MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Our top story on Midday Edition, people who want to comment on a draft environmental report on the proposed Lilac Hills Branch Development have until Monday to submit opinions. Usually, this kind of process and paperwork does not spark a lot of interest. But this proposed housing development in a semi rural area north of Escondido is causing some concern. Critics say it violates the terms of the county general plan, and strains the area's resources. Supporters say it brings sustainable development and much needed new housing. Joining me to discuss this are my guests, Steven Huchinson is secretary for the Valley Center Community Planning Committee. Nancy Layne is joining us, she is a resident of Valley Center, she is here as a representative of Accretive, the developer of the proposed Lilac Hills Ranch project. Welcome to the program. We invited officials with Accretive Development to join us, but they declined. Steven, let's start with basics. Where's the proposed site for the Lilac Hills development, and what is there now? STEVEN HUCHINSON: It is generally north of Gopher Canyon Road, and south of West Lilac Road. If you know the next will bridge, the very pretty bridge arched over I-15, it is from their south on the east side. It is about 608 acres. They are proposing 1746 building units, and 90,000 ft.≤ of commercial. Presently that site is 608 acres of agriculture. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: So there is no housing there at all? STEVEN HUCHINSON: Well, there's the occasional farmhouse. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I see, but no community development of any kind? STEVEN HUCHINSON: Absolutely not. It is at the very edge of Valley Center and Bonsall, and it crosses over those two planning areas. Both of those planning areas have community cores some distance from the site. Valley Center has North and South villages along the Valley Center Road. Bonsall has their center along Highway 76. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Nancy, Steven just said this development would bring quite a number of housing units to the area. Tell us a little bit more of what this development would consist of. NANCY LAYNE: It is a plan development that has a number of homes, walkable community and a lot of trails. It will have parks, community centers, and a sports center. It will have housing for the elderly, there is a care facility, a water reclamation plant that has storage. Anyone who is in Valley Center on the outskirts knows that is a welcome thing. It has a number of things. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: The Valley Center Community Planning Committee opposes this development. One of the main objections seems to be that the development flies in the face of new land-use rules in the county community plan. How would it violate those rules? STEVEN HUCHINSON: The general plan which was just adopted in August 2011 has very specific goals for sustainable development. What we are seeing here, this project is going to be put down in the middle of an agricultural area. It is actually a buffer between Bonsall and Valley Center. That constitutes leapfrog development. They will put urban densities, the average is 2.9 dwellings per acre. Actually, in some parts it will be even higher, over twenty dwelling units per acre. This development is going to be categorized as leapfrog. That is okay with the county, as long as it complies with leadership, energy, and neighborhood development, and it doesn't. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: One thing that struck me as I was reading through this, because obviously I am not as involved in any of this as both of you are, but Steven, this area seems to be zoned for about 110 housing units. This would bring about, what did you say? STEVEN HUCHINSON: 1746 new dwelling units. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: So that is quite a difference. STEVEN HUCHINSON: A huge difference, the difference between a downtown area like Escondido and someplace like Julian, the outskirts of Julian. It is dramatically different. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Didn't the county come up with a community plan after years of study? STEVEN HUCHINSON: Twelve years, $18.6 million of staff time, thousands of hours of volunteer effort, advanced planning, people working with community groups and leaders. It was a big effort, and to have it now just three years later, going by the boards, the only way this project can be put the way they want to put it is by amending the plan because it is just not qualifying. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Nancy, you are speaking on behalf of Accretive. Why did the developer choose this area that was zoned for only about 100 units, to build such a take project? NANCY LAYNE: I am actually speaking on behalf of myself. I'm talking about my interpretation or my feelings about this development, and I am by no means a representative of Accretive. I will tell you, I do know because I was on the planning board when this first came up. I know that the Accretive group did start buying this land before the final changes were made to the general plan. Additionally, it is not as if this is the only change in no changes will ever happen. There are actually 25 to 26 current changes to the general plan for the county right now. It is not completely unheard of to make changes or tweaks to a county plan. Again, they started this development before the plan was finalized and they had different zoning in that area. I've also say, part of what the county is looking for is development along major transportation routes. That is exactly what this is, it is a long the freeway. If you look along the north, Fallbrook, which is quite a bit away, they have developments along the freeway. They are putting in additional development and also the Palomar College augment, the new campus. I don't know how far along that is. Those two projects belong to Fallbrook, quite a distance away. This is not unheard of, and not unusual. This was planned a long time ago. Part of what we are looking at is a process that takes quite a while. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Nancy, the Accretive developers hand picked to to speak on behalf of this development. We told you that, didn't they tell the about as well? NANCY LAYNE: They asked me if I would be willing to talk to you to get the other side, one of the things that I had an issue with in the beginning was that this was presented as the developer against the community, and that the community is completely against it. That is not necessarily the case. I have lived in Valley Center, I'm actually a fourth-generation native San Diegan, and my family lives in Valley Center. My kids have grown up there, I know a lot of people in the community as well, and I was on the planning group, and some people do not completely definitely disapprove of this development. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: But Steven, the planning group is unanimous in its opposition? STEVEN HUCHINSON: Yes, we just voted on this on Monday. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: The developer calls this project sustainable growth. It promises to use green technology, and solar, and recycled water. With this tend to make the Lilac Hills project more acceptable? STEVEN HUCHINSON: No. One of the authors of LEED-ND, which is the standard that the county is using to decide whether or not the project is sustainable. Kaid Benfield wrote interesting critique of this project last summer, when it was first put out to the public for review. His opinion was that it does not matter how green that you build the houses or the commercial area. If it is out in the middle of the wrong site, it is still sprawl. He categorized Lilac Hills Ranch as a sprawl. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Nancy, let me go to your point, which is that you have been a longtime resident of this area and you have seen the needs that the area house. Are there now enough for more housing units in North county? Are the children of the people who live there now able to move, and get their own homes and stay in that area? NANCY LAYNE: That is actually part of the reason that I was first intrigued by this development, when I went and listened to a presentation about it. My kids have now graduated. The only real solution I have to scaling down and staying in the same community is to sell my house. I have a big house and big land, and my kids are gone, and I wanted something that would make it so I could live in the same community and not give up our friends, by community, my kids friends, and hopefully have them come back. My daughter was quite a bit younger at the time and said wow, that's a great place somewhere I would like to live. That really struck me, not many places exist like that. If someone wants to scale down the property, they do not have choices in Valley Center at all, and this one does. I also wanted to point out while everyone in the planning group has done studies as have I, none of us are experts. We are not engineers or land planners. To make statements that it does not fit or work, that is really just opinion, even just calling it sprawl is opinion. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Many real estate experts say that San Diego County's growing population needs new high density housing developments, and they have to be built somewhere, don't they, Steven? NANCY LAYNE: Right, and that is what the general plan was all about, to address the anticipated growth in the state of California. California assigned each county some portion of growth, and the counties came up with a general plan. San Diego County came up with this plan in 2011. It assigned increments of growth to all of the different areas of San Diego County, including unincorporated areas like those center. We are scheduled to grow at 102% from what we are today. We have planned for that growth, and the general and community plan that are part of that allow for that kind of growth. It will occur around the village core, along Valley Center Road between Cole Grade Road and the south end of Valley Center. There are several projects that are already been approved there. Butterfield Ranch was recently approved. Orchard Run will likely be redefined, but it was still in the South village. Kerry Garza is going to be developing the old Konyn Dairy. That will have high density housing, for a village core. The community development model of this plan says once you have the core defined, you feather out density from there to the edges of your community until you reach very low densities that are acceptable for agriculture and housing, and that sort of thing. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: The end of the comment period for the environmental impact draft report ends on Monday. What happens next? STEVEN HUCHINSON: The next step in the process is that the county staff will respond to all of the comments question by question. They will build a final environmental impact report that they will represent with a recommendation to the planning commission, the commission will review it, there will be one more chance to talk about the project and it will go to the Board of Supervisors for a final decision. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: It sound like a very long plan, a long process. NANCY LAYNE: It is a long process, one of the developments that he mentioned was Orchard Run. That property was in process for over twenty years. The planning group did nothing but stop, stop, stop, and delay. By the time it finally got approved, the developer would not speak to any member of the planning group, he really dislikes anybody in Valley Center, according to him, because he feels like he was so strong out over that development. My point in all of this, I want to do what is best for Valley Center and at least talk to developers and try to get the most that you can for those center, to help improve passenger. Developments they are talking about, I don't know if any road improvements, or improvements to the parks, schools, bond measures, or anything like that. They are smaller in nature, and because they have not planned for that, there may be roundabouts in that, but there are no road improvements. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I have to stop you there, it sounds like a long process which we will revisit on its way towards wherever it goes. Thank you both very much.
Submit A Comment
The period to review and comment on the draft revised environmental impact report ends on Monday, July 28.
Review the report here.
Comments can be emailed to: Mark.Slovick@sdcounty.ca.gov.
Comments can be mailed to: San Diego County Department of Planning and Land Use, 5201 Ruffin Road, San Diego, CA 92123.
People who want to comment on a draft environmental impact report on the proposed Lilac Hills Ranch development in North County have until Monday to submit their opinions.
Usually, this kind of process and paperwork doesn't spark much interest. But this proposed housing development, in a semi-rural area north of Escondido, is causing some concern.
Critics say it violates the terms of San Diego County's general plan and strains the area's resources.
Supporters say it brings sustainable development and much-needed new housing.
Accretive Investments Inc., developers of the proposed Lilac Hills Ranch, want to build more than 1,700 homes on 608 acres between West Lilac Road and Rodriguez Road.
Of the 1,700 homes between Valley Center and Bonsall, more than half would be single-family detached homes. The development also would include senior housing and a memory-care facility, a fire station, a kindergarten-to-eighth-grade school, parks, a water reclamation facility, community and senior centers, commercial space and a hotel.
The Valley Center Community Planning Group voted unanimously Monday to oppose the project.
"There are pages and pages of significant impacts of the project based on where they're locating it," said Steven Huchinson, who chairs the group's Lilac Hills Ranch Subcommittee. "Bottom line is, if the county wants to accommodate 5,000 people, there are probably many better places to do it than this location."
Nancy Layne, a Valley Center resident who developer Accretive chose to speak in support of the project, said she welcomes the development.
She said she believes the project will be built well and create a cohesive project. "This one has walking paths and a center for the elderly," Layne said.
She said she thinks of it as a place where her kids can live, and a place where she and her husband can live as they get older.
