Issue of Front Yard Horses Deadlocks in Yorba Linda

Horses are a way of life for many in Yorba Linda, where trails are a common sight and the only McDonald’s Restaurant in town still has a hitching post.

But some residents in this north Orange County community want to draw the line and prohibit people from keeping horses in their front yards.

“We don’t have anything against horses, but they are not particularly attractive in front yards,” said Bob P. Kennedy, who lives in the 18000 block of Villa Terrace.

Kennedy and some of his neighbors asked the city’s Planning Commission Wednesday night to review a local law allowing horses in front yards. Horses are allowed as long as the lot setback meets a minimum depth, which varies among zoning areas--in this case, 60 feet, said Community Development Director Phil Paxton.

Planning Commission members agreed Wednesday night they did not want an out-and-out ban on horses and other animals, such as cows and goats, in front yards.

Split on Issue

But they couldn’t agree on whether residents moving into the neighborhood should have to apply for conditional use permits allowing them to keep horses in their front yards. With one member absent, the commission split 2-2 on that issue.

The issue now heads to the City Council, which has the final word.

The request for tighter controls on horses came in response to plans by Kennedy’s new next door neighbors--Jack and Ivy Hamlett, who want to build a barn and corral in their front yard.

Residents in the area say the horses would be unsightly. They also say they fear that a flood control channel running through the front of the property could become contaminated, creating health and safety problems during heavy rains.

Ivy Hamlett said she moved to Yorba Linda--which she called “the land of gracious living”--because the city “is known as the prime horse community in Orange County.”

Supporting Hamlett at the meeting were some 100 members of the local horse club, Yorba Linda Country Riders.

Club President Carol Metz said members collected more than 600 signatures from residents opposing a change to the law. Those requesting the change said they have collected about 75 signatures in the last five days.

‘Kids Need Horses’

About eight trucks and vans with empty horse trailers hitched to them filled most of the front parking lot at City Hall Wednesday night. Banners on the trailers included “Kids Need Horses” and “This Is Horse Country.”

The issue affects the entire city but stems from a dispute between the Hamletts, who moved into their new home within the last month, and their neighbors.

Because the Hamletts’ home--like their neighbors’--sits on a 222-foot-deep lot with the house set as far back as possible, there is considerable room in the front to meet the requirements of the local regulation on having horses in front yards.

But the Hamlett house was built in the back because the front yard, like others in the area, has a flood control channel running through it, Kennedy said. During heavy rains, that channel is “fairly full,” he said.

“The flood channel is the whole reason that homes are set so far back,” Kennedy said.

Heavy rains are not a typical occurrence, Kennedy acknowledged, but they do occur.

Resident Cheryl L. Hamlin said she feared “horse manure, urine or whatever is on the ground” will flow through the flood control channel if horses are allowed in the front yard.

“Children play in that water,” Kennedy added.

Ivy Hamlett said her four horses would be kept in closed box stalls and would not affect the channel.

Paxton estimated another 25 to 30 residents in Yorba Linda keep horses in their front yards.

If a new law banning the animals on the front setbacks is adopted, it probably would come too late to affect the Hamletts, Paxton wrote in a report to the commission.

Paxton recommended against the request for tighter controls on horses, saying there is no “demonstrated widespread concern on this item” and zoning ordinances should not “be viewed as a means of settling local neighborhood disputes, but as setting forth citywide zoning regulations.”

But Kennedy argued that this is a citywide, not just a neighborhood, issue.

“We’ve lived in Yorba Linda now for 13 years, and I know a lot of other neighborhoods which are against horses in front yards,” he said.