'Old farmhouse' owners want to keep horses, run trail ride business

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers HORSE SENSE-John Fisher feeds alfalfa to his two horses on the old farm property in rural Calabasas. Fisher and Laura Toston, owners of the historic property on Las Virgenes Road, are struggling with the city of Calabasas over the couple's plan to operate a trail ride business from their home. John Fisher and Laura Toston, owners of the historic "old farmhouse" property in Calabasas, have been called "the perfect people with the perfect plan on the perfect property" by local equestrians.

But is the city of Calabasas the perfect place to own horses and run an equestrian trail ride business?

Fisher and Toston hope so. When they purchased the venerable property they believed that they could use the land for profit, as had so many homeowners before them.

The young couple purchased the 80-year-old home and about an acre of its 11-acre site, in part because of its proximity to a National Park Service trailhead.

The "perfect" moniker was coined by some Calabasas horse owners because Toston is a licensed equestrian trail guide for the park service. She planned to

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saddle up her eight horses to guide riders along the stunning Santa Monica Mountains trails, north into the Ahmanson Ranch area, and west through Cheseboro Canyon.

Other trails are expected to be improved to connect with the network of mountain trails.

Toston's plans were jettisoned when she and Fisher were cited by the city for noncompliance with several ordinances. The Calabasas municipal code, they found, restricted the number of horses that they could keep on their property to two rather than the eight allowed by neighboring Agoura Hills and Westlake Village.

The couple was first threatened with a $1,000 per day fine if they didn't remove six horses from the property. Before the fine's deadline, they moved the horses to a nearby facility. Boarding them there costs about $700 per month.

Since Toston is pregnant and can't lift bales of hay, they must pay extra to have their horses fed.

"All I'm looking for is to do what we intended to-live in our house and have our horses here," Fisher said.

Fisher wants his property to fall under the legal nonconforming usage code. The designation is similar to a grandfather clause-if previous owners were allowed to have up to eight horses per acre, then the same rules should apply to Fisher and Toston, regardless of the 1998 ordinance.

But the wheels of the law roll slowly-and expensively. The couple is working to prove to city officials that for more than 80 years former owners owned more than two horses (per acre), and ran commercial businesses at the site.

Since Toston ran her trail ride business from a residential property, she was violating another Calabasas law. To abide by the law, Toston now runs her operation from another location.

The worst case scenario

In addition to worrying about whether the city will enforce certain conditions to keep the horses on the property and whether Toston can run her business from home, Fisher is concerned that officials might require a water runoff system that could cost $100,000 or more. The water treatment system would catch all runoff water on the property and filter it.

"That could be the worst case scenario, but no one has been able to tell me that it can't happen," Fisher said.

Many residents and local groups have jumped on the bandwagon to help the couple prove that previous owners used the property for business and housed lots of horses.

Champions of the cause

Don Wallace, a member of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation, has championed the couple's cause. He provided some background to council members at a recent meeting.

Wallace said that Allan McClaren, who leased the property for about 20 years, ran a commercial welding operation, and a Basque shepherd named Luigi ran a commercial sheep business on the property.

Woody Smeck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountain National Recreation Area, wrote a letter to Calabasas Mayor Dennis Washburn urging him to allow Toston to run her business from the farmhouse property.

"The trailhead location off Las Virgenes Road offers convenient access for Calabasas residents-as well as residents of the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles area-to over 13,000 acres of public parkland," Smeck said in his letter.

He said that when the planned trailhead is opened near the farmhouse, Toston's business would become both desirable and "much needed."

Councilmember Barry Groveman asked the city's staff members to put a cap on costs.

"I think we made a mistake," Groveman said about the prohibitive ordinance.

But Councilmember Mary Sue Mauer defended the ordinance and said that she doesn't like to encounter horse waste when she's hiking in the mountains.

According to senior planner Talyn Mirzakhanian, the city is waiting for further evidence that the property has previously been used for a commercial operation. She's waiting for a letter from Fisher about a farrier who reportedly also ran his business on the property.

Since Toston is having her customers get aboard and ride her horses at an offsite location, Mirzakhanian said a home business occupation permit is not needed.

As for the conditional use permit that Fisher initially applied for to create pipe corrals, Mirzakhanian said that he is considering a design change that would make the permitting process easier and less costly.

But Fisher isn't seeing things in a positive light.

"We haven't gotten anywhere, haven't gotten any answers on anything," Fisher said.