Mobile Homes May Determine Fate of Stables : Lake View Terrace: The Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center site, wants 2 residences removed.

Eddie J. Milligan is slowly realizing his dream of converting the once run-down Hansen Dam Equestrian Center into an affordable public facility with a country club atmosphere.

Milligan has built 11 riding arenas and 250 indoor and outdoor horse stalls. He has landscaped the area and renovated two small existing structures. He plans to build more stables, a horse trail and a show ground.

But his grand dream may be interrupted because the landowner--the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers--is trying to pull the pillow out from under his head, he says.

The corps--which leases the land to the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department, which in turn subleases it to Milligan--last month issued Milligan a 30-day notice to remove two mobile homes he brought to the site for him and his daughter to live in.

Corps officials say Milligan never received written approval for the mobile homes, and “human habitation structures” are prohibited in flood basin lands under federal law.

But Milligan argues that he has received approval from the city for the other structures he has built and has never been required to seek corps approval. Besides, someone has lived on the site for the nearly 40 years that it has served as an equestrian center.

Milligan argues that even in a worst-case 100-year flood situation, the mobile homes are above the flood line, as are the stables. He backs up that argument with 100-year flood maps developed by the corps.

“I planned from Day 1 to live on the property,” Milligan said. “It’s a little late to start rewriting the rules.”

The corps has extended the eviction deadline until March 23, while it reviews Milligan’s arguments. Virgil (Dave) Taylor, the corps’ real estate division chief, said he expects to issue a written response by the end of the week.

Taylor would not divulge the specific details of his review. However, he hinted that the size of the new mobile homes may be an issue as well as whether someone can live on the site at all.

The previous operator maintained living quarters in a small permanent structure and in a small trailer. In Milligan’s original plans for the facility, which he said were reviewed by the corps, he showed two mobile homes in which on-site management would live.

However, the structures that Milligan has moved onto the site are modern double-wide and triple-wide mobile homes that look like single-family houses and are the same size as many houses: 1,700 and 2,000 square feet. Both have decking, and the larger one has a spa. Both have commanding views of the equestrian center and Hansen Dam.

Milligan said he has invested about $1.8 million in upgrading the center, and he said he wants to live on the site to protect his investment. He said that he is selling his $750,000 house in Arcadia, and that he and his wife should not have to lower their style of living just because he chooses to live on the site.

Milligan said the mobile homes--which after installation, landscaping and decorating he estimated will have cost him about $200,000--will also be used for entertaining clients who could bring business, such as horse shows, to the center.

While the corps decides whether Milligan will be allowed to keep the mobile homes on the site--and Milligan says he is prepared to sue if it decides to proceed with the eviction--some horse owners have already decided that Milligan and his mobile homes should be left alone.

“I would not be here if Eddie was not living on the site,” said Heather Bender, who has trained horses around the world and keeps about 25 horses at the equestrian center. “Horses have a habit of getting into trouble on their own. I need the comfort of knowing that someone is here who is knowledgeable about horses.”

Matthew and Lacey Withers of Sylmar board their thoroughbred horse, Kid Six, at the center. They pay $250 a month for an outdoor stall called a paddock and feel that they get more bang for their buck at the center than at other facilities.

Included in that bang, they said, is knowing that Milligan is on the site 24 hours a day.

“How can anybody be offended by that?” said Lacey Withers, pointing toward the mobile homes above the horse grounds. “It’s so low-key.”

Bender also said that if the equestrian center is trying to improve its image, the on-site housing for management should reflect that.

“These are quality people and quality horses,” she said. “So the owner should be living in a shack in a back corner someplace? If that was the case, I would worry about the facility.”

Tom Petrique, who is the city’s liaison with concessionaires, said the city has not taken a position in the dispute between Milligan and the Corps of Engineers.

Petrique said the city’s contract with the federal government makes it clear that recreational facilities are allowed in flood control basins, as long as they do not interfere with the site’s primary function of collecting water under flood conditions.

But Petrique also acknowledged that, at the equestrian center, “past practice has been that there has always been somebody on the premises at night.”

He also acknowledged that Milligan, who designed the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Griffith Park and the Huntington Central Park Equestrian Center in Huntington Beach, has converted what had become an eyesore into an eye-pleasing facility that will eventually produce revenues for the city.

“Mr. Milligan has done a wonderful job renovating and giving the community something to be proud of,” Petrique said.

Some homeowners agree.

“It’s a beautiful place,” said Eileen Barry, secretary of the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn., the area’s oldest homeowner group.

City officials had tried for five years without success to attract a private developer to take over the center, which by the mid-1980s had become run-down after rising insurance rates left the former operator with little money to invest in improvements and maintenance.

In 1989, after no one responded to three separate requests for bids to take over the facility, a long-term lease for Milligan to develop the property was tentatively approved after he answered the fourth bid request.

But a series of snags--including an environmental impact report on a Gabrieleno Indian burial site near the center’s entrance--has resulted in a delay in awarding the long-term contract. Instead, Milligan is operating on a month-to-month agreement.

“I’ve invested in this project under good faith,” he said. “Do you think I’m going to walk away from $1.8 million of my money? I . . . hardly think so.”