Modern Health Code, Meet Historic General Store

The tiny Pack Station and Store at Chantry Flats is at a trailhead deep in the Angeles National Forest.

But that doesn't place it out of the reach of county health codes. The Pack Station and Store at Chantry Flats has about a month to comply with county health codes or face closure, the Pasadena Star-News reported Sunday.

The owner of the Pack Station and Store at Chantry Flats told the newspaper she has submitted plans to the Los Angeles County Health Department to bring the rustic business, built in 1953, into compliance with modern health codes. But those plans have been rejected by county experts who want significant remodeling to protect the public.

"What we mainly do is sell soda and chips," Deb Burgess said. "We're just shocked that this has become a problem.

Compounding the difficulty is that the store could have historical landmark status, and the U.S. Forest Service and the state rules that limit the types of renovations that can be done. And some of the changes go right to the heart of the store's role as a rustic outpost in the wilderness.

The store has a stable with goats, and pack mules that carry supplies to dozens of off-the-grid cabins and a summer camp scattered near Chantry Flats, a way station on the network of trails between Altadena and Mount Wilson. Without the store, Burgess told the Star-News that she won't be able to run the vital pack teams anymore.

Burgess said the county is insisting on a new mop sink, which would force her to install a new septic tank. The mop sink doesn't make a lot of sense, store manager Rich Conforti told Star-News, since the area where customers sit and eat is outdoors and on concrete.

The county is also demanding employees get a dedicated restroom, instead of using the facilities in her attached cabin.

"I mortgaged my home and used up my 401 -- all my money -- to get this place," Burgess told the newspaper. "It was kind of a crazy business plan, but there is no other place like it."

Weekend weenie and burger grilling has already been eliminated at the demand of the Health Department, said Conforti.