By Stone Martindale Aug 19, 2008, 21:12 GMT
James Hetfield, co-founder of the heavy metal band Metallica has angered his Marin county neighbors in a big way.
The rocker's sectioned area for his new home and recording studio in the Marin hills has created a maelstrom of angry hikers, horse lovers and cyclists over a fenced off popular hiking trail that runs along his property.
Local station KTVU reports that Hetfield placed a barbed-wire fence on his property near San Rafael, cutting off a fire trail that has been open to public use for decades.
Equestrians use this trail too.
"Right now, it's horrible," one irate horse-loving neighbor told KTVU of the 10-foot barrier Hetfield has erected.
"It's like a prison. It's got coils of barbed wire. We can't go through; nobody can go through."
Hetfield - according to KTVU - will make a 14,000-square-foot home as well as a 6,000-square-foot studio, which also functioned as a caretaker's home, according to a 2002 Associated Press story.
So far only the studio has been built.
Hetfield also bought the adjunct Luiz Ranch – the property the fire trail runs through according to KTVU.
David Warner of Redhorse Constructors Inc. of San Rafael told a local paper that "vandalism" of signs and other property along the trail, prompted Hetfield to erect the fence.
"It is private property," Warner told the Marin Independent Journal. "There was some damage done by certain people. If people were cool, this would not be an issue."
County officials think the issue can be resolved.
"We realize and understand his concerns, and we respect those, but at the same time, we would like to find a way to maintain access," Ron Miska, deputy director of the county Parks and Open Space District, told the Marin Independent Journal. "I don't think the two are mutually exclusive."
KTVU notes the rich rocker "has been generous in the past," and has donated 400 acres for conservation easement to the state.
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