Hansen Dam : Delays Endanger $77,000 Grant for Horse Trail

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is threatening to take back a $77,500 grant to the city of Los Angeles if the delay-plagued Hansen Dam horse trail is not completed by the end of this month, but a conservancy spokesman said Monday that a compromise could still be reached.

City Department of Recreation and Parks officials said Monday that the earliest the path can be finished is mid-January if there is no rain. Otherwise, work could continue through mid-February.

In a letter to the department, released Monday but dated Nov. 29, conservancy Executive Director Joseph T. Edmiston demanded that the city stick with a Dec. 31 deadline agreed to earlier in the year. On the strength of that agreement, the conservancy extended its grant through June, 1989.

“If the project cannot be completed on time, the conservancy will request that the city return the grant funds,” Edmiston wrote.

But conservancy spokesman John Diaz said Monday that if the city appeals directly to Edmiston and signs a contract promising a trail by late January or early February, “I think it will be able to be worked out.”

‘Get It Done’

“We want to get it done, basically,” Diaz said. “If they weren’t going to do it, then we were going to do it. That’s why we wanted the money back.”

Kathleen E. Chan, city manager of the trail project, said: “As far as I’m concerned, this is going forward. I started construction on the trail this morning.”

Edmiston was on vacation Monday and unavailable for comment.

The horse trail was dedicated 4 years ago by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda) and former Councilman Howard Finn. Within a year, the city had obtained the conservancy grant and another $66,000 directly from the state.

But on June 1, 4 weeks before the conservancy grant was to expire, the city pleaded for more time, citing changes in the project’s scope and the unexpectedly high costs of requirements imposed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the dam.

Under the June agreement, by Jan. 1, the city would grade 2 1/2 miles of trail to form a connection between existing northeast San Fernando Valley horse trails. It would also install railings along both sides of the trail to keep horses and their riders off the dam face and the adjacent city golf course, and build a bridge across the dam spillway.

In a meeting between equestrians and city and state officials Nov. 28, the city asked for another extension through late January. Diaz said he would take the request to his board, which ruled against it.

At the November meeting, Chan said that to stay within the original trail budget, the project would have to be scaled down: Fencing could be provided only along the golf course flank of the trail and no bridge could be built, leaving horses to share an existing bridge with golf carts.

The city has applied for another $175,000 from the California Wildlife Coastal and Park Land Conservation Bond Act of 1988. Chan said that if the city succeeds in obtaining the funds, parts of the dam side of the trail will be fenced.

Decisions on bond allocations will be made in February, said state parks spokesman Larry Paynter, adding that distribution of the money will begin in July.