Lack of Insurance Quells Bids on Stables

Los Angeles city parks officials said Wednesday that they had received no bids to renovate run-down public horse stables near Hansen Dam because none of the five private developers who expressed interest was able to obtain liability insurance.

The Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks had solicited bids, which were due Tuesday, since August. Liability insurance is required for horse rentals on government land because of the possibility that riders who rent horses could be injured.

“Insurance has become a worse and worse problem,” said Thomas Petrique, administrative assistant for the city parks department. “Everybody expressed the same concern--that they couldn’t find insurance.”

The Hansen Dam Equestrian Center land is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers and leased by the parks department, which in turn contracts with a private concessionaire to operate and maintain it. About 40 rental horses account for 50% of the center’s approximately $160,000 yearly gross income, city officials say.

Under the renovation plan originally sought by the city, a private developer would have been hired to transform the ramshackle, 18-acre site into a modern equestrian center with show rings, a clubhouse and more boarding facilities. It would also have provided horse-riding groups with training rings and a small center for local shows, modernizations that for years have been requested by horse-riding groups, Petrique said.

The cost of renovation was estimated at $350,000 to $500,000.

City officials said Wednesday that they would look at other options, including self-insuring the public stables or halting horse rentals to the public.

But Petrique said the city must first determine whether the stables, as a public facility serving the community, is required to offer horse rentals.

Petrique said he expects to meet with city insurance specialists and parks administrators to determine which course to take.

Meanwhile, the site’s current concessionaire, Charles Walls of Burbank, said his liability insurance expires Dec. 31 and will not be renewed. Walls, who has run the stables for 14 years and owns the horses used for public rentals, said he will be forced to sell some of the animals if he cannot continue renting them to the public.