Committee to Neigh or Say Yea on Leisure World Stables Sale

The horses at Leisure World weren’t supposed to kick up such a quarrel. But since the retirement community’s board proposed selling the land that housed their stables, residents have squabbled over whether horseback riding is worth losing the $6 million the land could raise.

Opponents of a plan to sell the stable area’s 5.6 acres won a reprieve Tuesday when the foundation directors who control the Laguna Woods community voted to send the proposal to a committee that will advise the board on how it should vote.

Proponents hope the extra time will allow them to persuade Leisure World’s nearly 18,000 residents that putting the parcel on the market is in their best interests.

The Golden Rain Foundation, the 11-member board that controls the land’s fate, proposed moving to nearby stables the 28 horses owned by residents and housed at Leisure World for $180 a month. Leisure World also lodges 10 horses, used partly for lessons, that would be sold, said Harry Curtis, 76, one of the foundation directors.

The plan drew complaints from the community’s 130-member Saddle Club and residents who feared other Leisure World amenities would be sold off to private vendors. Leisure World bills itself as an active adult community, with five pools, two golf courses, 18 shuffleboard courts and three lawn bowling greens, among other facilities. Opponents have gathered 1,500 signatures on a petition to ban the sale of community land.

The equestrian center at El Toro Road serves about 3,000 people a month with lessons and riding, including the family members of residents, said Mike Settipane, stables supervisor.

Closing it, said resident Vincent Fortuna, 86, “is the beginning of the end of Leisure World and the beginning of the end of our way of life.”

“We have a few years left. Let us live them how we want to.”

Those in favor of the sale said it’s needed to keep up with the community’s rising maintenance costs. Curtis, the chairman of the activities committee, said the facility needs upgrades for its six clubhouses. “If we don’t sell the land, we don’t have too many options,” he said.

One could be raising residents’ monthly fees, which range from $400 to $550, he said. Another is putting off needed maintenance or the construction of new facilities.

Opponents, though, say their hobby is being singled out.

“To punish one group because the land is valuable is very unfair,” said activity committee member Eleanore Schwarz, 75, who chairs the group that oversees the center. “You just don’t punish the people who came here for the horses.”