County Proposal to Limit Horses in Canyon Spurs Protests From Owners

More than 200 people packed a public hearing Wednesday to protest a proposed zoning change they fear could lead to restrictions on horse ownership in rural areas across the county.

“This zoning appears to be a solution in search of a problem,” Ruth Gerson, an Agoura resident who owns six horses, told the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission. “Until we saw the draft of the ordinance, we were not aware there was a horse problem. We’re baffled by the sudden attack.”

The controversy has its roots in rustic Triunfo Canyon, an oak-studded haven once home to a noisy 23-acre party palace for hire called Fantasy Island. The venue riled neighbors for years with traffic jams and pounding music reverberating through the hills.

The property has since been sold, bringing an end to the extravagant bar mitzvahs and weddings, but some residents are equally distressed by the zoning change meant to restore peace to the frazzled canyon.

Proposed during the height of the Fantasy Island furor in 1998 by county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, the new zone was intended to limit the “resort and recreation” uses in the rural area, such as dance pavilions.

But the new “light resort and recreation” zone, as drafted by county planners, would clamp a lid on more than just banquet halls and late-night entertainment. In an effort to balance low-impact recreation with environmental protection, it would require conditional use permits for bed-and-breakfasts, convenience stores, campgrounds and riding academies and stables.

Currently, stable owners in resort and recreation areas can keep two horses per gross acre. The proposed zoning would permit two horses per “usable” acre--land actually available to horses, not counting hillsides or structures such as houses.

“It isn’t fair,” said Pam Ridley, who moved to Malibu from Manhattan Beach so her children could have horses. “The lifestyle in this area that a lot of us moved here for includes horses.”

Yaroslavsky, meanwhile, said the measure seems to have galloped far beyond what he originally sought.

“This has kind of gone haywire,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

The horse-keeping provisions were added by planners in an effort to protect water quality from polluted runoff, he said. That issue, while important, should be handled separately, Yaroslavsky said. “We have no intention of declaring a war on horse owners,” he said. “We’re not going to assault their way of life.”

County planner Lee Stark said the controversy is being blown out of proportion by angry equestrians. If approved, the measure would only add a new category to the county’s zoning ordinance.

Separate hearings would then be required before the zone could be imposed on Triunfo Canyon and other equestrian areas, he said. Triunfo is the only area being considered for the zone change.

“They’re overreacting,” Stark said. “This is not going to change anyone’s zoning right now. They’re assuming that these provisions are going to be extended to other zones and then throughout the entire [Santa Monica] mountains.”

In a show of cowboy-booted solidarity, horse owners from around the county turned out at Wednesday’s hearing, held at the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District building in Calabasas.

While equestrians decried the proposal as “draconian” and “unwarranted,” several people testified that horse manure was a potential source of pollution in the Malibu Creek watershed.

Melinda Merryfield-Becker, a unit chief for the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, said her agency had not yet quantified the extent of horse-related contamination, but plans to study the matter in the coming year.

“We have very little data about runoff coming from horse facilities,” agreed Mark Abramson, who oversees the Malibu watershed for Heal the Bay, a nonprofit environmental group.

Abramson and others suggested that horse owners could reduce runoff by following so-called “best management practices,” which advise keeping a buffer zone of vegetation on stream banks and storing manure in dry areas.

The Planning Commission continued the hearing until August to allow time for more people to comment.

Yaroslavsky pointed out that the Board of Supervisors still holds the reins over any final change.

“We are not interested in dislocating the horse-owning community in the Santa Monica Mountains,” he said. “That’s not the intent.”

Highlights of Los Angeles County’s proposed light resort and recreation zone:

* Sets conditions for recreation uses, including archery ranges, boat rentals, fishing ponds, riding and hiking trails and public swimming pools in designated areas.

* Limits horses, cattle, sheep and goats to two animals per “usable net acre” of ground, but hillside land with a slope of greater than 25% or residential areas could not be counted.

* Requires a conditional use permit for uses including campgrounds, bed-and-breakfasts, convenience stores, riding academies and stables.