Rancho P.V.

The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council has approved a request by Cayman Development Co. to remove a pedestrian gate that prevents horseback riders from entering a canyon trail off Crest Road near Cayman’s Island View residential development. But a related proposal for a quarter-mile horse trail along Crest Road was withdrawn by Cayman at the request of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Horsemens Assn.

“We presumed that if we had gone through with a public hearing, there would have been a lot of anti-horse people and we did not want to make it an occasion to air the horse, anti-horse emotional issue,” said Ann Lewin, association president. She said the proposal will be made again when the city considers a comprehensive horse-trail plan. The trail was strongly opposed by homeowners near Island View at a council meeting in June.

Cayman and the association in April ended a legal standoff stemming from a lawsuit in which horsemen charged that Island View, a 95-home development at Crest Road and Crenshaw Boulevard, blocked established horse trails. The association dropped the suit when Cayman agreed to work with the group to open the canyon trail and to create the trail along Crest Road. The association, in turn, ended its opposition to Cayman’s proposal for a 300-acre residential development at the old Chandler sand and gravel quarry in Rolling Hills Estates.