Horsepark Closure Blamed on Enviro Groups, New Meeting Scheduled

Author: Phil Trubey

Date: January 24, 2021

In the wake of a surprise announcement in December that the 22nd DAA would be cancelling all horse shows and horse boarding at the Del Mar Horsepark for 2021, the 22nd DAA held their first public meeting discussing this decision on January 12.

President Richard Valdez said that although they had not received any litigation threats, it was the possibility of such a lawsuit from San Diego Coastkeeper and Surfrider Foundation that made them decide to cancel all horse activities at Horsepark for all of 2021. Valdez cited a lawsuit settled in 2018 brought by Orange County Coastkeeper against Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park, a multi-use facility that hosts soccer tournaments and large horse shows. In settling that lawsuit, the city of San Juan Capistrano paid Coastkeeper $1.9M in attorney fees and also paid an additional $1M directly to environmental groups.

But it isn't clear why that particular lawsuit has the 22nd DAA board so spooked since the two situations are vastly different. For instance, that particular Orange County facility was dumping horse wash rack water directly into the nearby creek. By contrast, Horsepark has an extensive sewer network. All such contaminated water goes into the sewer system, not into the nearby San Dieguito riverbed. 

And public interest firms like Coastkeeper and Surfrider generally don't target effectively bankrupt organizations since they know they can't extract lucrative attorney fees. Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park was very different since it is owned by the deep pocketed city of San Juan Capistrano.

I asked both Coastkeeper and Surfrider their positions on Horsepark. Matt O'Malley, Executive Director & Managing Attorney for San Diego Coastkeeper had this to say:

Surfrider is not currently involved with this issue- or rather, have no horses in that race.

Now, these are not definitive statements, but they also don't sound like groups that are chomping at the bit to launch a lawsuit. Not to mention how absurd it is to stop all operations on the possibility of a lawsuit against an effectively bankrupt organization. Maybe the 22nd DAA has had back channel discussions with, say, San Diego Coastkeeper about a lawsuit? If so, they should tell us. And Coastkeeper should know that is playing with fire if it gets blamed for shutting down Horsepark. Donations to Coastkeeper can dry up pretty quickly if sentiment turns against them in such a community dispute.

Community Backlash

Even at a strictly enforced two minutes per speaker, it took almost two hours to get through all community member appearances as one after another expressed their disbelief and dismay at the 22nd DAA's decision. It was clear such an outpouring of community support for Horsepark made an impression on the 22nd DAA board. Your voices are being heard. 

Remediation

Horsepark does need some improvement to comply with new state water board regulations passed in 2015. The open question is how much will it cost. Horsepark already has excellent waste practices - horse manure is regularly trucked out for instance. There are some known issues, like needing concrete bumpers around temporary manure storage areas. 

At the January meeting, the 22nd DAA board said remediation would cost up to $8M, whereas community organization Friends of Del Mar Horsepark paid for a remediation report which only estimated a $250K cost. Part of the reason for the difference is that the 22nd DAA stated it needs to adhere to a standard required for much larger facilities than what Horsepark is. Their rationale for wanting to adhere to the larger standard is that the much larger Rancho Mission Viejo facility in Orange County was required to adhere to it in their legal settlement. Again, a rather odd stance to take since no one else has suggested that Horsepark should be considered a large facility under the CAFO standards.

Why The Shutdown?

This is another mystery. The much larger fairgrounds recently underwent a large remediation effort, yet they didn't shut down at all during that effort. So why the difference for Horsepark? Regional Water Quality head Lauri Walsh has stated that there is a waiver in place allowing Horsepark to continue operating while it figures out remediation. 

The 22nd DAA actions are actively hurting Horsepark's finances since they could be making money right now as you read this by hosting horseshows and accepting boarders. Cancelling all activities reduces the amount of money available for remediation.

Property Development

It is these odd explanations that don't add up that makes people wonder what is really going on. Some people wondered if Horsepark would be sold to a developer. Given that Horsepark sits in the 100 year floodplain, that is unlikely.

Is there some backscratching going on to overpay for remediation? Perhaps the simplest explanation is simple incompetence. While the facility can accommodate about 110 horse boarders, they only had 70 for most of last year until Tristar left, leaving them with about 40 horses. And this in a prime costal property with very low boarding rates. That they couldn't fill the facilities even with an indoor riding ring (a huge plus) and eight rings dedicated to the boarders speaks to some pretty bad management. 

Personally I think the 22nd DAA would be well served by offering a ground lease to a competent manager so they can get out of the business of running a large commercial horse boarding and show facility, something the 22nd DAA seems ill equipped to do.

The Next Step

The 22nd DAA will host a "community outreach conversation" about Horsepark this Friday January 29 at 1:30pm via zoom. Click here for the link to view the meeting, and click here to register for the meeting if you want to participate.

You can have your email added to their Horsepark mailing list by sending a request to planning@sdfair.com

Friends of Del Mar Horsepark

Local residents Carla Hayes and Laura DeMarco co-founded a group called Friends of Del Mar Horsepark to do the work the 22nd DAA is not doing. They already hired an investigator to make measurements of the storm runoff water quality. They are now raising money to do the more exhaustive testing that the state water board requires. Yes, this is something the 22nd DAA should already have been doing, but, well, they aren't doing it.

Click here to donate to the Gofundme page.