MIRA MONTE : Man Won’t Pay Fee to Use His Driveway

After living 30 years along the route to Ojai, Earl Bebout raised objections when the Ventura County government cut a path across his driveway to set up a bike and equestrian trail.

Now, the 83-year-old Mira Monte resident is dead set against allowing county officials to collect $50 a year from him for the right to cross the path to get to the highway.

“I don’t think they should charge us for getting in and out of our property,” said Bebout, folding his arms across his chest. “It’s just not fair.”

So far, Bebout has refused to pay $300 in fees and other charges owed to the county Parks Department for the right to use the easement that separates his property from the highway. His debt began to mount in 1988 after the Board of Supervisors adopted easement fees for 24 affected homeowners between Casitas Springs and Ojai.

In return for the easement fees, the county provides openings through a ribbon of rail fencing along the 9.5-mile Ojai Valley Trail so that residents are not cut off from California 33.

But when the final portion of the bike and bridle trail went in last year, Bebout’s driveway and those of his four immediate neighbors were cut off. They were told to share an easement, a 10-foot-wide strip of dirt between their homes and the bike path, and cross at openings at both ends of their block.

The service road also doubles as a bridle path on their block, and horse droppings are left for the residents to clean up.

“They are charging us for being landlocked,” said Mona Jones, 66. “We’re being discriminated against because we live on the wrong side of the tracks.”

Bebout, who is legally blind, doesn’t drive or own a car. He says he crosses the trail once a week when his grandson takes him to buy groceries with money from his Social Security check.

He used to pay his property taxes by selling Christmas trees to motorists who stopped by off the highway. “After they put the trail in, I couldn’t sell trees anymore,” Bebout said. “I haven’t replanted in three years.”

All but two of the 24 landowners have paid their easement fees despite loud objections many raised at four public hearings, Parks Manager Andy Oshita said.

“We tried to fight it with everything we had, but it didn’t work,” said Julia Rodarte, 69, who, with her 75-year-old husband, is having second thoughts about paying their $100 filing fee and $50 yearly fees.

County officials went after Bebout for $250 in overdue fees in small claims court last year but put the matter on hold until legal action could be reviewed by the county counsel, Oshita said.

Last month, Bebout received his 1991 fee notice. He says he has no plans to pay it and looks forward to fighting the county in court.

His neighbors are starting to rally behind their octogenarian neighbor by passing a petition and handing out form letters for others to refuse their payments.

The easement actually falls on county property purchased from Southern Pacific railroad. But Bebout and others believe that Southern Pacific had leased, rather than owned, some sections of the right of way and had no right to sell it to the county in 1981. Others believe that they have historical rights to freely cross the right of way.

“I feel for those people, but that’s the way the ordinance is written up and county counsel reviewed it very carefully,” Oshita said.