The Peninsula

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Horsemens Assn. dropped its lawsuit against Cayman Development Co. after the association dropped its opposition to a proposed Cayman development in Rolling Hills Estates for a pledge from the developer to help the association obtain horse trails near a Cayman project now under way in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The association had sued Cayman in Torrance Superior Court on grounds that Cayman’s Island View luxury home project along Crest Road near Crenshaw Boulevard in Rancho Palos Verdes blocked horse trails. Cayman denied that there were any horse trails within its property. Two weeks ago, the association led opposition to creation of a “planned community zone” in Rolling Hills Estates for a proposed 600-home Cayman development centered on the old Chandler quarry.

Association President Ann Lewin charged that density of the development and related traffic congestion “threatens our life style” and imperils horse trails within the area.

Under the compromise, according to both sides, Lewin and Shirley Klein, the association’s first president, will advise Cayman on the needs of horsemen and other community groups in connection with the quarry project. Cayman, in turn, will support association applications to Rancho Palos Verdes for a horse trail in the public right of way along Crest Road, and for access to Crest Road from a trail now blocked by a pedestrian gate. Cayman also has budgeted up to $10,000 for landscaping and decomposed granite for the Crest trail, if it is approved by the city.

In a letter to the developer, Lewin apologized “for disparaging remarks which some members of our association made in the heat of battle regarding your development” and said there is a “need for the horsemen to work together with the developer.” But Lewin said later that the removal of association opposition does not necessarily alter the views of the more than 1,000 people who signed petitions, circulated by the horsemen, against the community zone.