OJAI : City to Take Action Over Loose Cattle

The last cowpoke in Ojai has frustrated neighbors and city and county officials because his cows run loose on city streets, breaking fences and grazing in gardens.

The Ojai City Council decided in closed session last week to take legal action against Art Balchen because he did not respond to several notices that he has to apply for a special permit to keep cows inside the city limits.

If the rancher does not seek the $300 permit, officials said he will be prosecuted.

But the owner of the 18-acre Chuhichupa Ranch that borders Los Padres National Forest said cows have roamed his range on Ayers Avenue for 14 years and the city should grandfather them into its rules.

Authorities say Balchen is the only Ojai resident who raises cattle inside the city limits.

The rancher met Wednesday with City Manager Andrew Belknap to discuss his options. Belknap and other city officials said they could not comment on the matter since the city started legal action.

Kathy Jenks, director of Ventura County Animal Regulation, said she asked Ojai to enforce its zoning rules after her officers repeatedly cited Balchen for not keeping the cows on his property.

“It’s been a consistent headache for years, “ Jenks said. “They tromple yards, munch on plants and break through fences.

“All we can do is keep citing him or impounding the animals. Then he pays the fines and goes home again.”

Complaints were registered last year in April, August, October and November. At one point, Balchen paid a $715 fine to retrieve six of his cows that had been impounded by the county, Jenks said. This year, they were reported loose in February, March, April, May and again several weeks ago.

Balchen said that his business often takes him out of town and that stray dogs chase the cattle, forcing them to jump a six-foot-high chain-link fence.

“Everybody’s dogs go after them, and no fence can withstand that,” he said.

If he can’t keep his eight cows, seven calves and a bull, Balchen says he will reconsider building a housing tract on the land. The city approved the tract once, he said, before he decided to raise cattle, horses and avocados there instead.

Balchen, who develops housing in Southern California and Alaska, says his herd has been no secret. He complained to city and county officials in 1985 after firefighters lit a backfire on his ranch to block a forest fire from destroying his neighbors’ homes.

“They burned down my barn, a haystack, a bunch of outbuildings and killed five of my cows” trapped in the corral, he said. County fire officials said the backfire was necessary to save houses.