Agoura to Decide If Animals Should Keep Distance

How close should a horse be to a house? Can a duck dwell near a domicile? Can roosters roost near a residence?

The City of Agoura Hills is trying to decide these nagging questions without raising the hackles of animal lovers or making their neighbors suffer the smells and flies associated with animals.

Prompted by residents who fear being forced to give up their horses if adjoining property is developed, the City of Agoura Hills is considering a legal change allowing animals to be kept closer to homes.

At issue is a Los Angeles County health ordinance that requires horses, goats, cows, chickens and other animals (except cats, dogs and pet birds) to be kept at least 35 feet from occupied dwellings. Agoura Hills residents come under the county code because the city has signed a contract with the county to enforce its health codes.

The problem is that city zoning laws require only a 15-foot setback between a home and neighboring property lines. As the city grows and more properties are subdivided, animal owners who were previously in compliance can suddenly find themselves next to new housing and therefore breaking the law, said Paul Williams, director of city planning and community development.

“Unfortunately, the person with the animal has to be the one to make the adjustment, although it doesn’t seem fair,” said George Reynolds, an environmental-management specialist with the county Department of Health Services.

Seeking to protect animal-owning homeowners, the Agoura Hills City Council recently had the city attorney’s office draft a proposed ordinance that would reduce the required distance between animals and habitable structures from 35 feet to 15 feet to match the setback requirements.

But the city found itself facing strenuous objections from residents of Old Agoura, who say animals are already close enough. Some residents of that area, one of the oldest parts of the city, even want the required distance doubled or tripled.

City officials are now conducting a study to determine how other cities handle the problem, what health experts say, and what residents want. The City Council will hear public testimony before the issue is resolved. No hearing date has been set.

The proposed change would affect more than 300 homeowners in Old Agoura, the only part of Agoura Hills zoned for homes with animals other than domestic ones. With its rural flavor, the area is occupied by animal lovers, some of whom have lived there for more than two decades.

Although no official records exist, an unofficial census by members of the Old Agoura Homeowners Assn. found 386 horses on 110 properties in the area.

The animal-keeping issue was raised by Barry Sobel, who moved to Old Agoura from Encino with his wife, Meril Platzer, five years ago because they wanted to raise animals. The couple, both of whom are physicians, live with their young daughter on a half-acre property with three corrals, a horse and three goats.

Sobel told City Council that he could be forced to give up his animals because a new home is being built less than 35 feet away.

Sobel said he cannot move the corrals anywhere on his property and remain in compliance with the law. Making the corrals smaller would make them too small for the animals to adequately exercise, he said. Sobel also contends that losing the ability to keep animals would reduce his property value by $50,000, to $100,000.

“These animals are our pets, and they mean a lot to us,” Sobel said. “The baby doesn’t even speak sentences, but she knows the goats by names.”

Platzer said, “If I lost my corral, it would break my heart. That’s why I moved out here.”

Sobel said at least five people on his block would be affected.

But the proposal to reduce the distance drew fire from other Old Agoura residents at a recent City Hall meeting.

Problems Listed

“There is already enough trouble with flies, ticks, lice and odors,” said Sobel’s next-door neighbor, Bob Kissling, one of the most outspoken foes of the proposal. Kissling, owner of a Canoga Park print shop, said he moved to Agoura Hills two years ago with his wife and five children so he would have room for his hobby, building model steam engines.

Sobel and Kissling both said they have not been on speaking terms for more than a year and have filed lawsuits against each other in a heated boundary dispute over 150 square feet of land between their houses. Kissling denies, however, that his feud with Sobel has anything to do with his opposition to the proposed ordinance. Sobel’s horses are 40 feet from his house, Kissling said.

“I like horses. I like to look outside and see horses,” he said. Kissling, who owns ducks, pigeons, chickens and rabbits, said he plans eventually to own horses and goats.

“But he’s opening up the door for two other neighbors. If this law went through, it would allow the two guys on either side of me to have horses within 15 feet of my window. A certain amount of barnyard odor goes with the territory, but there’s no reason why I have to smell horse manure, cow manure or any other kind of manure while I’m eating my dinner,” Kissling said.

Another opponent to the reduction, David Chagall, said he is unable to eat outside in summer because of biting horseflies outside his Old Agoura home.

His wife, Juneau, said the limit should be increased to 100 feet, not lowered.

“We have a large lovely deck with a spa we do not use for nine months of the year because the smell is just awful,” Juneau Chagall said. “During summer, I cannot cook meat for over 30 minutes because of the flies it attracts. Even with all the doors and windows closed, I don’t know how they get in, but there are hundreds of flies.”

Zoning Was Known

But Old Agoura resident Gary Boyle said people knew the area was zoned for animals when they moved into the neighborhood and should therefore have known there would be flies.

“I think a person should be able to have ‘Mr. Ed’ looking at them right in the face in the morning if they so choose,” Boyle said, referring to the “talking” horse featured in a TV series some years ago. He added that he and other horse lovers moved to Old Agoura under the “same rationale as a yacht owner moving to Marina del Rey.”

The proposed ordinance would still require that animals be kept at least 35 feet from a restaurant or other food establishment and at least 100 feet from a school, hospital or similar institutional building, said Williams, director of city planning and community development.

A horse owner can have a lot as small as a quarter of an acre, and eight horses are permitted per acre, Williams said.

Ron Troncatty, president of the Old Agoura Homeowners Assn., said problems with odor or flies should be addressed by strictly enforcing health-code provisions regarding sanitation.

Williams said city officials have been able to find no logical health reason for the 35-foot limit, which has been in the county health code since the 1920s.

“Nobody can tell us where it came from. We’ve seen other cities with 25 feet; we’ve seen cities with 20 feet. We’ve seen 100 feet. We’ve seen 75 feet. What’s magic about 35 feet?” Williams said.

Reynolds, of the county Health Services Department, said the law has a bona fide aim of keeping animal excrement--and the resulting flies and odor--away from human living areas.

But Boyle contended that the only harm a horse close to a house presents is danger of kicking.

Health Hazard Downgraded

Dr. Morris Potter, a veterinary epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, said feces from horses, cows and chickens present no greater hazard than feces from dogs and cats.

In fact, said Dr. Peter Shantz, the centers’ chief of epidemiology and control for the Parasitic Diseases Division, “The greatest public health problem in urban and suburban communities is caused by dogs and cats. Horses, ducks and those things have relatively few diseases that tend to be attracted to people. Some of the healthiest people we knew are people who grew up on farms.”

However, Potter said, “From a public-nuisance standpoint, larger animals tend to produce more feces” and are more capable of kicking or hurting someone.

City Councilman Jack Koenig said he is afraid that parrots and other birds that could transmit illnesses would be allowed near neighbors. “If we go for this, I want to take birds out. Some of them are lousy,” he said.

Reynolds said the law is enforced on a complaint basis, explaining that if animal owners fail to correct the problem, they can be taken to court, fined and forced to give up their animals. Failure to do so can result in a contempt citation.

Cal Miller, an environmental-health specialist with the county health department, said there have been only about a half dozen complaints since Agoura Hills was incorporated in 1982. No Agoura Hills resident has ever been fined or forced to give up his animals, he said.

Last May, the Los Angeles City Council solved a similar problem by voting to prohibit construction of all housing within 35 feet of horse-keeping areas.