Lloyd Fields owns 41 acres of undeveloped land, completely surrounded by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians reservation near the Cabazon outlets in Banning, save an access road that leads through it. The mountains overlooking the area would make a perfect backdrop for the 146 homes and accompanying parks he has in mind.

There’s just been one little roadblock — literally.
Fields’ property is only accessible along Fields Road, which has a Morongo reservation guard house stationed at the entrance to their tribal land, and Fields claims Morongo won’t provide him unrestricted access to his own property.
If he could develop it, his property could profit him $15 million, he said.

Also adding to his property value, is the prospect that “there’s water under my property, and Morongo’s been sniffing around to drill wells, and have asked me not to develop it because they don’t want me to pollute the aquifer.”

He wouldn’t divulge the current value of his property in question. “It doesn’t matter to me what the value is if I can’t develop it,” he said. “Right now, it’s worth nothing — and they want it to stay that way.” Fields claims that, by not having the access he needs to develop the property, he suspects Morongo is trying to keep down his property value in order to force him to sell it to them “at an undervalued price.” According to Fields, “I heard a rumor they want to buy it from me for $250,000.”

Fields served Banning with a lawsuit in February after the city declined to get involved in a dispute over road access to his property, since he couldn’t directly sue Morongo, which is a sovereign nation. The lawsuit names the current members of city council — Bob Botts, Debbie Franklin, John Machisic, Don Robinson and Mayor Barbara Hanna, as well as City Manager Andy Takata — for causing obstruction damages in excess of $25,000.

He has put up a banner signpost along the freeway’s east entrance to Banning, prominently displayed on another 90.2 acres of property Fields owns, that reads “MorongoLandGrab.com.” He also took out an ad in the Record Gazette claiming he has been victim of “injustice,” hoping those who take notice can help him “expose the intimate collaboration between the city and the tribe, even if it’s at the expense of the taxpayer.”
Beverly Hills resident Fields contends that the gate and guardhouse built by the tribe on what he claims is a portion of public roadway that leads to his undeveloped land, is part of an easement that he owns. The guardhouse was reportedly built five years ago to control access to its reservation.

Fields claims that access to Fields Road is limiting, and his lawsuit calls for the City of Banning to remove the guard shack, which he has called “a roadblock.” It is the same road that leads to the reservation’s cultural Malki Museum.
Riverside County named the road in 1959 after his father, Harry Fields, who died in 1972.

On the MorongoLandGrab.com Web site, Fields is shown in a video patiently waiting at the Morongo reservation access gate on Fields Road for permission to drive onto his property, an ordeal he claimed took nearly 18 minutes and involved calling in other guards, before being allowed to pass through.

“It’s a meaningless privilege to have access to my property if I can’t develop it,” Fields said. 

Morongo chief administrative officer Michael Milhiser referred to Fields Road as a “tribal road” in a letter to Banning’s planning commission, in which he expressed tribal concerns regarding Fields’ intention of building 146 homes on his property.
City Attorney Dave Aleshire, of Irvine-based Aleshire & Wynder, LLP, has said he plans to make determinations on what the city should do based on “what is legal and appropriate,” acknowledging that the city has a right-of-way along Fields Road, which is not maintained by the city.

Further, Aleshire has expressed reluctance that, since the Morongo Band of Mission Indians is considered a sovereign nation, there would be very little a city could do to enforce a court order beyond the tribe’s gates.

In a statement Tuesday, Aleshire said, “Of course, the city does not like being embroiled in litigation, and is sympathetic to Mr. Fields’ desire for full and complete access to his property.”

Further, “Mr. Fields’ attorneys, in their lawsuit, contend that the gate is a nuisance and that the city can abate it by having it removed. It is generally not advisable for a city to engage in self-help and destroy someone’s property; so, typically … we have no more right to sue a sovereign tribe than Mr. Fields does.”
Aleshire said it has become a “difficult legal situation involving questions of whether this is a public roadway,” which he said is maintained by the tribe; and a quest to determine “what our powers to abate these improvements  — and whether the tribe is an indispensable party to resolving these legal issues.”

Mayor Hanna expressed her disappointment in the lawsuit, during the time when the city attorney notes that the city is already “stretched very thin by the recession and cutbacks of 30 percent” in personnel and services.

“It is always unfortunate when someone feels it necessary to sue the city,” Hanna said. “We requested to have more time to investigate the allegations, which are made more complex because of federal law” that Fields said he first brought to the city’s attention in January, “but Mr. Fields decided to proceed directly to suing us.”

According to Morongo Band of Mission Indians spokesman Michael Fisher, “Mr. Fields continues to be provided access through our reservation. All he has to do is show identification, as all visitors are required to do.”
Fields said that the City of Banning has filed a demur (an objection) to the court to try and have the suit dismissed. According to Fields, a hearing on the issue is scheduled for May 9 in Riverside Superior Court.