A controversial 453-unit housing improvement has been unanimously authorized by the San Diego County Planning Commission in Concord Grove, an unincorporated rural residential space in North County sandwiched between Escondido and San Marcos.
A number of neighbors spoke out on the assembly over the controversial proposal as a result of it doesn’t embody a secondary entry highway to flee wildfires.
They worry entrapment if a wildfire got here from the route of the one dead-end highway.
Winding approval
The mission, Harmony Grove Village South, had been earlier than the fee in 2018 and later authorized by the Board of Supervisors.
Nevertheless, CEQA litigation from the Sierra Membership, residents and different events had delayed development.
The board rescinded approval in 2022 after a trial court docket sided with residents. Nevertheless, a state appellate court docket then discovered all however one facet of the mission complied with CEQA.
The identical mission as in 2018 is now headed again earlier than the board for the third time, with photo voltaic panels and deed-restricted inexpensive housing added. Mission supervisor David Kovach expects to carry the proposal to the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 1.
Kovach, representing the developer, and housing advocates on the listening to stated Concord Grove Village South will handle San Diego’s housing disaster by including inventory to the lacking center.
The event contains single- and multi-family models. The developer has additionally received help from Local 89 by promising to make use of union labor for development.
Present residents of Concord Grove famous that dwelling within the car-dependent space will nonetheless be dear, even for these within the designated inexpensive housing. Many will not be capable of get hearth insurance coverage outdoors of the notoriously expensive California FAIR Plan because of being in a CAL FIRE mapped high-risk hearth zone.
Summer time Mild, whose home was the one one to outlive within the historic Concord Grove Spiritualist Affiliation throughout the Cocos Fire, warned new residents to finances $10,000 per yr for hearth insurance coverage.
Fireplace lure
Residents involved about future fires and evacuations on the dead-end highway the event is positioned on say that they hope the elected supervisors can be extra considerate about their choice.
They wished the developer to place in a secondary entry highway so residents would have a couple of route to go away relying on the route a fireplace travels.
Individuals who will stay previous the event on the dead-end highway worry that massive cash will steamroll their considerations about hearth security.
“The fact is that that this group doesn’t have a really expansive highway community. It’s only one predominant highway,” stated Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council vice chair JP Theberge in a cellphone name.
Within the 2014 Cocos Fireplace, which destroyed 30 houses in Concord Grove, that 1.5 mile highway to Escondido was gridlocked for greater than an hour in the course of the evacuation. Residents work collectively on brush abatement however are surrounded by 15,000 acres of open house.
Lots of extra vehicles would want to make use of that highway to evacuate if the event is completed. A advisor employed by residents, Tom Cova, a frontrunner within the nascent fire evacuation sciences, estimated it might take greater than seven hours for all residents to evacuate as soon as the event is occupied.
The appellate court docket dominated the hearth security and evacuation plans within the 2018 environmental impression report have been sufficient. County workers consulted with the Rancho Santa Fe hearth division and sheriff on hearth evacuation plans. No additional adjustments have been made to the mission proposal.
Rancho Santa Fe Fireplace Chief Dave McQuead stated on the listening to that within the evacuation plan, a 3rd lane on Nation Membership Drive may very well be substituted for the secondary egress. In that plan, two lanes of the dead-end highway can be utilized by evacuees whereas the third can be utilized by emergency autos.
McQuead additionally acknowledged that evacuation strategies have improved since 2014 because of evacuating zones as an alternative of squares, in addition to utilizing the Genasys app, which got here to prominence throughout this yr’s Palisades Fire, to speak with residents.
The Cocos Fireplace was not the primary hearth to hit the 110-year-old group, nor do residents consider it will likely be the final.
“This group wouldn’t exist with out a very intense deal with our hearth security,” Theberge stated.
