Little Ranches Riders Want Access To Horse Trails

Equestrians in Wellington’s Little Ranches neighborhood are asking for a fair share of financing to improve their community’s trail system, which they contend has fallen victim to recent road paving and drainage improvements.

Residents of the isolated Wellington enclave off Southern Blvd. are also asking that a quarter-acre slice of land sold to a private owner, which had been used by Little Ranches riders to access the Wellington trail system, be returned to public use.

Larry Wallace, a 17-year resident and president of the Little Ranches homeowners’ association, made a presentation to the Wellington Village Council last month about the problems riders have faced with the paving of roads that were once riding trails.

“We do have a lot of residents who care deeply for what we have and preserving what we have, and improving on that,” Wallace said at the Aug. 12 meeting.

The Little Ranches HOA, which incorporated in 1974, conducted a series of planning workshops in 2002 at the recommendation of village officials on what to do to develop an overlay to preserve the rural, equestrian characteristics of the community. At the time, Little Ranches was adopted into Wellington’s equestrian overlay, even though it is not near the larger southern Wellington equestrian areas.

Wallace said horses were once a common sight on the roads of Little Ranches.

“Those roads were, in fact, the trail system of Little Ranches,” he said. “In 2004, when we had the roads paved, a substandard material was used and it created a surface that was rough and unstable for the horses. Most of the riders stopped riding their horses on the roads and started looking for other trails.”

At about that time, Wellington’s equestrian trail master plan was developed, which included portions of Little Ranches, although an official connection was never made to the larger Wellington trail system.

When he was elected president of the HOA in February, Wallace said he asked residents about their concerns, and the lack of riding trails came up.

He said the road paving and drainage improvements have been welcome, but they were made without regard to the trail system.

“In improving the swales, in some places they are now where the trails used to be or were designated,” Wallace said, adding that there have been some serious accidents. “Lots of times, riders and vehicular traffic share the same right of way.”

Wallace submitted proposals for trail improvements, adding that he has discussed them with Wellington Projects Manager Mike O’Dell, who helped explain the approval process.

O’Dell currently has an equestrian trail master plan under review by the Equestrian Preserve Committee, but no connections to Little Ranches currently appear in it.

“I think this needs immediate attention,” Wallace said. “I think it has been going on for so long and no one has really brought it to the forefront.”

For a short-term solution, he asked that some funding designated for trail improvements be directed to Little Ranches.

“We feel neglected in this respect,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve gotten anywhere near the attention with the equestrian element that other parts of the preserve have.”

Wallace said that access to the overall trail system is one of the big issues that Little Ranches riders have, explaining that an adjacent FPL substation is not passable on horseback. He asked the council to use its influence to persuade FPL to improve the area.

Wallace said other easements would require discussion with property owners, and also pointed out that there is a small parcel within Little Ranches near Cindy Lane that sold six years ago at a tax auction for less than $4,000.

“It was originally platted as an open space and recreation area, and so far, our research has shown that the sale is legal, but we’re still looking into that,” he said, explaining that one resident who is an attorney developed a statement of facts about the property.

He said the parcel had been used for 35 years for access, but the current owner blocked access in an apparent attempt to sell the property to the village at a profit.

“It’s less than a quarter of an acre and it’s only about 50 feet wide, so it’s really unusable for anything else,” Wallace said. “We feel that it was an oversight of the village to allow this parcel to be sold as it was and would like the village to do whatever is necessary to regain control of this parcel and return it to its original designated purpose as open recreational space.”

In the longer term, he said Little Ranches equestrians would like to be connected safely to the existing trail system.

“I would like to see Little Ranches riders have a safe place to ride,” he said, adding that the village should develop a policy preventing future closures.

Vice Mayor John Greene agreed that Little Ranches trails have been neglected.

“It’s obvious that you don’t get the attention that some of the other communities get,” he said. “I think it’s unfair. I don’t understand why this little sliver was ever let go by the village.”

Village Manager Paul Schofield said the land was never owned by the village but is one of several pieces of property that had been dedicated to the Acme Improvement District for future roadways and were ultimately sold as parts of other parcels.

Schofield said the village has spent more than $400,000 over the last three years in Little Ranches for road and drainage improvements, but nothing on trail improvements.

“We are trying to figure out how to do a trail system that actually connects, and it would be good to get that little tailpiece off of Cindy Lane,” he said, adding that an appraisal has not been done on the property but that a title search is underway.

On Tuesday, Schofield told the Town-Crier that the property is under review by legal staff, as well as the Equestrian Preserve Committee.