Los Alamitos Will Keep Law on Horseback Riding

City officials have decided to keep in the books an ordinance prohibiting horseback riding on city streets, though there’s a very slim chance of someone actually doing that.

The last known horse stable in the city closed more than 20 years ago, and there are no horses here anymore, except at the Los Alamitos Race Track, which is in Cypress.

Although City Atty. Thomas W. Allen said he does not expect to catch a horseback rider anytime soon, he said the ordinance is necessary

On Monday, the City Council agreed with him and decided to modify the horseback riding ordinance while discarding other statutes considered dated.

Among those repealed were ordinances on food handling, fireworks, traffic, zoning, water wells, streets and sidewalks and appearing drunk in public. These laws either have been repealed or modified by state law or by county regulations.

Under the horseback riding ordinance, infractions are punishable by a fine. In the old ordinance, anyone caught riding a horse on city streets could be fined $500, sent to jail for six months, or both.

The city has hired a consultant to review current ordinances in an effort to create a “clean slate” in preparation for the publication of a new municipal code, City Manager Robert C. Dunek said.