Santa Monica Mountains Horse Facility Gets Reprieve Despite Pollution Concerns

BY HANS LAETZ

A controversy that pitted equestrians against surfers and open space advocates ended this week when the California Coastal Commission backed off its lengthy effort to relocate a large horse stable and arena complex from its longtime Mulholland Highway location.

By a 7-5 vote Monday night, the Coastal Commission rejected its staff’s recommendation to order removal of horses and equipment from within 100 feet of Stokes Canyon Creek, which drains into Malibu Creek and eventually Surfrider Beach.

Ocean advocate groups believe the hundreds of horses using Malibu Valley Farms are directly responsible for bacterial and nutrient pollution regularly measured downstream of the facility, in Malibu Creek State Park, and at the lagoon and world-famous surfing break near Malibu’s Civic Center.

But a steady parade of horse advocates from across the state, ranging from the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association to inner-city cowboys from Compton, implored the commission to allow the equestrian center to continue operations, which has a state-of-the-art vegetated swale to eliminate horse urine and manure from the dry wash.

“Malibu Valley Farms offers a safe zone, a green pasture that provides a shelter for all the horses in the area when there is a fire,” testified Calabasas veterinarian Richard Stevens. “They do outstanding manure management and they control the runoff. This farm could be within 10 feet of the creek and it would not degrade the water quality.”

But coastal commission staff were joined by surfing and clean-water organizations in questioning the claim that the large horse-breeding, boarding and exhibition center was not responsible for contributing to contamination of the Malibu Creek watershed.

Terran Collins, a Heal The Bay scientist, testified that “the extent of the unpermitted development at this site is widespread and detrimental to water quality, and it likely contributes to degraded water downstream at Heal The Bay’s monitoring sites.”

Sierra Club staffer Mark Massara said Stokes Creek contributes to the poor water quality of Malibu Creek, and the lagoon and surfing beaches at the ocean. “It flows into the most heavily-used areas of Malibu Creek State Park, where kids wade in the water and swim in the creek.”

Massarra said the Sierra Club sympathizes with horse owners, but agreed with Coastal staffers who wanted all horses 100 feet from the usually dry creekbed.

Stokes Canyon resident Lee Renger, himself a horse owner, said, “We’ve always enjoyed the horse breeding operation, but we haven’t enjoyed the illegal boarding operation there.” Renger noted that the sewage agency that serves the area may have to spend $160 million to remove polluting nutrients from another tributary at the same time horses are adding such nutrients at the farm.

Owner Brian Boudreau was given additional conditions by the commissioners to protect the creek, and the decision ends a 15-year-long enforcement action brought by Coastal staffers who noted no development permits had ever been granted to Malibu Valley Farms.

Boudreau had already lost his argument before the commission that his farm was largely built prior to the Coastal Commission’s existence and thus did not need the panel’s approval. Monday’s vote was his last-ditch attempt to win permits for the ranch, located one mile east of Las Virgenes Road on Mulholland.

The victory came two years after Boudreau lost a bitter fight to build a timeshare resort, winery and restaurant next to the equine facilities. Calabasas voters rejected his request to be annexed to that city and to rezone the resort, in large part because of the project’s rural location across from the King Gillette Ranch.

That ranch, a spread of bucolic rolling oak hills along Las Virgenes Road, was purchased two years ago to serve as the new visitor center and headquarters for the state and federal parks network in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Horse owners won this week’s battle in part, commissioners said, because Malibu Valley Farms will allow numerous riders to enjoy trails in the new centerpiece of the park system.

Dozens of horse owners, riders and fans traveled to the commission meeting in San Luis Obispo by chartered bus. The fight to save the equestrian center had galvanized horse owners across the state, who are concerned about growing pressures on equine ownership caused by urbanization and environmental concerns.

Equestrians brought with them dozens of show trophies and certificates that had been won at Malibu Valley Farms, and photos of prize-winning horses boarded at the stables.