Animal Keepers in Rural Island Feel Saddled by Urban Permits

As a setting sun cast long shadows on a dirt trail, a galloping horse with a lone rider gently kicked up small clumps of dust.

Next to nearby homes, corraled horses stuck their noses over fences, while chickens and geese began to settle down for the night.

This is, say residents, a special part of Norwalk. The properties running along the horse trail and an adjacent bike trail--from Alondra Boulevard to Imperial Highway--are the only horse-zoned lots in the city. Along with horses, property owners raise everything from honeybees to llamas.

The menagerie has been likened to a zoo by residents and provides one of the last remaining links with the city’s agricultural past.

“Our common bond is we all love animals,” said Maria Harkey, referring to neighbors on Domart Street who share the pleasures and pitfalls of keeping animals.

But Harkey and others say they are growing increasingly concerned that their way of life is being threatened.

They contend that the city is unfairly requiring them to obtain permits to keep animals on property that is specially zoned for animals. Moreover, the residents say, the provision is being unequally enforced because not every animal owner is being required to get the permits.

But city officials say they require permits to keep track of the number of animals in the city and to make sure animals are maintained. The permit acts as the “city’s mechanism to make sure horses and properties are well taken care of,” said Kurt Anderson, assistant planning director.

The city enforces its codes in two ways: on a complaint basis and through random inspections by city code enforcement officers. Once a complaint is received, the city is obliged to require that residents bring their properties up to code. Officials said the city does not do wholesale canvassing of all properties to see whether necessary permits have been secured by residents.

The city’s code requires a permit for any horse, for some barnyard animals such as goats and pigs, or when a resident obtains more than three domestic pets, such as dogs or cats. Residents must pay a one-time fee of $150 to apply for an animal permit, which must be approved by the Planning Commission.

Maria Harkey said that when she moved in more than a year ago, she was never told she had to get a permit to keep animals.

‘When Do We Stop Paying?’

“We have paid a premium for this property. When do we stop paying? We have to pay $150 more for something we already paid a high price to maintain. That’s why we’re up in arms,” she said.

Ray Harkey says residents next to the trail have paid as much as $30,000 more for their property than they would pay for similar houses across the street because of the ability to keep animals. The residents, he said, are “common, down-to-earth people. We’re more the pickup set than the Cadillac set.”

The horse trail--which runs from Long Beach to Whittier and beyond--runs through Norwalk between the San Gabriel River and a narrow strip of about 130 homes, most of which are located on the west side of Domart Street.

Harkey said his neighbors often stroll the trails on weekends, showing their children the various barnyard animals. “The kids get such a big kick out of our yard,” he said.

The couple--who say they have always wanted a hobby farm--keep turkeys, goats, chickens, rabbits, ducks, geese, a horse and a sheep on their 10,000-square-foot lot. “This is my vice,” Maria Harkey said. “Any money I spend, I spend it on my animals.”

The Harkeys were cited earlier this month for having a horse and a goat without an animal permit and maintaining a trash bin in full view.

“We thought we were getting picked on,” Ray Harkey said, adding that he thinks the city has embarked upon a strategy to eventually squeeze horses out of Norwalk.

‘You Nibble at Them’

“If they can knock everyone one at a time, there won’t be very much said. You don’t take everyone on at once. You nibble at them,” Harkey said. He said the city should do one mass mailing and have everybody on the street meet code requirements.

“Then they’ll all be raising hell at once,” he said.

To fight back, the Harkeys and others are discussing formation of a neighborhood group and possibly asking the council to protect their life style by loosening requirements in the horse zone.

“I think the city is trying to take too many liberties with our property,” Ray Harkey said. “I don’t see what’s so offensive about having horses and chickens.”

Leroy Baca, a Domart Street resident who recently was allowed to keep 10 out of 15 beehives in the horse zone, said he knows of many neighbors who keep animals without a permit.

“We don’t want to finger anybody else at all. We just want to be left alone,” said Baca, who also keeps chickens and rabbits.

Annexed Properties

Portions of the horse property in the city were annexed from the cities of Bellflower and Downey to make code enforcement easier. Because the backyards of the properties were in Bellflower and the front yards were in Norwalk, the strip of 19 acres annexed by Norwalk in 1982 was once referred to by city officials as a “no-man’s land.”

“There was all kinds of stuff in there causing neighbors problems,” Councilman Cecil N. Green said. “It’s something we had to do.”

Although long linked with horses, the back lots that were part of Bellflower before the annexation were zoned residential, Norwalk officials said. “The horses were there illegally,” Green said.

Norwalk, though, passed an ordinance two years ago creating the residential horse zone along the trail to help preserve the semi-rural atmosphere. The code allows owners who have at least 9,000 square feet to keep one horse per 4,000 square feet.

Green said he realizes that there are probably horses and other animals in the horse zone that are being kept without a permit, but the city is not going to cite every animal owner. “We’re not down there with a sledgehammer. We don’t want to strong-arm anybody,” Green said.

Green dismissed allegations that the city wants to do away with horses or other animals.

‘Protection’ for Neighbors

“People get perturbed when they get cited. They might not be able to keep 10 horses, but they’ll always be able to keep a horse,” Green said. The city needs a “protection for other neighbors. There are always requirements on anything you do.”

City officials said they notified residents in the horse zone in 1982 about the rules for animal permits. But Baca, who has lived on Domart since 1970, said he was never notified by the city either before or after the 1982 annexation that a permit was required to keep animals.

Baca said the city should enforce the “spirit of law rather than letter of law” by allowing residents to maintain their animals until a resident files a sworn complaint that could result in prosecution.

Residents say getting an animal permit is not always easy. For instance, Caryn Sanchez, another Domart Street resident, recently applied for an animal permit after the city received a complaint and sent a code enforcement officer to investigate. First, she and her husband, John, had to notify their neighbors about their request to keep two horses, three cats and one dog.

Also, the city staff told the Sanchezes that they must record a covenant to merge their two lots into a single parcel. The requirement--which would cost $10--may soon apply to all property owners who own two or more parcels next to each other. Most of the 130 homes in the city that are zoned for horses have split lots.

Anderson said the document would make property tax collection easier and prevent a property owner from selling lots separately. He added that the provision would allow the horse zone in the city to remain intact, since a property owner needs a minimum of 9,000 square feet to keep horses.

But John Sanchez questioned the provision at a Dec. 17 Planning Commission meeting, saying it is irrelevant to the animal permit, for which he has met the basic requirements. The Planning Commission continued the hearing to Jan. 14.

“This has really upset me. All we want to do is live in our house peacefully and have horses in the backyard,” Caryn Sanchez said.