PROPERTY OWNER CALLS COUNTY NATURE TRAIL PLAN `EXTORTION'.

Byline: ALEX DOBUZINSKIS Staff Writer

CASTAIC -- When Karl Reinecker wanted a connection to the electric grid, he bargained with neighbors for easements and put up poles and wires along the bumpy dirt road leading to his Tapia Canyon house.

Now others have designs on that corridor -- with its private road that Reinecker drives on to his secluded house on a 12-acre property. Hikers, bikers and equestrians want to use the corridor for a nature trail.

County officials got involved, and put the corridor on a map of trails for which they one day plan to secure easements. Reinecker, 74, got a notice from the county, saying if he subdivides his property he could be forced to give up his portion of the road for a trail.

And he doesn't like it.

``It's not a trail -- that doesn't bother me,'' Reinecker said. ``It's the way the county is doing it. They're not doing it by eminent domain, they're doing it by extortion.''

The county has about 80 miles of trails in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. Last month, the Board of Supervisors voted to add miles of proposed trails to those already on the map, which would bring the total trail network to 191 miles if all the routes are secured.

County officials say their approach is fair because they rely on securing easements, instead of using eminent domain proceedings. As rural land gets built over, provisions are made to ensure trails are included in an increasingly urban landscape.

``We do not take trails against people's will,'' said Paul Novak, a deputy for county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. ``We work very closely to balance their right to develop their property with the public interest to develop and expand the trail network.''

From a deck looking down over the private road to his Spanish-style house, Reinecker showed the electricity poles he spent $80,000 to install along the road. He wonders how a trail could fit alongside the road, since a creek bed borders it.

And if the dirt road itself is turned into a trail, Reinecker and his neighbors would be barred from driving on it.

Reinecker has a spectacular view of nature from his backyard on an elevated plateau. The retired aerospace executive can sit in an outdoor arbor he calls a ``tea house'' and bird watch as scrub jays, California thrashers and hummingbirds fly by.

He has happily welcomed nature enthusiasts to his property, everyone from biologists looking for endangered birds to mountain bikers. Once, he even drove an injured biker to the hospital.

But he believes equestrians are involved in trying to get a trail through his property, and he is loath to let them ride on his part of the road.

``Since I found out they want to steal my land, I stop the equestrians,'' he said.

Meanwhile, over the hill from Reinecker's house, a developer plans to build clusters of high-end homes. He said he doesn't oppose that, knowing that progress is necessary.

Laura Hauser is chairwoman of the Santa Clarita Valley Trails Advisory Committee, a citizens' group that worked with the county to map out future trails.

``It's very exciting, because what it means for our trail enthusiasts and really for anyone here throughout our entire valley is that we now have adopted a plan that will connect all of our communities to each other,'' she said.

A primary means of securing proposed trails will be to get developers to allow the trails to run through their properties, officials said. It would be years before all the proposed trails are secured, and securing all the trails may be impossible.

In cases where a proposed trail runs through private property, the county will negotiate for an easement, said Larry Hensley, chief of planning for the Department of Parks and Recreation.

If the owner denies the easement, the matter drops. But if the owner wants to subdivide or seek a zoning change to build another house, the county will ask for a trail easement in return, officials said.

The process has confounded Reinecker, and earlier this month he sent a letter to Hensley asking for clarification. Reinecker ended the letter with a pointed question.

``And who's going to clean up after the horses?'' he wrote. ``I don't like flies, especially horse flies.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) The proposed horse and hiking trail areas on Karl Reinecker's property are in yellow on this map.

(2 -- color ran in SAC edition only) Karl Reinecker, who owns 12 acres of secluded property near Pitchess Honor Ranch, does not like the way the county is planning to put horse and hiking trails through his property.

(3) Deer check out the area on Karl Reinecker's property near Pitchess Honor Ranch. Reinecker is upset about the way the county is planning to put horse and hiking trails through his property.

David Crane/Staff Photographer