No more giddyap

Alex Coolman

SANTA ANA HEIGHTS -- The signs on Carla Brockman’s new gates try not

to leave much room for confusion.

One says “private drive” in florescent orange letters. The other shows

a silhouette of a horse and rider with a large line slashing through it.

Brockman put up the gates around Thanksgiving to block a path that

runs through her property from the end of Birch Drive to the winding

trails of the Back Bay.

She says the barricades -- two metal barriers, and one made out of

sticks -- are supposed to address a liability concern raised by the

injury of an equestrian last year.

But Brockman’s gates have incensed a large group of horse riders,

bicyclists and walkers who were accustomed to using the path to get to

the bay. They’re pushing the county, the city of Newport Beach and the

California Department of Fish and Game to reopen the path, arguing that

public rights are being trampled.

“They can’t just say, ‘OK, you closed it off, it’s yours,”’ said Santa

Ana Heights resident Jim Auster. “They have a responsibility to protect

public access here.”

Auster and other residents argue that an easement exists granting a

public right of way across Brockman’s property. It explicitly allows for

pedestrian and bicycle access, Auster said, and the equestrian use is an

“implied dedication” because it has been going on for years.

Brockman disagrees. She argues that the easement is not on her

property but at the end of Mesa Drive. And the fact that horse riders

have been using her trail in the past doesn’t mean they have the right to

continue doing so now.

The earnest arguments of the public access proponents don’t faze

Brockman. They can sue, she said, if they’re convinced they know what

they’re talking about. And in the meantime, if they try to take their

horses down the path, she’ll call the police.

“Whatever the courts decide, we’re happy to live with,” she said.

After speaking briefly about the path last week, Brockman did not

respond to attempts to contact her again.

The county’s position doesn’t clarify much in the muddled debate.

“It’s a limited easement,” said Josh McDonell, community and

government affairs officer for Orange County. “We don’t really think we

can stop the property owner from installing the gates as long as our

flood-control access is not impeded, and it’s not.”

McDonell said, though, that the state Department of Fish and Game may

view the matter differently.

Representatives for Fish and Game could not be reached for comment.

Brockman’s motivation for erecting the gates, she said, is a lawsuit

filed Oct. 4 on behalf of an equestrian who was injured in December 1999

on Mesa Drive. The $750,000 suit accuses Brockman, along with Newport

Beach and Orange County, of contributing to an unsafe situation for horse

riders along Mesa Drive.

As they stand now, Brockman’s gates don’t keep out pedestrians or

bicyclists. But horses must travel to the end of Mesa Drive, a few

hundred yards away, to get to the Back Bay.

Auster said he thinks this arrangement is, if anything, less safe than

it was before.

And the court battle Brockman invites, he said, is all too likely if

she will not voluntarily remove the gates.

“It put us on notice that we better take some action,” Auster said.