Horse Lovers Bridle at New Developments, Zoning : HORSES: Owners Balk at Development, Limits

By SIOK-HIAN TAY KELLEY

June 7, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Reining in his horse beneath a gnarled oak in La Verne’s Marshall Canyon, Pete Schabarum turned in his saddle and waved toward laurel trees and sagebrush.

“What do you think of this country?” the Los Angeles County supervisor asked during a pause in a trail ride Sunday, as birds chirped overhead and bees hummed amid wildflowers. “Who would think that two miles away you have 2 million people?”

Earlier, Schabarum, who is retiring from his position, had told his fellow riders: “As I depart you’re going to have to make sure somebody doesn’t put a house on it!”

To many of the San Gabriel Valley’s equestrians, Schabarum’s remarks were more than rhetorical flourishes.

They were words to live by for a scrappy corps of horse-lovers, wary of encroaching development that threatens the quasi-rural life they are struggling to preserve.

The battle lines are being drawn on two fronts.

Some equestrian activists are fighting to preserve trail access. Even though the San Gabriel Valley is home to 175 miles of the county’s 300-plus miles of trails, as well as hundreds of miles of trails maintained by cities and the U.S. Forest Service, some equestrians worry that developers are making it hard to get to riding areas.

In Altadena, irate residents charged this week that a plan to build 22 single-family homes on property at the edge of Eaton Canyon, which was the site of stable until a year ago, will block longstanding hiking and equestrian trails in the area.

Even the privately owned Sierra La Verne Ranch stable property, where 290 riders assembled before Schabarum’s trail ride Sunday, has been earmarked for residential development on its 16 acres.

“This area’s going to be lost to us,” said Bud Welch, a commander of the county Sheriff’s Posse, who thought up the idea of the annual ride to publicize the Schabarum Trail, which the supervisor helped establish.

Access to the Schabarum Trail, which stretches 40 winding miles from Whittier Narrows into the San Gabriel Mountains, will be unaffected by the La Verne Ranch stable’s closing.

Meanwhile, other equestrians are challenging city-imposed limits to the number of horses allowed on homeowners’ properties.

In Monrovia, Steve Abernathy, 37, filed suit against the city last summer for tightening the acreage requirements for horse ownership in his neighborhood. His two horses will be allowed to stay on his lot of more than one half-acre--even though his property doesn’t meet the new standards of 1 1/2 acres required to keep horses--but he may not replace them or buy more horses. The case is pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Abernathy, a Sierra Madre police officer, has become a self-appointed watchdog at Monrovia City Council meetings, making council agendas regular weekend reading and attending every session in his trademark boots and cowboy hat. “I go there to keep them on the ball,” he said.

But neighbors sometimes gripe that living next to horses is not exactly pleasant. Their complaints, although infrequent, usually center on odor and flies, city officials say.

In Arcadia, enforcement officials targeted Hal Ellis after a neighbor complained about too much dust coming from Ellis’ one-acre property, where he had kept up to 19 horses.

But Ellis, 53, a bearded man who also has a fondness for cowboy hats, successfully challenged the city’s limits on the number of horses per household, arguing the wording of the law was too vague.

He now says he plans to challenge the constitutionality of city-imposed horse-keeping restrictions.

Ellis believes that development is driving a distinctive breed of people from the community.

“People who keep horses are close to nature,” he said, unlike “people who are raised in the depths of the city, untouched by nature and the relationship one develops with a creature such as a horse.”

Ray Ferris, president of the Glendora branch of Equestrian Trails Inc., a Sylmar-based horse owners association, voiced similar sentiments.

Ferris, 49, would have preferred to “move out to a real horsy area like Chino and Norco” when he left Glendora five years ago in search of affordable horse property, rather than continue boarding his animals. But because his electronic engineering job is in Monrovia and his wife works in Los Angeles, they settled for San Dimas.

He recently purchased his neighbor’s lot in order to have enough room to stable two ponies and Pecos, his beloved, arthritic pinto.

After retirement, though, Ferris plans to move even farther from the metropolitan area. “Someplace where there’s not likely to be any development in my lifetime,” he said. “It’s just too congested here.”

Some developers say they try to strike a balance between housing and horse needs.

For instance, developer Everett Hughes has agreed to set aside two-thirds of a mile of trail in each of two new projects of upscale single-family homes in Glendora.

But he makes no apologies for building homes on previously vacant land.

“It’s obviously fulfilling a need, or we wouldn’t be able to sell them. . . . Development on private property is basic to constitutional rights.”

San Dimas, in its efforts to maintain a small-town, Western atmosphere, is among the most energetic cities in the valley in creating and maintaining trails and facilities for horse lovers, including the 23-acre Sycamore Canyon Equestrian Center in the foothills.

An equestrian advisory commission was created by the city about a decade ago to review all construction projects proposed for horse properties.

“It’s always a threat every time you see a new development,” said the commission chairman, Mike Hasbach, 35. “It’s like, ‘What are we going to lose now?’ Ninety-nine percent of the time the developer will go for rezoning” so more homes can be built on a lot. The commission persuaded one builder to include a three-acre equestrian area in a 52-home tract development.

Hasbach, who keeps four horses in his back yard, moved from Glendora in 1985 because he couldn’t find suitable horse property in the city. He said he liked San Dimas’ attitude toward horse owners. “The other cities seemed passive,” he said.

San Dimas fences off roadside trails to protect riders from traffic. Still, Hasbach recalled an incident three years ago when an impatient driver honked his horn as Hasbach’s sister-in-law crossed an intersection on horseback. The frightened animal smashed the automobile’s grille with a kick, wrecking the radiator. “It’s funny now, but it could have been very serious,” Hasbach said.

Some equestrians say they have given up riding entirely because of traffic.

Kit Chapin of Covina sold her horses and replaced them with four waist-high miniature horses “because there’s no space to ride the big ones around.”

When she purchased her half-acre Glendora Avenue property 22 years ago, “there was hardly any traffic,” and she could ride in a large undeveloped lot across the street that gave way to condominiums five years ago.

Today traffic is heavy at peak hours, and the road is scheduled for widening that will take away a chunk of her front yard this summer.

“Another reason I don’t have (regular-sized) horses anymore is because I have no one to ride with,” added Chapin, 54, noting that everybody had horses on the street when she moved in. Only a handful remain. “I miss it,” she said. “We’ve considered moving to Norco, like the rest of the horse people, but I love Covina. I just wish we had more room.”

Some horse owners have no alternative but to board their horses. In Pasadena and South Pasadena, for example, most lots are too small to legally accommodate the animals, even though keeping horses is not prohibited. Residents of San Marino, an affluent city with many spacious lots, also must board their horses, because there is a law against keeping horses in the back yard. Six other San Gabriel Valley cities have similar bans.

South El Monte Assistant City Manager Steve Henley said homeowners have not been allowed to keep horses in the city since the late 1950s, “when you had a lot of tract building and lots were made small.”

Even San Dimas is not immune to suburban sprawl.

“Owners are selling (lots) off to developers who have no inclination of letting it remain horse property,” said Senior Planner Gary Collins. Custom-built homes are often large and leave little room for barn stalls. “The only horses they’re going to have are porcelain ones in the living room.”

Like San Dimas, Glendora has made a point of preserving riding grounds. A trails subcommittee at Glendora City Hall has been working for nearly a decade with developers to provide easements for riders. The city maintains trails and a riding ring for residents.

But even in Glendora, riders have lost access to trails, horse enthusiasts say.

Pat Janes, 51, of Glendora, recently pointed out a fence that now blocks one of her favorite trails.

“This is beautiful riding,” she said, gesturing toward rolling hills above a housing development. “Once you cut it off, it’s gone.”

HOW HORSES FARE These could be considered the San Gabriel Valley’s most horse-friendly communities. There is no limit on the number of horses allowed on homeowners’ property, provided acreage and/or zoning requirements are met. However, in some cities, notably South Pasadena, the laws are largely moot because few properties are large enough to qualify.

Unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, including Altadena

Azusa

Bradbury

Covina

Diamond Bar

El Monte

Pasadena

San Dimas

South Pasadena

Walnut

These cities limit the number of horses per household. Maximum levels, listed below, are set by each city according to a number of factors, including zoning, lot size, distance from neighboring houses and the number of family members.

Arcadia: 5

Claremont: 4

Duarte: 4

Glendora: 5

La Puente: 3

Monrovia: 10

Pomona: 2

Rosemead one horse per family member in agricultural zones

San Gabriel: 4

Sierra Madre: 5

West Covina: 10

These cities prohibit residents from keeping horses.

Alhambra

Baldwin Park

Irwindale

La Verne

Monterey Park

San Marino

South El Monte

One San Gabriel Valley city is in a class by itself.

Industry, with no residential zoning, has no laws governing residents’ ownership of horses.

HOW HORSES FAREThese could be considered the San Gabriel Valley’s most horse-friendly communities. There is no limit on the number of horses allowed on homeowners’ property, provided acreage and/or zoning requirements are met. However, in some cities, notably South Pasadena, the laws are largely moot because few properties are large enough to qualify.