for five years as the Turners watched their case meander through the legal system.

"The minute they filed that lawsuit, so many people tucked in their tails and ran," Loyd says. "They named the association, and it amounted to scare tactics. Practically all of them ran but three or four."

Dismissed at last moment

Five years later, in October 1990, the case was dismissed by Pluess-Staufer and Sentinel Mining Corporation the day before it was scheduled to be heard.

The property owners allege the company knew it would lose all along and had filed a "frivolous" lawsuit in order to halt development and allow mining to continue.

Pluess-Staufer President Jim Reddy denies this claim.

"I don't think we had any complaints with the Crystal Hills Property Owners Association," he said. "We had neighbors, we have neighbors and we get along fine."

By the time the suit was dropped, the Turners estimate the association had spent more than $80,000 defending itself, and they went to court to recover the money. The first time around, the court in Victorville denied the request, but on reconsideration the Turners were awarded $82,520 -- the entire amount requested.

Pluess-Staufer and Sentinel Mining appealed that award, and the case finally landed in the state Court of Appeal in San Bernardino. That court issued what it called a "tentative opinion," ruling in Pluess-Staufer's favor and withdrawing the award.

Decision within 90 days

After hearing oral arguments on Wednesday, the court is expected to release a final decision within the next 90 days.

Reddy said he is confident the court will rule in the company's favor and hopes for a speedy resolution to the case.

"We've got a lot better things to do than spend money on lawyers," he said.

But the association's lawyer claims the property owners are entitled to the attorney fees because their defense of Crystal Creek road represents a "benefit" to the public.

"Regardless of the outcome today, (the association) has benefited the community by helping defend the public road and public ownership," said attorney Robert Ziprick. "The court will ultimately have to decide."

Meanwhile, trucks still pound up and down Crystal Creek Road 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- and the 1,200 acres overlooking the valley have yet to be developed.

Though pessimistic about ever fully developing the land, Carol Turner says the fight was well worth it.

"Pluess-Staufer and Sentinel Mining did everything they could to defeat us, and it worked for them," she said. "We've made an issue of it because we had to defend ourselves, our land rights and our civil rights."