A new developer has taken control of about 28 acres of land on the western edge of the subdivision, and he plans to both repair relations with the current residents and move forward with plans to put about twice as many new homes on the now-vacant land as had been proposed by the previous owners.  
The man now in charge of developing the 28-acre parcel is Frank Hill, a developer from Whittier and former state legislator. His first move on the community relations front was to take down the controversial set of gates that had initially blocked access through the 28-acre parcel and prompted a lawsuit against previous landowners,  John and Margaret Clark and Robert and Gretchen Beach.
Hill, in a phone interview, said he had purchased the Clark’s 14-acre parcel, and had an agreement to develop the adjoining 14-acre parcel held by the Beachs.

The controversial gate that used to go across Starlite Drive as it exited the subdivision has been removed by the new owner of 14 acres next to the road. Frank Hill wants to develop his land and another, adjacent 14 acres into 48 homesites. Photo by Jon Klusmire

This past week, Hill watched as a contractor tore out the controversial gates. One was located at the end of the pavement on Starlite Drive, and one was located about an eighth-mile farther down the dirt road, which pro-vides access to the Buttermilks area. “The gates are out and access has been restored,” said Hill, adding, “I’ll always commit to providing access” to the private and public land served by the dirt road.
In addition, Hill said he had “settled” whatever legal issues remained with the lawsuits filed by residents seeking access and by the Clarks and Beachs seeking to get the county moving on their development proposal. The two had planned to put a total of 24 units (12 on each 14-acre parcel) on their lands.
When the gates went up and the suit was filed, Starlite residents made quite a ruckus about the gates. Their access campaign included an unsuccessful attempt to get the Inyo County Board of Supervisors to jump into the battle either by condemning the road and turning it into an official public right-of-way, or at least supporting the residents’ legal action.
Beach and Clark then unlocked the gates to allow public access through their property, but left the gates in place. The citizens’ access suit didn’t go away until the gates went away.
Hill, and his partner, Doug Lopez, have been researching the development potential of the 28 acres for several months, and Hill has attended several meetings of the Starlite Community Service District, said Inyo County Senior Planner Jan Larsen.
The proposed development has been stalled for several years, primarily because of concerns about whether there is enough groundwater to serve the new homes, and whether additional water wells would impact the aquifer and existing wells, Larsen said. The biggest factor delaying the proposal was that Beach and Clark had not completed a pump test on the water well that would serve the project, she added. Plus, the pair were not real happy with the decision by the Planning Department to create an Environmental Impact Statement to cover their development and planned developments by owners of land in or near Starlite, Larsen added.   
Hill, on the other hand, was described by Larsen as an experienced developer, and he didn’t question the need for the EIR, so he went ahead and did the water-well testing.
Hill said a test well on the property produced plenty of water for a long period of time, and the aquifer recovered quickly.
The water well endured a 10-day pump test, Hill said, with the result of the constant pumping being production of more than 10 million gallons of water. Larsen said not only was Hill’s water well running for 10 straight days around the clock and producing more than 200 gallons of water a minute, but the CSD also ran its water wells for the same 10 days. Running all the wells allowed the developer and CSD to evaluate the impact of sustained pumping above and beyond what normally would occur, Larsen said.
Then, after the pump test, the aquifer was monitored and water levels returned to normal in about three days, said Hill.  
“The hardest part is done; the well came through with flying colors,” said Hill, adding that he had performed all the tasks and tests asked by the CSD. “We’ve gone through all the hoops” to satisfy the CSD’s concerns about providing ample water for the new homes without impacting the current wells serving the water system, he noted.
As for increasing the number of proposed homes in the proposed expansion, Hill said the two 14-acre parcels separated by the dirt road have been zoned for half-acre lots, so putting 48 homes in a “master-planned project” covering 28 acres should fit the county zoning codes and General Plan designation for the land.
With the pump test now complete, the county Planning Department should be able to move forward with the EIR that includes Hill’s project, and smaller lot splits proposed by two other landowners. Howard and Linda Dosch are seeking to subdivide their single, one-acre lot into two lots, and Stacey Brown and Ceale Klingler have a 40-acre parcel farther west of the Hill-Beach land, which could be split into four lots.
Larsen said most of the EIR has been completed by the Planning Department’s staff. The results of the well test and attendant water studies will have to be included in the EIR, and then a consultant will finish up the document, she said.  
The costs of the EIR and a special consultant to study the hydrology and other aspects of the area’s water and aquifers has been split between the landowners applying to develop their land.
More than 80 percent of those costs were assigned to the larger development proposed by Beach and Clark. Hill and Larsen both said they expected to see the EIR process get moving once again and anticipated that the EIR and other studies would be completed by this fall.