County to File Charges Over Construction of Polo Field

Los Angeles County prosecutors will file criminal charges against officials of a Sherman Oaks development company that constructed a polo field in a rugged Calabasas canyon without county approval, the district attorney’s office said Friday.

Misdemeanor complaints will be sought against executives of the Lycon Group who were responsible for bulldozing the canyon and building a regulation-sized polo field, corrals, a barn and a small grandstand, said Mike Noyes, a deputy district attorney.

The equestrian facility--dubbed the “Calabasas Polo Club” by Lycon officials--is a few hundred yards north of the Ventura Freeway, midway between Parkway Calabasas and Las Virgenes Road.

County building inspectors contend that the polo complex was constructed without building or grading permits, which are required by law. County officials say the project was discovered by accident in March when a building inspector checking on a nearby residential project noticed the construction.

Wrongdoing Denied

Lycon Group officials have denied wrongdoing, blaming an unnamed county employee they say told them that no permit was needed.

The county’s Department of Public Works, which oversees building inspectors, called for criminal action when Lycon officials applied for permits after the polo complex was built.

Officials said about 35,000 cubic yards of earth were bulldozed from a hillside and piled in the canyon to make room for the facility, decorated with fancy “Calabasas Polo Club” signs.

“The D.A. will proceed to file criminal complaints,” said Jean Granucci, a public works spokeswoman. “We will continue to review the plans the developer has now submitted. That will probably take about a month or more, particularly because of this situation.”

Misdemeanor Offense

County officials say it is a misdemeanor to build or grade without proper permits. Such offenses are punishable by a $1,000 fine or a six-month jail term.

Granucci said Friday that building inspectors plan to pay close attention to a grading plan that Lycon submitted this week to the county’s building and safety office in Calabasas.

A representative of the civil engineering company that prepared the plan acknowledged that it was drawn up after the bulldozing took place.

According to Granucci, county officials will demand that the site be re-graded if Lycon cannot prove that a licensed soils engineer was present during every step of the earthmoving process. Re-grading would require demolition of the complex.

In any event, she said, normal grading and building permit fees will be doubled for Lycon as a penalty for the company’s retroactive permit applications. The building permit fee has not been calculated, but the doubled grading fee will come to $2,456.

The decision to file criminal complaints came after Noyes met privately Wednesday with building and safety officials and a Lycon representative.

Noyes was unavailable for comment Friday, and Lycon officials refused to discuss the case.

Earlier, however, Lycon Group partner Rob Franciscan blamed the illegal construction on bad advice received from an unknown building inspector. He said his firm was naive about the permit process because “we’re home builders,” not developers of horse facilities.

‘Permit Not Required’

“We were told a permit was not required,” Franciscan said. “We were told that we didn’t need a permit because we weren’t building a habitable structure.

“All of a sudden, some building inspector said we need a permit. At that point, we did some additional checking and found that, in fact, we did receive some incorrect information.”