MIRA MONTE : Ruling Delayed in Trail Easement Case

A Mira Monte man who has refused to pay Ventura County for the right to cross a bike path in front of his home had his day in court Thursday, but the judge hearing the case decided that further study was necessary before coming to a decision.

An official from the county Parks Department told Municipal Judge Herbert Curtis III that Earl Bebout, 84, is the only homeowner who has refused to pay $300 in back easement fees to cross the Ojai Valley Trail, which cut off 25 homeowners from California 33 when it was constructed in 1987.

The Board of Supervisors mandated the $100 easement fee and a $50 annual charge in 1988 to help the parks department finance upkeep on the 9.5-mile-long trail, Parks Manager Andrew Oshita said.

“The law reads that anyone who encroaches on county property has to obtain an easement to do so. That’s what we’re trying to do here,” Oshita said during an interview after the hearing.

Ann Davis, a Meiners Oaks resident who represented Bebout during the hearing, contends that the 30 years that Bebout has lived at his North Ventura Avenue home entitle him to prescriptive rights to the land.

“If you’ve been walking across that land all that time already, you can continue to do so by law. You have a prescriptive right to the land,” Davis said.

She also argued that the county could have illegally taken Bebout’s property from him by imposing a fee that he cannot pay.

But Oshita said the law about prescriptive land rights does not pertain to government or public-controlled land, and added that the rights are not transferable.

When Ventura County bought the property for the trail from the Southern Pacific railroad, any easements the company had granted ceased to exist, Oshita said.

Curtis is scheduled to release a written decision within 10 days.