Off-Limits Trail

By ANDREW BLANKSTEIN

Oct. 14, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

BURBANK — A threat by the federal government to shut down a popular riding trail along the Los Angeles River has sparked protests from equestrians, who say they’re now branded as outlaws for riding a path that’s 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 runs along the concrete-lined banks of the Los Angeles River between the Los Angeles Equestrian Center and Warner Bros. Studios.

The corps, which administers the river channel and the land that borders it, informed Burbank parks officials that the path would be sealed off if the city does not take over maintenance and insurance coverage.

The path on the north side of the river is in the Rancho neighborhood, 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.

It appeared Tuesday that riders are paying scant attention to the corps’ edict. In a one-hour period, eight rode unhesitatingly past the signs, and the corps is doing nothing at present to enforce the ban.

The corps acted after a local horsewoman complained to the city in August about the dangers that riders and pedestrians face from a fence that runs along the channel, saying it was so low that passersby could topple over it. The city relayed the complaint to the corps, which decided that riders and pedestrians should not be there in the first place.

The attempted shutdown has drawn criticism from city officials and plenty of riders.

“This is an area that has been used for recreation for over five decades,” said Mary Alvord, Burbank parks and recreation director. “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 from 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 trail is that no one has taken responsibility for its upkeep.

Federal officials contend that 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 public use.

In an Oct. 5 letter to Burbank city officials, the corps said it would be willing to release the area for recreational use if a local sponsor would “accept responsibility,” including improving protective fencing and agreeing to indemnify the federal government in case of lawsuits over deaths or injuries.

Corps spokesman Ted Masigat declined to say how much it would cost Burbank if the city agreed to take over the area.

But he said the corps has such an arrangement with the city of Los Angeles, which has an easement for a bike trial along the river channel adjacent to Griffith Park, between Los Feliz Boulevard and Riverside Drive. He declined to say how much Los Angeles pays.

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.

Councilman Ted McConkey, who lives in the Rancho district, said he believed that the city would do “everything possible to assure the path is kept open,” provided it can be done “at a reasonable cost.”

But Vice Mayor Stacey Murphy said it should have never come to that.

“I think it’s horrid,” she said. “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,” she 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--riders and pedestrians--who have to use the trails.”

As he rode off down the forbidden path, Eddie Javor had a simpler admonition for government officials: “Fix the fence. Don’t put up the signs.”