Protesters take fight to company HQ

June Casagrande

A few protesters waved signs and shouted slogans at John Laing

Homes’ headquarters Thursday to protest the company’s attempt to

remove a 400-year-old oak tree near Santa Clarita and its plans to

build a housing project on a Seal Beach site where Native-American

remains have been found.

Signs marked “Save my bones from John Laing Homes” and “Save the

oak from John Laing Homes” were waved by five protesters.

Organizers assembled the event on short notice Thursday morning

after receiving news that the company had taken a tougher stance in

the battle over an oak tree near Santa Clarita that the company wants

to remove to widen a road there.

On Thursday, John Laing Homes announced it had secured the area

around the oak tree and filed suit against tree sitter John Quigley

for trespassing.

In a statement, the company cited safety as its main reason for

demanding that Quigley leave the perch he has occupied for more than

two months.

John Laing Homes President Bill Rattazzi also pointed out that

visitors to the tree, on private property, have created a nuisance to

neighbors.

“The number of people who are being invited to visit and even

climb into the tree would continue to result in unsafe conditions,”

Rattazzi said in the statement. “Ongoing property damage and

neighborhood disturbances continue to occur.”

Protesters counter that the company’s moves are overly harsh, in

part because they cut off food and water supplies to Quigley.

“They have decided to come down in a heavy-handed manner,” said

Doug Korthof, an environmentalist and organizer of the informal group

of protesters. “It’s not just this tree. This tree is a symbol of the

endless paving over of Southern California.”

John Laing Homes has offered to replant the tree in a nearby park.

Opponents believe it would be better to leave the tree in place and

build the road around it.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

june.casagrande@latimes.com.