Riders Fight to Keep Trail They’ve Used for Decades

A move by the federal government to shut down a popular riding trail along the Los Angeles River in Burbank has sparked protests from equestrians, who say the path has been open to them for decades.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week posted “No Trespassing” signs along the two-mile bridle path that follows the concrete-lined banks of the Los Angeles River westward from the Los Angeles Equestrian Center to Warner Bros. Studios.

The corps acted after a local horsewoman complained to the city in August that a fence along the channel was so low that riders and pedestrians could topple over it. The city relayed the complaint to the corps, which decided that no riders or pedestrians should be there in the first place.

The path is located in the Rancho district, which is zoned for equestrian use. The zoning allows residents to stable and ride horses there, the reason many of them moved into the area.

Some residents Tuesday were ignoring the new edict; in a one-hour period, eight people rode past the warnings.

The signs have drawn criticism from some city officials and plenty of riders.

“This is an area that has been used for recreation for over five decades,” said Burbank Parks and Recreation Director Mary Alvord. “Taking immediate steps to post signs and threaten to close it seems at this point like an overreaction.”

Eddie Javor, a 70-year-old Burbank resident, struck a less diplomatic tone. “It’s stupid,” he said Monday afternoon, sitting atop his appaloosa, Coco, in front of the Long Horn Trading Post.

“If they close that trail, it’s going to force hundreds of riders onto surface streets, where they are going to have to compete with vehicular traffic and bicycles. That’s far more dangerous.”

Those familiar with the issue say a big problem with the Burbank horse trail is that no one has taken responsibility for its upkeep.

Federal officials contend they are not responsible for keeping the area safe for riders because it is a flood control right of way, meant to be a pathway for river maintenance workers, not the public.

In an Oct. 5 letter to Burbank city government, corps officials said they would be willing to release the area for recreational use if the city would take over maintenance and insurance coverage.

Corps spokesman Ted Masigat said the corps has such an arrangement with the city of Los Angeles, which has an easement for a bike trail along the river channel next to Griffith Park, between Los Feliz and Riverside Drive.

It is now up to the Burbank City Council to decide whether the city will pay to keep the popular path open. Without estimating the cost, some city officials worried that the bill could be sizable.

Vice Mayor Stacey Murphy said it should have never come to that. “I think it’s horrid. That’s not the way government should work, one arm looking at the other and saying this is your problem now. We should have sat down and tried to work out a solution for all sides.”

Burbank resident Joan Green agrees.

Green, who has ridden the L.A. River bridle path for 50 years and touched off the controversy when she lodged the fence complaint, said the federal government has failed to keep up the area for at least two years.

“I have been asking them to do something since February 1997,” Green said. “Riders here are absolutely disgusted with the Corps of Engineers. The federal government is passing the buck without any apparent concern to the general public.”