City Might Reroute Horse Trail Plans

Confusion over who owns a 500-foot strip of land might compel the city to abandon a plan to use the property for a connecting route on its horse trail.

Once an irrigation canal, the strip between Kellogg Drive and Grandview Avenue is designated for a horse trail in the city’s General Plan but is too steep now to be used for one.

Nearby homeowners contend that the land belongs to them and have been building on it. The city says it has a right to use the property for recreation purposes, but officials said they cannot prove it without a costly title search.

The City Council recommended this week that Yorba Linda sell its potential claim to the land to the homeowners and use the proceeds to build an alternative route for equestrians and bicyclists. The council directed its staff to begin negotiating with homeowners to set a price.

“Had a horse ever gone down it,” Councilwoman Barbara Kiley said at Tuesday’s meeting, she would fight to protect it.

“But it has never been used as a trail,” Kiley said, voting with those who want to resolve the ownership issue.

Council members Mark Schwing and Gene Wisner, however, voted against abandoning the property. “The equestrian people do not want us to give the trail up,” Wisner said.

The proposed bypass would run along the east side of Grandview Avenue and the north side of Mountain View Avenue to Kellogg Drive.