The financial plan
Restoration funded up front by private capital; operations funded by boarding and programs, with reserves held for maintenance.
The plan is built to be boring in the best sense: predictable recurring revenue from boarding, supplemented by lessons, trail rides, rehabilitation support, and events — with capital repairs paid for before they are needed rather than deferred into the next generation. The operating family commits $200,000 of private capital and invites the City to match it dollar for dollar: equal partners in the rebuild.
Boarding is priced at community rates and still covers daily operations because the operating team is local, hands-on, and small. Program revenue funds the public-benefit activity that does not pay for itself: field trips, the petting zoo, and open community days.
A maintenance reserve is funded annually from operations. That reserve is what prevents this site from ever arriving back at the condition it is in today.
Where the money comes from
Stabilized Year 3, annual.
Boarding, standard and premium box stalls
$471,000
Riding lessons
$29,700
Trail rides
$30,600
Horsemanship classes and first-time owner program
$14,400
Camps and clinics
$18,000
Private events and parties (pavilion rentals)
$20,400
Film and photo production location days
$18,000
Total stabilized gross
approximately $600,000
Chatsworth's film heritage is not just history: Stoney Point remains a working location, and production days are priced into the plan.
How the City earns
Proposed category rent rates, years 3–6: boarding 4%; lessons, classes, camps, and trails 5%; private events and parties 10%; filming and production 10%. That comes to roughly $27,000 in the first stabilized year, about 4.5% of gross, growing with revenue each year.
Over the 20-year term the City receives an estimated $675,000 in rent — and because every improvement becomes City property, it also owns the full $400,000 rebuild at the end. During the 24-month construction period the City receives a fixed license fee of $1,500 per month while private capital rebuilds the site. From year 7, a Minimum Annual Guarantee protects the City at 80% of demonstrated rent. Every category of gross receipts is reported to the Department monthly.
How the operating family earns
The ranch manager's salary is inside the operating expenses, like every other wage on the crew of five. After roughly $518,000 in fully loaded annual expenses — feed, payroll, insurance, utilities, manure removal, maintenance, and an annual maintenance reserve funded before anything else — the operation earns about $85,000 in a stabilized year, a 14% margin, at the top of what a boarding-anchored business honestly achieves.
That income repays the family's $200,000 investment over the life of the term. Nobody gets rich here. That is the point: the plan is built to keep a family ranch running for twenty years, not to maximize extraction from public land.
Sources and uses
- Private capital of $200,000 committed by the operating family, matching the City's investment dollar for dollar
- Owner-supplied construction labor and equipment reducing hard costs
- City participation limited to core site infrastructure and cleanup
- Phase 1 uses: water, drainage, footing, fencing, shade, wash racks, restrooms
- Phase 2 uses: arena finishing, round pen, turn-outs, petting zoo, public areas
- Operating revenue: boarding, lessons, trails, classes, camps, private events, and film production
- Public-benefit programming funded from operating revenue, not grants
- Annual maintenance reserve funded before distributions
