On a hot August afternoon, Elva Yañez sat behind a laptop inside her El Sereno home, which looks out to the hillside she and community-led organization Save Elephant Hill have spent the last 21 years protecting from luxury developments, unauthorized off-roading, and illegal dumping.
Her face grew serious as she reviewed dozens of photos and videos documenting the latest battle: A land owner named Lin Hin Hoo chopped down a protected Mexican elderberry tree and damaged a Southern California black walnut tree and a dozen coffeeberry shrubs to build a truck garden, a tax-incentivized small-scale urban farm traditionally used to grow produce for local markets and restaurants.
View of Elephant Hill. Photo courtesy of musicUcansee.com.
“How is he going to maintain a commercial garden without running water or electricity?” asked Yañez, 71, a policy specialist and environmentalist. “How is he going to transport plants and supplies without a paved road to get to his site?”
Hoo, a resident of Torrance, bought the 7,500 square-foot parcel in 2023 for $30,000 (though it originally sold for $125,000). Unable to build a home on the undeveloped land, he obtained a permit in May to construct the truck garden.
Today, organizations like GrowGood create truck gardens to provide the community with fresh organic food, workforce development, mentorship, and entrepreneurship skills. With no running water, electricity, or paved roads on Elephant Hill, it is unlikely Hoo will use the land as permitted.
“He’s lied to city officials and submitted what appear to be false papers,” said Yañez, who in February stood in front of an excavator with walking sticks in hand to stop Hoo’s workers from removing the protected elderberry tree. “When he started, he didn’t want to build a garden. He wanted to build a house.”
In 2023, Hoo approached Yañez about his plans to build a home on his Elephant Hill parcel. She advised Hoo against it, telling him to contact the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), which works closely with Save Elephant Hill to acquire land and create recreational opportunities like a highly anticipated public trail opening in October. The MRCA offered to buy the land from Hoo at fair market value, but the landowner refused.
“Our focus is saving open space from being developed on Elephant Hill,” said Sarah Kevorkian, an MRCA project manager overseeing construction of the trail. “The properties at risk for development are the privately-owned parcels. It’s a race between preservation and development.”
Originally called “Ochuunga” (“Place of the Wild Rose”) by the original Kizh/Tongva caretakers of the land, Elephant Hill was once abundant with native black walnut trees, sagebrush, and toyon. It is considered one of Northeast L.A.’s last remaining open spaces.
The complex system of land ownership on Elephant Hill, including 200 privately-owned parcels next to protected open space, makes conservation efforts and habitat restoration on the 110-acre hillside extremely difficult.
In 2009, after a lengthy land use battle that birthed the Northeast Hillsides Zone Ordinance, the city secured 20 acres of the hillside and sold five to the MRCA, which was awarded funding from the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District to construct a public trail.
Nearly 16 years later, Elephant Hill’s first-ever walking trail is finally being constructed by the Los Angeles Conservation Corps and Bellfree Contractors. Coast live oak and black walnut trees will be planted and boulders and fire gates will prevent off-roading. But the trail is overshadowed by Hoo’s development, which has grown into a 35 x 20 x 6-foot concrete eyesore surrounded by a chain link fence, exceeding the permitted 2-foot tall retaining wall and cement pads.
Elva Yañez at Elephant Hill, with members from Save Elephant Hill. Photo by Kamren Curiel for L.A. TACO.
“All these organizations are coming together to make this a nice natural space for the community, and this guy comes along and ruins it with his greed,” said Christian Aeschilman, who organizes Heroes of Elephant Hill clean-ups. “We need building and safety to stop this construction. Why isn’t the city doing anything? Look how far it’s gone.”
According to CD14 planning director, Kevin Ocubillo, Ysabel Jurado’s office reported Hoo’s code violations to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS), which issued a stop work order in August. The councilmember’s office also notified the Urban Forestry Division (UFD) about Hoo’s protected tree violation.
“It’s pretty clear his retaining wall has gone beyond the scope of the permit,” said Ocubillo.
The city’s truck garden ordinance lacks language and enforcement to prevent improper land use on undeveloped hillsides, which led to the destruction of native habitat near a new trail.
MRCA rangers patrol Elephant Hill and monitor Hoo’s activity, ensuring his workers use public streets and bypass MRCA property. Yet, residents have documented a stream of trucks going up and down, removing trees, digging trenches, and delivering concrete.
“After 40 years of tireless efforts to preserve and protect these hills, it’s a complete disappointment and shame to see them decimated this way,” said Casey Reagan, 64. He grew up in the neighborhood and started the Save Elephant Hills movement back in the 1990s. Lately, Reagan has been using his drone to capture Hoo’s antics.
“I believe the city has the power to step in and do the right thing,” Reagan said.
In July, Hoo filed a petition requesting a temporary restraining order against Yañez, claiming elder abuse after she took branches from a pile of elderberry tree remnants on Elephant Hill. The case was officially dismissed today on September 22.
“Hoo’s charges are an abuse of the legal system,” said Yañez, who has a hearing on Monday. “He’s using a law designed to protect vulnerable elders to intimidate me and my neighbors from monitoring his illegal activities and bringing them to the attention of city officials who have the power to stop him.”
As the buzz of a chainsaw reduces the elderberry tree to a stump, Hoo is heard in one video saying he doesn’t need a permit to remove the tree, claiming it was “infected” and he wants to “avoid a fire.”
However, the elderberry tree is, in fact, fire-resistant. Its soft, water-rich stems and leaves are less flammable than non-native varieties like the invasive Ailanthus altissima — which actually promotes fire.
“It’s always difficult to see mutilations and removal of native species, especially mature trees because of everything they hold,” said Brenda Contreras, cofounder of environmental justice organization and El Sereno lending library Coyotl + Macehualli. “They tell a story of the native flora and fauna, the history of the land. They provide food, medicine, shade, and clean air. When native trees are removed, future generations are robbed of their wisdom.”
Observing the current state of Elephant Hill. Photo by Kamren Curiel for L.A. TACO.
In February, Contreras filed a complaint with the city about Hoo cutting down a dozen healthy native coffeeberry shrubs and attempting to remove a mature and protected Mexican elderberry tree. She also mentioned Hoo illegally cut through a locked gate at Pullman Street.
The city failed to take action and closed her report. Days later, the elderberry tree was destroyed and a black walnut tree severely damaged.
“This is another issue that comes up with illegal tree removal,” said Contreras, who along with other El Sereno community members, has fought a rollercoaster battle against a proposed luxury home development on a hillside near Eastern Avenue and Lombardy Drive. “Usually the person ordering the tree removal is not the same person cutting it down. This makes it easy for them to hide behind what are usually brown men that sometimes don’t speak English and aren’t familiar with local laws.”
Together with community groups like Coyotl + Macehualli, Heroes of Elephant Hill, and the California Native Plant Society, Save Elephant Hill is urging the city to stop this misuse of land, support acquisition of private land for conservation purposes, and expand native habitat restoration projects like Test Plot Elephant Hill and the MRCA trail.
Hoo is being prosecuted by the UFD for violating the city’s Protected Tree and Shrub Ordinance, and LADBS issued Hoo a notice to stop construction with intent to revoke his building permit. Hoo has 30 days to remove his structure and return the land to its original state or get permits to build a house and road. This requires a grading inspection, soil report, and environmental analysis.
“This is an ongoing investigation and StreetsLA is unable to provide details at this time,” said Dan Halden of the Bureau of Street Services, a UFD representative.
On her last hike up Elephant Hill, Yañez saw Hoo installing a security system beneath the shade of a tree on a neighboring parcel.
“It’s hot up here,” Hoo told her.
Yañez shook her head.
“You shouldn’t have cut down that tree,” she said.
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