Coldwater Canyon Residents Say ‘Nay’ to Equestrian Center

They didn’t mind the mansion-like houses planned for a ridge between Beverly Hills and the San Fernando Valley. Or even the fancy gatehouse that would seal them off from their new neighbors.

But when a land developer asked permission Wednesday to move more than four dozen horses into his proposed luxury housing tract, Coldwater Canyon residents cried “Whoa!”

A Los Angeles zoning administrator rejected plans for a 51-stall equestrian center that would have been the centerpiece of the new nine-home project after residents complained that their hillside could become buried in manure and overrun by horseflies and hay trucks.

“I don’t know whether to give these to your board, or to these people,” canyon homeowner Alvin Ferleger told city officials as he waved fly swatters toward the developers during a downtown zoning hearing.

“Flies don’t know there’s going to be a fence around these corrals. Hundreds and hundreds of people are going to be subjected to this obnoxious use. We’re neighbors--but we don’t want to be ‘neighed’ to death.”

Developer William T. McGregor of Beverly Hills was seeking a conditional-use permit that would allow an equestrian clubhouse and manager’s quarters, stable space for 51 horses, three corrals, two jumping arenas, a riding ring and quarters for as many as a dozen horse groomers.

“We think this significantly improves the situation for surrounding homeowners,” project engineer Larry Gray told zoning advisory board members.

“This would be a very high-end, upscale equestrian facility for the nine homeowners and the subdivider.”

Neighbors of the area near Coldwater Canyon’s intersection with Mulholland Drive questioned the need for that much stable space for nine families, however. “They’re going to have a large commercial facility. It just doesn’t belong there,” said Martin Roe.

Barry Read, head of the environmental group Mulholland Tomorrow, warned that those living downhill--and downwind--could be in for something less than an upscale treat.

“You’re going to have high-end horses, but you’re still going to have old-fashioned, low-end horse manure,” Read said.

Melanie Beck, a planner for the National Park Service, which operates the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in adjoining Franklin Canyon, estimated that the horses would produce 2,500 pounds a day that would have to be trucked out through the neighborhood.

John A. Diaz, planning chief for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, predicted that staggering amounts of untreated horse effluent would flow from the corrals and stalls into a nearby mountain stream and--eventually--into the Lower Franklin Canyon Reservoir, which supplies city drinking water.

Diaz said he was horrified to learn that McGregor proposed using pesticide-spraying devices to control flies at the equestrian center. That spray might endanger visitors at the Franklin Canyon park, he said.

Zoning administrator Darryl L. Fisher agreed with residents. “Once a facility is there and a problem is created, it’s difficult to get rid of it,” Fisher said.

McGregor said after the hearing that he is uncertain whether he will build the tract without the stables--or try to rein in protesters by contesting the ruling before the city Board of Zoning Appeal.