Equine Home of Rose Bowl Riders to be Sold

Pasadena--The land used by the Rose Bowl Riders for the past 55 years is to be sold by the Metropolitan Water District. Please send letters of support to preserve this land in perpetuity. For more information, please contact Carol Ford by email at president@vhoa.org or Emily Stork, Vice President of the Rose Bowl Riders by email at emilystork@yahoo.com.

Letter by Emily Stork:

Mr. Dennis Underwood, CEO

Metropolitan Water District

P.O. Box 54153, Los Angeles, CA 90054-0153

We recently learned that the Metropolitan Water District is planning to sell as surplus property thirty acres of land owned by Metropolitan in Pasadena’s Hahamongna Watershed Park. The land has been home to Rose Bowl Riders, a family-oriented equestrian club, since 1950 and Tom Sawyer Camp since the 1970s.

No matter which city or agency buys the property, the pressure to develop this beautiful oak woodland parcel will be great. We urge Metropolitan to sell the property subject to a conservation easement preserving the land in perpetuity for parks and open space. If a potential buyer states that they want to purchase the property for such purposes, then they should have no problem with agreeing to such an easement. Despite the property’s current zoning as open space, city zoning regulations can be changed.

Rose Bowl Riders, which has been on the property for 55 years, is a much-loved part of the equestrian heritage of Altadena and La Canada Flintridge. We ask that Metropolitan include in the sale deed a condition that the 12 acre Rose Riders property be dedicated in perpetuity to equestrian purposes. Pasadena, should they purchase the property, has pledged not to evict Rose Bowl Riders so they should have no objection to such a restriction. Recently South Pasadena protected equestrian uses in perpetuity at San Pascual Stables on city-owned land after a huge outpouring of support by the entire greater Los Angeles equestrian community. In Hahamongna, Metropolitan has the power to protect, not only an irreplaceable piece of property, but also the equestrian community of the Arroyo which requires trails and open space to survive and is under constant threat from the pressures of development.

The property is ideally suited for equestrian uses because it sits at the hub of the regional network of trails in Altadena, Pasadena, La Canada Flintridge and the Angeles National Forest and forms the eastern edge of the Rim of the Valley Trail system. A trail belonging to Los Angeles County runs across the property and we ask that you protect this trail with a condition in the sale deed. We also ask that you not require the removal of the U.S. Forest Service campus at a cost to the taxpayer of over $1,000,000. These buildings could be used instead for a nature center or a Rim of the Valley trail headquarters.

Thank you in advance for your responsiveness to our concerns.