Developers of the Harmony Grove Village South housing project got a big win Friday from the San Diego County Planning Commission.
The five-member commission unanimously approved the controversial 453-home development which includes single- and multi-family homes. Nearby residents worry that it would make it harder to evacuate during a wildfire.
“If you look at our community, half the homes in that community have burnt to the ground previously,” Harmony Grove resident Jonathan Dummer said. His family's home burned in the Del Dios Fire.
The problem with the development, he said, is that there is only one way in and out.
“They are forgetting to put in a secondary exit. We live in a community that has been through many fires," Dummer said. "I have been through three fires since I've lived out there. And each of those fires came fast and it burned hot.”
The area experienced several wildfires in the past 30 years, including the Harmony Grove Fire in 1996, Del Dios Fire in 1997 and Cocos Fire in 2014.
JP Theberge with the Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council said the last time a fire broke out in the area, it took more than an hour to evacuate. With the added development, consultants told him the evacuation would take longer.
“The experts that we've hired and that we've consulted with ... he said that it would take seven hours to get people down a one-and-a-half mile road to safety. Seven hours!” Theberge said.
The development was originally approved in 2018, but residents sued, saying it violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The San Diego County Board of Supervisors rescinded that approval in 2022 after a trial court sided with residents.
The developers appealed the decision. An appeals court said only part of the environmental impact report needed to be adjusted. On Friday, the Planning Commission was only looking at whether the project conforms with CEQA and to certify the environmental impact report.
Developers said they’ve mitigated the fire danger by proposing to expand a bridge that crosses Escondido Creek into multiple lanes. Residents said that’s not enough.
“Please give us an escape route and we’ll back off," Theberge said. "That’s it. But they haven’t offered us that."
In a statement to KPBS, Harmony Grove Village South managing partner David Kovach said that’s a baseless scare tactic that’s “been disproved time and again by fire, law enforcement and evacuation experts, County government, and the California appellate court.”
The project now heads to the Board of Supervisors for approval. That's expected to happen on Oct. 1.
