Valley Center’s biggest event of the year is headed your way this week. This year it includes the all new Bulls & Barrels Rodeo.
Saturday, thousands of visitors and loyal Valleyites are expected to line Valley Center Road to watch the annual parade, which has over 140 entrants. Various announcers will be stationed along VC Road to provide a running commentary of the fun.
As always, a bright sunny day, with no clouds, has been ordered by the Chamber of Commerce.
Leading the parade will be 9/11 survivor Joy Shepard and VC Citizen of the Year, Don Martin.
The parade will include the antics of the Al Bahr Shriners and their Tin Lizzies, many local riding and walking units representing groups such as GOP Republican Women and the Dos Valles Garden Club, and the 1902 horse drawn steamer (fire engine) in honor of the VC Firefighters Assn.
The honorary mayor’s showdown is at 5 p.m. at VC Community Hall. Will the winner be “The Man in Black,” Tom Bumgardner of the Chamber, or Renee Bierle of the Kiwanis, relying on “brains, beauty and youth?” The number of votes (i.e. money) they collected will be the deciding factor.
First thing Saturday and Sunday, two different groups will satisfy your craving for pancakes.
Saturday Rotary will serve pancakes from 7-10 a.m. at Old Towne Center.
Sunday the VC Lions Club will serve pancakes at Bates Nut Farm from 8-11 a.m.
The Bulls & Barrels Rodeo scheduled is Friday and Saturday nights. Friday the gates open at 5 p.m., and the rodeo starts at 7 p.m. Saturday there’s cow chip bingo at 2 p.m. with the rodeo at 4 p.m.
Live entertainment from bands The Saltlickers, The Killin’ Time Band, the Working Cowboy Band and the Big River Band will keep your toes tapping all weekend. Of particular interest will be Country/Swing fusion concert provided by the Working Cowboy Band joined by the Buck Shots, a five piece band comprised of members of the Western Swing Hall of Fame.
Sponsor for live entertainment is Valley View Casino. Sponsor of the rodeo is Harrah’s Rincon Casino and Resort.
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Be sure to visit your mailbox and pick up the complete guide to Western Days and the rodeo, produced by The Roadrunner. These guides will be also be handed out during the parade.
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The parade begins at 10 a.m. and runs along Valley Center Road, beginning at Cole Grade and ending at Old Road.
The parade lasts about two hours. Once the parade is over, it’s time to make your way to VC Community Center for all the festivities.
Road Closures
From 9:30 a.m. till the end of the parade the following area is closed to traffic - Valley Center Road from Woods Valley Road (south); Lilac (west to Betsworth); Cole Grade Road (east) & then to Fruitvale (north). All streets, private roads and driveways along the parade route are also closed.
Detours
Suggested detours are:
Northbound - Woods Valley east (right) from Valley Center Road to Lake Wohlford Road. Then north (left) on Lake Wohlford to Valley Center Road. West (left) on Valley Center Road to Mactan Road. Mactan north (right) to Fruitvale Road. Fruitvale Road west (left) to Cole Grade Road, north (right) on Cole Grade which will connect with the 76 in Pauma Valley.
Southbound - Cole Grade Road to Fruitvale Road, east (left) on Fruitvale to Mactan. Mactan south (right) to Valley Center Road. Valley Center Road east (left) to Lake Wohlford Road. Lake Wohlford Road south (right) to Woods Valley Road. Woods Valley Road (right) to Valley Center Road, or continue down Lake Wohlford Road, past the Lake to intersection of Valley Center Road at the bottom of the grade.
By DAVID ROSS
If more Valleyites had known their particular ox was being gored, more might have attended Monday’s unveiling of the County’s “working copy” of the GP 2020 land use map for VC.
Paradise Mountain and Lilac are most impacted by the new map, with many properties changed from four acre minimum to 20 acre minimum.
The map (one of 24 in the county) is only a draft, and not set in stone, county staffers insist.
VC planning group Chairman Larry Glavinic told The Roadrunner Tuesday, he was disappointed at the low turnout for the middle school meeting, (around 60).
“It was under-attended for the impacts,” he said. He criticized the County Dept. of Planning & Land Use for providing a blueprint, but “not providing tools to implement, like lot area averaging. Until they do that I don’t see any reason to change anything.”
Glavinic urges residents to “Provide your impact early and often.”
Senior Planner Curt Gonzales of DPLU explained how they came up with the map and took public comments.
Merchants of the southern node of VC’s Country Town asked not to have their section “abandoned.”
Champions of open space asked that wildlife corridors and open space be preserved.
Farmers asked not to be downzoned, which would prevent them from leaving their land to multiple descendants.
Many residents advocated expanding the roads to include an east west connector between Lilac and Cole Grade roads.
Gonzales invited the public to “Open House Reviews” to get a more intimate look at the map and ask questions about their own parcels, June 4, 3-7 p.m. and June 8, 10 a.m. noon, at VC Community Hall or May 28, 3-5 p.m., in the Pauma Room of the Pauma Valley Country Club.
You can call Curt Gonzales at 858-694-3696
Public comments on the map are due June 28. Send to 5201 Ruffin Road, Ste. B, San Diego, CA 92123-1666 Attn: GP 2020.
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Before turning over the presentation to Gonzales, Glavinic commented, “The most important thing is that this is only a working copy. Your feedback is going to be the most important thing of this important process,” he said.
Gonzales said, “You the public are what is going to make this general plan a success.”
He added, “The map you see is not cast in concrete. It is subject to change and it will change, based on your comments.”
May-June the map will undergo initial public review.
The open houses are a less formal way to talk to staff about a particular property. Property owners are asked to come with assessor property numbers.
During this review DPLU will continue to work with the interest group (representatives of environmental groups, business and ag) , which it has been working with all along and with the planning groups.
In July they will evaluate the comments they received.
In August and September they will revise the map and do a transportation analysis.
“Look at this map as a first iteration,” said Gonzales. (Note: iteration is current planning jargon for version, interpretation or rendering. It means literally: to repeat).
“During this iteration we’ll look at land use patterns. Next step will be to do an analysis for traffic,” he said.
Gonzales urged attending Board of Supervisors meetings. “We make recommendations to the Board. They are the elected representatives. Don’t feel that all is lost because staff did not champion your cause. You sometimes have to be your own advocate.”
You can also attach public comments to the environmental impact report of the plan that will be published, he said.
“Think of the general plan as a physical blueprint for the development. More detailed things are the subject of zoning,” he said.
The County General Plan has existed since the 1970s.
“San Diego is large county which has experienced wide growth, since the 70s. The General Plan needs to reflect different changes such as legal requirements, infrastructure and new planning philosophies such as Smart Growth, he said.
The existing general plan is not tied to density as is now required by law. It does not reflect carrying capacity of the land, including significant habitats etc., that have been identified since then.
Also, its ultimate buildout population is larger than what the County wants.
That “target population” was determined by polling individual communities. For example, VC planning group told the County it wanted VC’s ultimate population to be 33,000.
In the 2000 census population, there were 442,919 in the County’s unincorporated area.
The target for 2020 is 660,000
Existing planning capacity is 779,500.
This is the second time in recent years that the County has unveiled a land use map. The first time, in January of 2001, the Board of Supervisors told DPLU to go back to the drawing board. It was also told to establish and work with the “interest group” composed of various interests.
This group came up with concepts, such as the “village core” (the new term for what has been called Country Town). Staff applied those concepts to the Regional Structure Map and from there to the map that was at Monday’s meeting.
The regional categories that all communities will have within them are:
• Village Core
• Village
• Semi-Rural
• Rural
The County established subgroups of unelected volunteers to work on areas such as circulation, land use and public facilities.
Ivan Holler was put in charge of the revised program for the entire county. He was at Monday night’s meeting.
“I’m the one with the big target painted on my back,” he quipped.
Valley Center is 94 square miles. Its village core consists of a north and south node, with density that will range from 7.3 dwelling units/acre to 29 du/acre, with the highest density in the northern node.
The “village” going out from the Village Core will have a density of from 2 to 7.3 du/acre.
The semi-rural land around the village will range from one dwelling unit per acre to one du/10 acres, says the new map.
In the rural outlands density will go up to one unit per 20 acres (a change from the existing one unit per 10 acres.
The new map, Gonzales said, “protects significant habitat corridors of which VC has several important ones.”
The map reflects these corridors, reflects community input, recognizes established areas of population density and establishes a village core consistent with community draft goals and policies.
Gonzales was asked why more growth is focused on the northern Country Town.
He said some VC planners (he didn’t say which), recommended this focus, which includes the intersection of two major roads and the potential of a shopping center.
The existing Country Town area, Gonzales said, is too large, and the two nodes are separated by topographic constraints.
Audience comments included:
Kermit Kliewer, who has 121 acres of farmland: “My dilemma is I want to will five acres to each child. . . Now you’re trying to tell me I can’t divide my property into four parcels. . . It’s very disturbing.”
Allen Olson: “We need a roadway between Cole Grade and Lilac.”
Rick Landavazo, president of the Friends of Hellhole Preserve: We have only one major wildlife corridor in VC. We agree there should be low density development around the preserve to provide a buffer and protect vital wildlife corridors. It’s consistent with smart growth planning.” He and his supporters carried paper maple leafs which they waved.
Wayne Hilbig, of the Valley Center Country Town Property Owners Assn.: “We (land owners of the southern node) feel abandoned by this process and yet we are confident we can present how a southern node can benefit Valley Center. We who own the property want to benefit Valley Center We have 50 property owners in our group. It doesn’t matter how many are on each side, basic fairness can apply to both sides.”
George Barnes:“Why isn’t there some consideration for a better road for all the traffic that’s going to come in? We’re already getting into a gridlock situation.”
Jim Yerdon: “The Old Castle entrance into town is very neglected. You’re showing land use being pushed out because it’s part of the fringe when it’s actually against a freeway. It’s almost like it’s another community.’’
Keith Davis: “My concern is speed limits and fatalities. I’m concerned about the infrastructure. We haven’t had a road built since 1957. The speeds being talked about are too high. If we are gong to have that kind of traffic we need to have the financial support to have a safe community so people can get from once place to another.
Steve Flynn, president of VC Country Town Property Owners Assn. “We really believe the south node a very logical place to develop. There’s sewer, water and a new road that will be going through. The current plan with just a village core with no support is inadequate.”
Will Rogers: “We’re talking about 94 square miles and we have one core. If you really want a village why not have several cores?”
Barbara Olson: “I ask that you make the northern node a little smaller and leave the south node alone. Perhaps the County can buy some of the land in VC and open parks rather than take land away from people who have worked so hard. It’s fine to talk about the little critters, but property rights should be protected too.”
Judy Silverman: We also need a connector between VC Road and Cole Grade.”
Patsy Fritz: “Ag land should not be called ‘open space.’ My land is fenced. Ag is not a spectator sport. There should be a separate category for agriculture.”
Holler told the group, “We need to get the population distribution relatively fixed so we can run our traffic model. At that point you as a community will have some decisions to make. You got a couple of choices, either widen the roads, build new roads, or change the land use designation.”
By DAVID ROSS
Ground zero for traffic accidents in VC appears to be North Lake Wohlford Road and its intersections with Valley Center Road and Woods Valley Road, according to accident statistics discussed at Thursday’s fireboard meeting.
According to Fire Chief Kevin O’Leary, statistics compiled for the last 15 months show the following number of accidents and locations:
• Woods Valley Road & Valley Center Road (Eight accidents, five were injury).
• Cole Grade & Valley Center Road, (11 accidents, six were injury).
• Valley Center Road & North Lake Wohlford Road, (15 accidents, and seven injury).
• Woods Valley & North Lake Wohlford roads, (17 accidents, nine were injury.).
The chief noted that there were 83 incidents for April. This is significantly higher than the same period in 2000, he said.
“We want to see if we are seeing a trend towards more incidents,” said Director Dan Thornton.
O’Leary said the staff is working on putting together a chart of the past few years to see if the number of accident calls VC’s engine crews answer are trending upwards.
Platoon System
The board gave the green light to Chief O’Leary to try a “platoon system” on a trial basis. The reserves would be broken down into “platoons” of five firefighters, who would have a platoon leader. The platoon leaders would be responsible for reservists turning in paperwork associated with training.
“If we do want to do a platoon system, I have reservations. I would want to try it for a trial,” O’Leary told the board. “We’re not one hundred percent onboard but this is something we’d like you to see.”
A platoon system would not change the actual command structure of the reserve program, but would introduce a new level of reporting.
The idea came up the chain of command from the ranks, where there has been an ongoing discussion for some time on how the firefighters can police themselves on matters of training. It has the added advantage of streamlining things and reducing the paperwork for each supervising California Dept. of Forestry supervisor.
Pat Taylor, representing the VC Firefighters Assn., told the board why he likes the idea. “We police ourselves. With one advisor, we discuss what’s going out in our platoon. We say who’s delinquent. The CDF overhead only talks to one of us. It would lift a lot of weight off the CDF overhead, who would talk to five rather than 30 people.”
The CDF overhead, Capt. Kathy Holgate, would remain responsible for the reserve program.
Board Pres. Mel Schuler said that the current system, where one officer oversees 35 reservists (when they recruit enough firefighters to reach that goal) “doesn’t seem to be a monumentally large amount of people. . . . We have a contract with you guys to oversee things,” he said.
O’Leary elaborated: “We’re not giving them power or authority to discipline,” he said.
“They will remind people. It’s a big problem— I have twelve names on the deficiency list. That’s almost all of our reserve firefighters. They get busy with projects and they forget to turn the paperwork in. Maybe this will help.”
“Are we certain they are busy and not turning them in, or are they not being done?” asked Schuler.
Chris Douglas, a reserve firefighter in the audience, answered that question: “Everybody, including myself, works about four different jobs and sometimes the ball on filling out the paperwork gets dropped,” he said.
Director Patrick Garcia added that the proposal came up before in discussions with the chief and the firefighters’ association. “They felt this was the best way to ensure that everyone has an active part in discipline. I was told that all were in favor of this and it’s a clear path to success,” he said.
Director Dan Thornton commented, “I’m all for improving the system. I don’t see any problem with at least a trial system. I see it as administrative really, and I would leave it up to the chief to implement it and judge its merits and go from there.”
“I would like to see us try something to get these deficiencies down,” said O’Leary. “It’s ridiculous.”
Schuler said he was more concerned that the reservists were being trained than that the paperwork was being turned in. How is this verified? he asked.
Captain Holgate told the board, “This is an administrative problem and the platoon system would alleviate the problem. It’s a matter of five people calling their platoons and saying, ‘Did you get it done?’ I think the platoon system can help. The training is getting done. There are those who are not making the training and those individuals need to be dealt with.”
O’Leary said he didn’t see this as a policy decision, requiring the board’s permission. But he wanted to bring it to them so they would know what he was doing.
Director Stan Johnson commented, “Well, the military has been done on a platoon system for a hundred thousand years.”
Plans for funding the Woods Valley Ranch sewer without risking water district ratepayers’ money were approved Monday by the VC Municipal Water District Board.
Woods Valley Ranch, a 270 unit development that is currently building a golf course, will be sewered by a treatment plant that work recently began on.
The board Monday voted to set hearings for the collection of sewer standby fees and sewer service charges from the owners of the property.
These fees and service charges will be collected as part of the property taxes on the undeveloped property. These taxes will start out being paid solely by the developer, Newland Communities, Inc. Then as the parcels are sold, the new owners will be taxed.
Once houses are connected to the treatment plant, owners will be charged a service fee that could be as much as $100 a month, although it will be $50 a month for the first year.
Newland has not yet filed the final map for Woods Valley Ranch, which, in addition to the 270 units, will include a clubhouse that is expected to use 10 equivalent dwelling units (EDUs) of sewer capacity.
This method of funding via the property tax rolls is new for the water district. It ensures that ratepayers won’t be stuck if Newland or future builders default.
In essence, the process creates an assessment district, but instead of selling bonds to finance the sewer system it imposes standby fees.
“The idea was to make sure that this development didn’t cost the ratepayers any money at all,” commented Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant.
The sewer service charges and the standby fee will be the same amount: the total operating budget for the sewer divided by 280 units. The annual operating cost once buildout is complete is expected to be around $335,000, said Finance Director Jere Jarrell.
Hearings on the charges will be held on July 15, in accordance with Prop. 218. However, since Newland Communities, Inc. controls all the votes, the charges are likely to pass without dissension.
The first homes are expected to be built at the development in early 2003. The plant won’t be completed by that time but the effluent will go into a holding tank and be pumped out and transported to Moosa Treatment Plant in Circle R.
When a director asked if $100 a month for sewer wasn’t high, Jarrell said, “It’s an extremely high price. That is what we expect it to be. It’s going to cost $260,000 to operate that facility. If we reach full build-out at 2006 it could be as much as $120/month.”
He added, “We’ve tried to paint a picture that is as realistic as can be.”
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This was the last meeting of retiring finance director Jere Jarrell, who told the board: “Gentlemen, it’s time for me to go home. I need to go say goodbye to my staff before 4 o’clock. I’ll be watching what you do, but I’ll be doing it from Arizona.”
The Valley Roadrunner
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