Neighbors Split Over Center

A group of longtime, horse-loving La Tuna Canyon residents--some of whom have lived there for more than half a century--are vehemently resisting the plans of a new neighbor to build a commercial equestrian facility on an adjoining 32-acre site.

Some of the Sun Valley residents, whose homes don’t border the proposal site, maintain that the development would be a positive asset for the residential area.

The city zoning board will hold a public hearing on the project Friday in Van Nuys.

Project opponents, organized by resident Mike Smith, have hired veteran land-use lawyer John Murdock to fight the proposal. Murdock successfully fought the construction of a riding ring proposed by Steven Spielberg in Brentwood this year and an expansion of the Getty Villa art museum in the Pacific Palisades last year.

According to Los Angeles County records, the property was sold in December by the IMYS Corp. to Fleming Star LLC. The land is zoned for limited commercial uses, such as farms, but Fleming Star is seeking a use permit that would allow an equestrian facility for training, boarding and the showing of as many as 50 horses.

Gary A. David of Pasadena, an attorney for the new owners, declined Wednesday to elaborate on their plans for the property.

The plan would include a 4,000-square-foot barn, 3,000-square-foot tack room, 17,600-square-foot covered arena, an outdoor arena and two horse-walking pens. The site would also have 11 parking spaces and room for horse trailers.

The development, including an exercise trail and a driveway, would be situated about 30 feet from the backyards of half a dozen homes.

“The city should adhere to the zoning code, unless there is a real reason to vary from it. That reason doesn’t appear in this case,” Murdock said. He said the La Tuna Canyon situation is similar to the Spielberg proposal because “in both cases the neighbors love, use and have horses. The issue is not the horses, but the size of the facility in the appropriated area.”

Dale Thrush, planning deputy for Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents the area, said the councilman favors the project because he believes the community supports it.

The area’s homeowners association does, but Smith said 18 neighbors have signed a petition that states the association does not represent their views.

The property’s land consultant, Lee Ambers of California Land Consultants, reached in his Van Nuys office, said he would not comment until the matter is settled.

The La Tuna community is a rural part of northeast Los Angeles where neighbors have “no secrets, after 50 years,” resident Margaret Havens said.

Homeowners say it’s a neighborhood whose residents are friends, their children and grandchildren are friends, and where people talk to each other over morning coffee through their wire fences.

Havens, 78, whose yard would face the covered arena, and other owners of adjacent property said they are concerned about the invasion of privacy and the noise that would result from horse-showing events at the proposed development.

Thrush said the word “showing” will be removed from the conditional-use application because it implies a large number of spectators, which he said is not accurate.

In her backyard, Havens said, “I have a gazebo out there and a patio, where I have picnics and barbecues. I like the view, the quietness, the squirrels.”

Most neighboring landowners bought their property in the late 1940s or early 1950s, some for less than $8,000. Homes there now sell in the six-figure range.

If the facility gets the go-ahead, it would benefit people outside the immediate equestrian community, say residents of adjacent parcels, who added that they are also worried about a decrease in their property values.

“I’m having a hard time seeing what they’re offering us besides noise and dirt,” said Vivian Petrie, 82, who has lived in her La Tuna Canyon home since 1950.

“Residents have bought these homes with an expectancy that the zoning protects them,” said John McKenna, a planning consultant for the neighbors opposed to the facility. “Zoning is an investment that the land will not be open to [things like] carnivals, circuses and shows.”

Other residents say the equestrian facility would add value and additional equestrian atmosphere--something that breaking up the acreage for individual houses, for instance, would dilute.

Candy Leaf, a member of the board of directors for the La Tuna Canyon Community Assn. who lives about a mile from the site, said she would welcome the facility.

“All my neighbors are very much for it,” Leaf said. “We want to keep horse property for horse people.”

Her daughter, Ashley Faulk, said she holds equestrian events at her barn and none of her neighbors have complained. Said Faulk: “Once neighbors get to know neighbors, everyone will calm down.”

But another association member, Pam Miller, who lives about a mile away, said, “In general, a horse facility is welcome by most of the residents, however, it has to be responsive to the immediate neighbors. The facility as presented is not.

“[The developers] haven’t been very open to the needs of most adjacent neighbors,” she said. “It’s easy for me to say it’s a fine thing, but I don’t live right next to it.”

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La Tuna Canyon Proposal

Neighbors are fighting a plan for a commercial equestrian facility that would include a 4,000-square-foot barn, 3,000-square-foot tack room, a 17,600-square-foot covered arena, an outdoor arena and two horse-walking pens. The site would also have 11 parking spaces and room for horse trailers.