Riders Lash Proposal for ‘Equine Disneyland’ : $30,000 Stalls, Restaurant Vital to Equestrian Center’s Survival, President Says

A controversial proposal to convert 300 rental stalls into $30,000 horse “condos” at the financially embattled Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Griffith Park was denounced Friday by dozens of riders who keep their horses there.

More than 100 riders and residents attended a public meeting at the Griffith Park Ranger Station, called by Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks officials who are evaluating a financial reorganization plan for the center.

Horse owners told the officials that the $30,000 price tag--or $24,000 if paid in cash--for the condos is too high.

They said other stalls proposed to replace the existing rental stalls were inadequate and of poor quality.

Besides buying the condos, owners would pay a $205 monthly maintenance fee. The stalls now rent for $320 a month.

The condo plan was part of a $12.3-million proposal intended as a fiscal rescue of Burbank-based Equestrian Centers of America, the company that operates the facility on 70 acres owned by the city of Los Angeles.

Can’t Afford $30,000

“I love the facility, but I don’t see how we can afford to pay $30,000,” said Evelyn Harrison, 36, a boarder at the center for six years.

Almost everyone in the audience opposed a proposed restaurant at the center that would allow diners to watch jousting matches. The 70,000-square-foot, castle-like restaurant would deprive riders of exercise space inside the center and attract too much traffic, they said.

“Does the city want a center that is accessible to people with average incomes, or an equine Disneyland for rich folks?” said attorney Gary Micon, 31, who has boarded a palomino cow pony at the center for about two months.

Freeway Ramp Protested

Audience members also protested other aspects of the plan, including a ramp that would lead motorists into the center from the adjacent Ventura Freeway. The entrance now is in Burbank.

James Hadaway, general manager of the parks department, said he wanted to gather public views and will decide Monday on whether to recommend the plan to the Board of Referred Powers, which will consider the proposal Wednesday.

J. Albert Garcia, president of the center, said the stall refinancing and the restaurant are vital to the center’s survival. The center has been under a cloud of debt since seeking protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U. S. Bankruptcy Code in 1984.

At stake is the center’s agreement with a Los Angeles-based financing firm, Trafalgar Holdings Ltd., which has offered to rescue the center from its financial woes.

The firm would lend the center $12.3 million, $9

million of which would pay off an existing debt to Gibraltar Savings of Beverly Hills.

If the reorganization plan is not approved by the city by April 8, Gibraltar Savings will foreclose on the center, Garcia said.

Garcia said the restaurant, based on a similar successful restaurant in Buena Park, would not affect available open space.

He added that changing the rental stalls to condos would help produce a profit of $7 million, which would go partly to pay back the Trafalgar loan.

He said horse boarders would not be displaced if they did not want to buy their stalls, and could rent any of the remaining 900 stalls at the center.

“This will allow those who want it, self-insured continuity and long-term enjoyment of this one-of-a-kind location,” Garcia said.

No Sympathy

But none of the boarders and others at the meeting seemed sympathetic to Garcia’s plans.

“What the equestrian center is about is people riding horses, and that has nothing to do with jousting or medieval or anything like that,” said Steven Angel, 33.

Garcia said the condo concept was approved by city Department of Recreation and Parks officials four years ago. But commissioners for the department said that approval did not apply to the specific plan now under consideration.