An environmentalist-turned developer wants to build luxury homes on a pristine route to the Mt. Whitney trailhead.
"Walters, who describes himself as a longtime Sierra Club member and a dedicated conservationist, wants to develop a 74-acre luxury housing subdivision below the jagged gray 14,494-foot peak and amid the brown, boulder-strewn hills used for countless Hollywood movie shoots.
...Here, the debate over quality of life, development and the fragile desert landscape is intensified by an acute countywide housing shortage that officials say has stunted economic and population growth. Less than 2% of the county's land is privately owned and available for building; the federal government and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power own the rest."
Thanks to Mindy Oliver
FULL STORY: Anger Piqued Beneath a Peak
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