Problems Mount for Horse Park : $1.2-Million Malibu Equestrian Center Loses Trail Money

A recent drop in funding, some angry neighbors and severe grading problems have jeopardized a proposed $1.2-million equestrian center in Malibu near Point Dume.

The center, billed as the first public staging point for horseback riding along the Los Angeles County coast, started out as a joint project of the county and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. However, last month the conservancy’s board voted to withdraw $152,000 that had been designated for a bridle and hiking trail next to the center and spend the money studying other possible trails in nearby canyons.

The proposed path, which would have connected to the Zuma Ridge Trail, would have crossed just in front of numerous homes along Merritt and Busch drives, upsetting neighbors in the area who have maintained the county-owned property for years.

“We’re not anti-horse, but we don’t want to lose the front of our houses,” said neighbor Bob Arey, who has led the campaign to get the county to relocate the trail. “The whole plan is wrong for a residential area. It doesn’t belong here.”

The project has been studied and changed by several state and county agencies over the past four years, starting as a smaller-scale, $400,000 project. Since then, the equestrian park has mushroomed in size and tripled in price, gathering a host of critics along the way.

Original Plan

The county originally wanted to place several baseball diamonds and a community park on the property, just east of Malibu Park School, but the project was thrown out in favor of the horse center.

“There’s a point at which you just have to say there’s too much that they’re trying to do here,” said John Diaz, an analyst with the conservancy. “The money was distributed elsewhere because the board didn’t think that the trail was acceptable either, since most of the (county’s) right of way has been developed by residents in the area.”

The equestrian center’s problems mounted after the county Department of Parks and Recreation, which is handling the project, erred in its permit application to the California Coastal Commission, saying that the construction of two arenas for horse training and shows and a trailer parking lot would require 65,000 cubic yards of fill.

The current grading figure for the project shows that it would require 114,000 cubic yards of fill. The Coastal Commission’s approval is based on 65,000 cubic yards of fill, so county park officials and Coastal Commission staffers have been trying to figure out a compromise.

Hearing Rescheduled

The Coastal Commission hearing for a permit extension for the project, originally scheduled for Tuesday, has been postponed until September, a commission staff member said. The County Board of Supervisors approved construction in May.

“It’s hard to say whether we will have to reduce the size of the facility,” said Joan Rupert, county park planner. “We’re trying to meet all the concerns and the conditions of the permit. And based on the input we’ve received from most of the local folks over the years, I’m optimistic that we can do it.

“But at this point I don’t see how we can meet the grading requirements and still provide the same facility.”

Rupert noted that park planners must still come up with another trail and replace the lost conservancy funding to meet the Coastal Commission’s conditions for approval. She said the county can seek state park bond money to pay for a trail.

County officials say that the site, which is being leased from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, is ideal for an equestrian center since hundreds of horse owners live within a few miles of the proposed park, hundreds of others are concentrated just across the Santa Monica Mountains in the western San Fernando Valley, and several stables are located along the coast.

2 County Facilities

A 1985 census by Equestrian Trails, a riders group, estimated there are 131,000 horses in Los Angeles County. Yet the only existing county equestrian facilities are at Bonelli Regional County Park near San Dimas and Whittier Narrows in South El Monte. The city of Los Angeles runs a large horse facility in Griffith Park.

But homeowners like Arey are concerned that the proposed horse park, which would have a public address system and lights to illuminate the grounds at night, will disturb their quiet neighborhood.

“On paper it sounds great, but not when you have a bunch of homes above it,” Arey said. “We could probably live with the park as long as they don’t put the trail in front of our houses, but they’ll have to do something about the noise.”

The two horse arenas and the parking lot were scheduled to be built by mid-1990 in the ravine off Pacific Coast Highway, about half a mile inland from Zuma Beach. A second phase of the project calls for an existing house on the property to be converted into a community center, and for the addition of a terraced spectator seating section and a child’s play area.