Couple’s Home Plans Spell End of the Trail

Sheri Assael rode her horse, Lucy, onto a dusty hilltop trail in Newbury Park this week, knowing that the well-worn path could soon disappear.

For years, local equestrians have used the informal trail near Helga Court as a link between Lynn Road and the Potrero open space nearby. But Monday night, the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission approved a Reseda couple’s plans to build a house on one of the lots the trail now crosses.

“We’ll be cut off from all the Potrero Park trails,” Assael said before the commission meeting. “There’s not all that many choices out here anyway.”

Assael and other equestrians had hoped commissioners might place a trail easement across the Helga Court property, allowing riders and hikers to use the land even after a four-bedroom house is built. More than 50 area residents attended the meeting, many complaining that without an easement, they would no longer be able to access the city’s trail system.

The city attorney’s office warned, however, that even though an easement had existed there in the past--when the lot had a different owner--the city could not force current owners Doug and Rebecca Reu to accept an easement. And Doug Reu told the commissioners that there wasn’t room for both a trail and a 4,207-square-foot home.

“We don’t have anything against horses or equestrians,” he said. “We feel it would be an impossibility, if you go ahead and grant this easement, for us to build this house.”

Commissioners recommended, however, that the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency amend its master plan of local trails to include a route through the area. Associate Planner Mark Towne told the commission that the agency is trying to create another trail through the Helga Court area, although the proposed trail would not be as direct as the one crossing the Reus’ property.