Building Ordinance Sought to Save Horse Country

The rustic neighborhoods of the northern San Fernando Valley are among the few remaining areas of Los Angeles where horses and homeowners can peacefully coexist.

But as housing construction reduces the number of places in the city where people can own or ride horses, horse lovers appealed to two city councilmen whose Valley districts contain a large share of the city’s horse-keeping districts.

Preserving Rugged Land

Councilmen Hal Bernson and Joel Wachs have proposed legislation that for the first time would require that new homes in these districts would be built on property with enough level land to make it possible to have a stable or corral there.

The councilmen view the proposed ordinance as a way of preserving the rugged countryside and meandering horse trails that are a part of the northern Valley area’s history.

A horse-keeping district is one in which the city allows the private ownership of horses. Most of these districts are in the hilly areas of San Fernando Valley--Sunland, Sun Valley, Sylmar, Chatsworth and Granada Hills.

The lots for homes built in horse-keeping districts are required to be at least 17,000 square feet.

Developers who oppose the proposed law say it would force them to set aside lots for equestrian purposes even though many people who live in horse-keeping districts have no intention of owning horses.

“The horse people have an idealized fantasy that is inconsistent with today’s market demands,” said Jere Bishop, a Granada Hills developer who insists that most prospective buyers do not want horses, just homes in a woodsy setting.

Some city officials feel that some of the lots, even at 17,000 square feet, are inadequate for equestrian use because the size or shape of the homes or the hilliness of the property leaves little space for horses.

Bernson, whose district includes the “horse country” of rural Chatsworth and Granada Hills, wants to further require that a minimum of 9,000 square feet of a property in a horse-keeping district be level. And he wants 432 square feet of the level ground set aside for a horse corral or stable.

“If developers want to build high-density, luxury projects, they should buy property in a nonhorse-keeping area,” Bernson said. “The trouble is, they come in, . . . want to make a buck and get out.”

Space for Horse Facilities

Councilman Joel Wachs, who inherited the horse-keeping neighborhoods of Sun Valley and Sunland in last year’s redistricting of council districts, has proposed that 2,000 square feet of the level land be free of permanent structures, to make sure there is space for equine facilities.

“This is one of the last areas that is rural enough and rustic enough and large enough to have horse-keeping,” said Arline DeSanctis, a deputy to Wachs.

The proposed legislation will be considered by the Los Angeles Planning Commission at a hearing scheduled for Feb. 26. An ordinance would also need approval of the City Council.

Horse-Lovers Found Favor

In the past, the City Council has sided with horse lovers. Last year, the council reduced the amount of land required for one or more property owners to establish a horse-keeping district from 20 acres to 5 acres. Also, the council closed a loophole in a law that could have forced horse owners to give up their animals if adjoining property is developed.

City planning officials say they have not kept figures on the number of the city’s horse-keeping districts or the acreage involved. But most agree that the number of areas where people can own their own horses is declining.

Gary Morris, a deputy for the advisory section of the city Planning Department that oversees subdivisions, said although horse-keeping remains popular with some, “the areas for it have been reduced over the years.”

“People move in, they don’t want to put up with the nuisances of the flies and what have you,” he said.

Although not written into law, developers of subdivisions in horse-keeping districts have been required as a matter of city policy to build or provide access to horse trails.

Howard Hamersly, a developer who is awaiting final map approval from the city for a 39-unit subdivision on property he owns in a horse-keeping district of Granada Hills, said that at Bernson’s insistence he is building his project to conform to the regulations included in the proposed law, even though he believes there is little demand for horse-keeping.

“If you look in Granada Hills right now, you can count the horse-keepers on one hand. . . . The horse trail concept is unreasonable,” Hamersly said. Bishop, who with a partner has been developing subdivisions in Granada Hills since 1974 and is planning to develop 75 homes on 30 acres he partly owns in a horse-keeping district there, is one of the more outspoken critics of efforts to preserve such districts.

Instead of making horse-keeping permissible in an area, the proposed law--with its strict requirements for the use of land--will just about require a property owner to have horses, he said.

As it is, Bishop said, builders are reluctant to develop property in horse-keeping districts. Once a project is completed, he said, developers have a hard time selling the homes unless they downplay the horse-keeping amenities.

“Horse trails take up space, they are unsightly and they cause a maintenance problem,” said Bishop. “Builders lose money on equestrian property because people would rather buy conventional housing.”

If it is true that most people enjoy living in a horse-keeping district but prefer not to keep horses, Cheryl Greslie is the exception.

A Family of Riders

Greslie, 40, has spent the last 31 years riding and caring for horses on the family’s one-acre ranch in the La Tuna Canyon area of Sun Valley. Everyone in the Greslie household rides, including the five children, whose ages range from 3 to 17 years.

As a young girl living in Inglewood, Greslie can recall owning horses, only to have that equestrian life style forced out of the area by newcomers who moved in and complained that the livestock attracted dust and flies. She is determined not to let that happen in Sun Valley.

“There should be an area preserved like this,” said Greslie, as she saddled up a pinto horse, Sanchee, a 35-year-old mule, Dandy Red, and a buckskin horse, Foxy Lady.

“These developers come up here and try to violate our way of life,” said Mary Ann Geyer, a neighbor of Greslie’s who is land-use chairwoman of the La Tuna Canyon Community Awareness Assn.

Geyer, a real estate broker, said if people are reluctant to buy a home in an equestrian district, it is probably because developers are not building lots that are suitable for horse-keeping.

“I know that with a good horse property you can get 10 buyers in your pocket overnight,” she said.

The two women, who plan to testify before the Planning Commission, say the Bernson-Wachs proposals will not only preserve horse-keeping areas but will require what they believe is the minimum amount of space on which it is suitable to maintain horses.