REGION: Riverside County drops appeal of Borel Road ruling

Riverside County has withdrawn its appeal of a court order reopening a lightly used gravel road on the south edge ofFrench Valley Airportthat leads to farms belonging to a Southwest County pioneering family.

The county formally abandoned its appeal on Aug. 7, according to Riverside County Superior Court documents.

“We thought the appeal was a waste of everybody’s time, and eventually we got the county to agree,” said Rick Friess, an Irvine attorney who represented the Borels. “There was never any real question but that Borel Road was a public road. It had been there forever.”

The dispute centered on one of French Valley’s oldest roads ---- one added to the county road system in May 1948.

And it stems from last decade’s expansion of the county-owned airport.

To pave the way to extend the runway to6,000 feet, the county purchased 32 acres from the Borel family for $2 million in 1999, records show.

The runway extension was completed in 2005.

The project triggered the need to shift Borel Road south of its original location, which is in line with the Borel Road traffic light on Winchester Road.

Shortly after the turn of the century, the county closed the portion of original Borel Road across the airport and built a looping section to the south.

That new, wide gravel road connects with the original segment of Borel east of the airport, and with Sky Canyon Drive off Murrieta Hot Springs Road.

But the county closed the realigned road in March 2011.

Borel Road was padlocked at two points: the east and west edges of the airport property line. The new road still crosses the airport property, but the southernmost part of it is in an area that is undeveloped.

The Borel family responded by filing a lawsuit, asserting that they intended for the road to remain open when they sold the property.

Annie Borel said the closure forced her, family members and neighbors to take a long, circuitous route into Murrieta and Temecula by way of Leon, Auld and Winchester roads. She said they also had to drive past the congested Southwest Justice Center area.

Also named as plaintiffs in the suit were her brother, Ray Borel, and father, Alexander A. Borel.

Borel Road provides direct, quick access to Murrieta Hot Springs and Winchester roads.

In January,Superior CourtCommissioner Pamela Thatcher sided with the Borels, finding the county closed the road illegally and ordering it reopened. Principal Deputy County Counsel Anita Willis said the county opened it in March.

In April, the county appealed.

More recently, the county was ordered to pay the Borel family $93,045 in attorney fees. In exchange for the county dropping its appeal, Friess said the Borels settled for $85,000.

According to a transcript of the January proceedings, the closure was sparked by an aviation safety concern. TheFederal Aviation Administrationrequested the county close the road and threatened to withhold future grants if it did not.

The runway extension was funded in part by FAA money.

However, Thatcher said the FAA request did not give the county license to close a public road without following required procedures set out in state law. Those procedures require public hearings and a finding by theBoard of Supervisors.

Neither, said Thatcher, did moving a road give the county authority to close it.

One of Southwest County’s pioneering families, the Borels have farmed French Valley for well more than a century, including land the airport, courthouse and jail sit on.

“There has been a long history of the Borels working together with the county of Riverside for the benefit of all residents,” Thatcher said. “They helped to establish the French Valley Airport. They helped to establish the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.”

Willis, the county attorney, said last month that the county is evaluating options, including the possibility of initiating public hearings to close Borel Road.

“But no final decision has been made,” she said in a telephone interview.

Friess said it would be hard for the county to demonstrate Borel Road is not needed, a required finding for closing a road.