Tuesday, April 21, 1998 | 9:42 a.m.
Hostilities that have run loose over a horse ranch in northwest Las Vegas for the past five years may finally have been corralled.
Sagebrush Ranch owner Jacque Fitzgerald, the target of numerous complaints from neighbors and hefty fines from Clark County, has obtained a Bureau of Land Management commercial recreation use permit to operate her business on a two-acre plot west of Ann Road.
The BLM permit enables Fitzgerald to rent and board horses on government land, as well as conduct trail rides and riding classes. In a broader sense, the slip of paper could spell the end of long-festering tensions between the feisty ranch owner and residents who contend she has harmed the quality of life in their well-manicured neighborhood.
"I just feel so grateful that I did get this (permit)," Fitzgerald said. "When life slams a door in your face, it opens two more if you keep the right attitude."
Her former neighbors counter that Fitzgerald has shown anything but the right attitude in recent years. They maintain that at the old location of her ranch, near Durango Drive and Lone Mountain Road, she blatantly ignored the scope of her livery stable license, which covers only the renting and boarding of horses.
Residents grumbled that she offered trail rides and lessons while keeping as many as 60 horses on her two-acre ranch and other properties, far above the number allowed under a county livery license. They complained about malnourished horses, odors created by the buildup of manure on her lots, illegal dumping and scores of children running around unsupervised.
A barrage of county citations against the Sagebrush prompted District Court Judge Nancy Becker to order Fitzgerald to cease offering trail rides and classes last spring. In June, Fitzgerald was hit with $1,000 in fines and 120 hours of community service for continuing to overstep her license. Becker sentenced her to 24 hours in jail on similar violations earlier this year.
Legal fees and diminished business recently forced Fitzgerald to file for bankruptcy, and creditors foreclosed on her ranch and home in February. After boarding her horses for a month on other properties in the area, she received the BLM permit two weeks ago.
The Sagebrush's relocation to BLM land comes as a relief to Fitzgerald's erstwhile neighbors, who insist the ranch has hurt their property values. At least two residents were unable to sell their homes because prospective buyers would scurry away after catching a whiff of the ranch's manure piles, according to Connie Pye, who lives three blocks from Fitzgerald's old property at Riley Street and Verde Way.
"It's really quieted down with her gone from the neighborhood," Pye said. "The traffic is down, you don't hear constant screaming from kids, the manure smell is down, there aren't as many flies."
Added Lorena Sherman, who moved to the neighborhood six years ago: "All we're trying to do is protect what we have. That's not easy when you're living down the street from a pig sty."
Tucked behind a knob of jagged rock in the foothills of the Spring Mountains, the Sagebrush's new locale is well off the beaten path. A half mile past where Ann Road's blacktop runs out, about two dozen horses milled around inside a holding pen on a recent weekday. A worker pulled saddles from a small storage shed, the lone structure on the property, while two young girls took turns mounting horses.
It's modest, but for Fitzgerald, it feels like paradise.
"I'm just trying to get my life together," said Fitzgerald, 49, who cannot live on the land and is staying with friends in the city. "I've been beat up pretty bad and I don't want anything to happen to my business up there."
Under the one-year BLM permit, Fitzgerald is offering trail rides in the mountains and classes for children and adults; so far, business has been steady. Bureau officials will check on the ranch and its horses regularly, and reserve the right to cancel the license. The BLM has granted permits to four other horse-riding operations, charging $75 a year or 3 percent of each ranch's gross receipts, whichever is higher.
While admitting "I haven't been perfect," Fitzgerald remains bitter about the ranch feud, which she blames on a handful of residents obsessed with driving her out of business.
Fitzgerald said she spent thousands putting up fences, planting trees and making other improvements to the Sagebrush to comply with the county code, and denied that kids were left unattended during classes. But alluding to an outbreak of suburban class warfare, she said no matter what her efforts, some neighbors could never accept a down-home ranch in an upscale neighborhood.
"I am absolutely floored that there could be so much evilness in people," said Fitzgerald, who was on the verge of moving to Phoenix when she heard from the BLM.
Residents scoff at her claims of innocence, arguing that Fitzgerald displayed scant regard for them and hid behind an I-was-here-first defense. In response to her charge that she's the victim of anti-equine sentiments, they point out that several homeowners in the area board and ride horses on their property. Only one -- Fitzgerald -- had to be bridled by the county.
"We're tired of being called the bad guys," said Alexander Fiona, who came to the neighborhood in 1994. "How can you be harassing someone who's breaking the law every day? All we wanted her to do was follow the law. If she followed the law, no one would've bothered her whatsoever."
As much as Fitzgerald frets about retaliation, residents worry that, after prodding the county for years to rein her in, she still might return to the neighborhood. In addition to keeping some of her horses on a friend's lot across the street from Pye's house, Fitzgerald may rent her old ranch back from its new owners to board other horses, according to her attorney, Bob Kossack.
Whether that will be possible depends on what happens to Fitzgerald's appeal of the injunction Becker handed down last March. The case has moved into settlement discussions between Fitzgerald and the county; the two parties will try to hammer out whether she has a right to lease the property. Should those efforts stall, the Nevada Supreme Court will review the case. The outcome will have no impact on the BLM permit.
Regardless of her appeal's progress, Fitzgerald is due in Las Vegas Municipal Court Monday on two charges of leaving animals without adequate care and another count of littering. The misdemeanor offenses each carry a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Unfazed by the latest hiccup of litigation, Fitzgerald intends to ride on. She will hold a grand opening for the Sagebrush in three weeks, and believes her customers will provide the sharpest retort to her critics.
"My best revenge is success ...," she said. "This shouldn't happen to hard-working Americans."
Which is precisely the opinion articulated by her one-time neighbors, who are unlikely to round up a welcoming committee if Fitzgerald returns to her former home.
"If she does come back, fine, pay your bills and take care of your horses," Pye said. "She lives in a community. She has to do the same as we do."
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