City Tries to Restore Equestrians’ Access to Paths : Horses: Officials, hoping to save riding stable, will work with landowners to reopen area closed by a developer.

Intent on saving a popular riding and boarding stable, City Council members have directed top officials to do whatever they can to restore horseback riders’ access to nearby trails.

The five-member panel voted late Tuesday to work with the National Park Service and other neighboring landowners to open up the well-used paths near Two Winds Ranch that were closed off last week by a developer.

Robert E. Lewis, an attorney representing the owner of the ranch, told council members Tuesday night that his client would go out of business within weeks if his customers cannot use the hillside trails above the city.

“The solution is simple, but it takes government-to-government cooperation,” Lewis said. “We need help from the highest levels or it’s not going to happen.”

Two Winds Ranch relocated across Potrero Road earlier this month after developers of the huge Dos Vientos housing project broke ground.

Last weekend, the company hired private guards to keep equestrians off the Dos Vientos property despite what city officials and horseback riders said was a verbal agreement to continue access to the trails during construction.

Lewis recommends opening a corner of the neighboring National Park Service property to Two Winds customers so the riders can reach trails leading into the hills south of Potrero Road. He also wants interim trails opened in Broome Ranch, where the equestrian center relocated.

City officials said they could open some paths in the flatlands of Broome Ranch before the weekend.

But they acknowledged that it may be more difficult to get the federal government’s permission to open gates along two sections of the barbed-wire fence along Potrero Road any time soon.

National Park Service officials were not available Wednesday to discuss the proposal.

An attorney representing the Operating Engineers, which owns the Dos Vientos property and restricted access to the trails last week, said his clients had no choice but to close the privately owned paths to equestrians.

Attorney Wayne Jett told council members that city officials knew that access to the trails would be restricted after they approved a grading permit earlier this year.

“This owner has done more than anyone could require to keep this equestrian center open,” Jett said.

The development agreement reached with the city requires Operating Engineers to provide a seven-acre equestrian center at Dos Vientos. After the city and park officials agreed to move Two Winds across the street to Broome Ranch, Operating Engineers asked to convert the seven acres into home sites.

The City Council last week delayed voting on that request until it considers what to do with the Broome Ranch property, acquired two years ago as parkland.

Equestrian access will be restored to the paths behind the 2,300-unit Dos Vientos project after the initial phase is completed sometime next year, Jett said.