Maury Freitas, who took the VC Sheriff’s substation through a dramatic switch into casino law enforcement and oversaw building of the new substation, is retiring from law enforcement after 30 years.
June 19 will be his last day here. His replacement will be Lt. Dave Herbert, who recently commanded the Fallbrook substation and comes to VC from a tour at the jail.
Freitas, who started quite young in law enforcement, is 51. His wife, Karen, also works for the Sheriff’s Dept. They have two children, Jessica, 11 and Michael, 14 and live in Vista.
“I’m retiring both to spend more time with my kids and because, with the benefits enhancements that the department now has, I will be able to utilize my sick leave to bring me up to a 30 year retirement.
“I’m really looking forward to spending more time with the kids. They are at an age where it’s going to be important. There’s no getting that time back.”
The assignment here is one of the best he has had during his 30 years, he says. “I noticed from the get go the cooperation of all of the districts. That’s what stands out most in my mind and understanding that there are places like VC. It was my first experience in this type of rural law enforcement.”
Almost four years has seen many changes here. “There’s a lot more homes going up, casinos springing up. The good thing about that is even though we have increased calls we have Rincon and Pala contracting for a deputy five days a week for each of them. That’s had an impact on the calls for service because you have deputies out there that are handling those duties.”
One thing that has struck Freitas is the diversity of the VC community. You have all of the diversities of Valley Center, the reservations, Pauma Valley and Palomar Mountain.”
He thinks that a key to VC’s success as a community is the “get involved” attitude of its residents, something that he has encouraged his deputies to emulate.
“I’ve told them the importance of belonging to service clubs and churches or sports, of giving something back to the community.”
He notes that 75% of the deputies in VC live in the VC area.
“What I would tell anyone is don’t just come home and go to work. Get involved. In the long run that’s what will keep Valley Center, Valley Center.”
Freitas is going to transition slowly out his community involvement. He is slated to be president of the VC Kiwanis Club beginning in November. “It’s probably the best way to wean myself,” he says.
He still gets a thrill when he comes to the top of the VC grade and sees the valley spread before him. “It’s nice to know that you’re here and it’s a great view and I’ve never gotten tired of that view.”
When he first came to VC what really helped him was having a longtime sergeant in the area, Don Continelli. “That set the case for getting involved in the community. That and belonging to the Kiwanis went a long ways to develop friendships and to hear about things that were small problems before they became big problems.”
Another way that has kept communications open is the quarterly VC cubed meetings that involve all of the honchos from the water district, school district, etc., etc.
“First it was Jeff Mulford who ran the meetings and now Gary Arant. He has continued to carry through that mission that lends itself towards what I call the ‘Valley Center’ way.”
Between 55-90 VC residents turned out Saturday for a town center workshop at the library. It was a discussion, not of zoning, not of General Plan 2020, but to craft a vision of what Valley Center’s beating heart should be.
County planner Howard Blackson led the discussion, which began with a presentation that focused on what a neighborhood is.
Blackson gave examples of cities that have “neighborhoods,” where people congregate around a walking radius.
Two regional examples are Julian, which has a town center built around its history and culture; and Ranch Santa Fe, which has a walking village built around its commercial center.
Blackson also discussed what a master-planned community is.
About half of the people jamming the library’s public room were very familiar with the planning process. But during the course of the four-hour discussion, people occasionally wandered in from the library and were drawn into the discussion. About 40 people in all participated in the break out groups.
To some, it seemed as though the purpose of the meeting was to wipe the slate clean and craft a vision that was unconnected with the existing realities of zoning and land use.
Others felt that it was the chance to create a clearer picture of how the town ought to grow, with design standards that have teeth.
County senior planner Curt Gonzales and four other planners acted as facilitators to the six groups, which were divided according to different aspects of planning:
• Defining neighborhoods, districts and town centers.
• Connections, social and physical
• Existing land uses— Where are the civic and public areas? What are we missing and what do we need?
• Safety
• Beautiful places
• Southern Node
The groups had from five to ten people.
Each had blank sheets that were marked in terms of advantages or disadvantages and what the focus should be for each group.
One group had to move to another room, and, because the weather was nice, one moved outside.
Gary Wynn of Wynn Engineering, who showed up with a team of design consultants and a traffic engineer, apparently expecting to make a presentation on the shopping center, had to allow that the meeting was somewhat different than what he expected.
Nevertheless he was positive about the meeting. “It was good community turnout and a lot of community input. I thought it was very well-attended and a lot of new ideas.”
Like some previous town meetings over the years, this one was something of a brainstorming session.
One participant told The Roadrunner, “It was a meeting I felt that I had attended before.”
When the break-out groups returned, the facilitators made presentations on what the groups had concluded.
At the end, Bill Lewis, the Del Mar architect who designed the concept of the Southern Node pedestrian development, along with Steve Flynn, president of Valley Center Country Town Property Owners Assn. began to make a presentation of their proposal.
They envision a walkable self-contained village of tree-lined roads, landscaped berms that will hide parking lots, walking and riding trails, and a lake in the middle of what is now Konyn Dairy.
Blackson stopped them from making a fullblown presentation, saying it would be best to find out how their proposal fits in with General Plan 2020.
One major piece that will be missing from this picture is the Village @ Valley Center shopping center.
One participant, Phil Geddes pointed out that the market and center don’t fit the concepts that had been discussed.
“We can’t do anything about that,” said Blackson.
Planning Group member Rich Rudolf said there is a 12 page report from the planning group about the shopping center that Blackson was ignoring.
Geddes added, “You’re locking the barn door after the barn’s bolted.”
Later Blackson told The Roadrunner, “The only thing we can do is support the existing design guidelines.” The shopping center is coming under the existing general plan rules, rather than the ones that are up for change.”
He added that the design guidelines, written a dozen years ago, are “pretty good,” and should be supported with stronger code enforcement as well as incorporated into the community plan.
What are some suggestions that came out of the proceedings?
• To continue to have two town centers.
• To put a regional park on the land across the street from VC Community Hall.
• To preserve the Harvest Farms area as a neighborhood-oriented commercial area.
• To orient the northern village toward local patronage and the southern node towards visitors, like Julian.
• To have a viable town rather than a strip that has room for small businesses on a human scale.
• To craft codes that draw out positive aspects of the southern node.
According to Blackson, “The people in my opinion were saying that they saw this as an opportunity to create a center, but I won’t say that we came up with a specific type of center or place. We came up with more opportunities than what we thought. I guess what we generated were choices and opportunities. They want variety and a human scale rather than one size fits all.”
Some comments from participants:
Sandy Smith (a member of the planning group): “It was good variety of people. Some folks who had been involved in GP 2020 and a lot new folks. I thought the County did a nice job of facilitating and finding out what the people in the meeting are thinking about what the town should be. It is really early in the process. There was a lot of agreement about keeping the rural atmosphere and not letting the cookie cutter approach change the town.”
She added, “I think the timing in conjunction with 2020 is the key. Now that we’ve started the discussion of villages, we can really dig into that a little more.”
Andy Washburn (planning group member): “I think a lot of people learned a lot. There was a lot of sharing of information, although people try to keep up on community affairs they don’t know a lot that goes on. By participating they do understand some of the technology and what is possible and what is impossible.
“Often at these forums people are upset about right now. That’s not planning. We were trying to talk about of the many Valley Centers and which ones do we want to move towards?
“Will this have any giant impact on the Board of Supervisors, no.”
Philip Geddes (chairman of the VC Design Review Board): “It’s wonderful to have a group of citizens come together like that. The ideas expressed have all been coming out over a period of several years now. To see these take form is a great thing. The focus of this group was what should VC look like. They weren’t going to get into zoning or density, they were going into what an informed group of the community wants.
“The meeting was one of appearance and feel rather than zoning—The most contribution from this came from the planning group people who were there, notably Sandy Smith and Carol Prime. It was upsetting to see that something as basic as the new market was off-limits to this discussion.”
* * *
Blackson anticipates collating the comments from the public and putting them into a report that will either be presented to the planning group in July or August.
They hope to apply the information to a zoning ordinance crafted specifically for VC.
A diesel and solvent spill eight miles long shut down Hwy 76 from Palomar Mountain to Harrah’s Rincon Casino for most of the morning Monday.
According to Sgt. George Griffith, of the California Highway Patrol’s Temecula office, the investigation is ongoing to determine who was responsible and whether it was done on purpose.
“Perhaps a tank ruptured or a valve was left open. Whoever it was drove for eight miles dumping this stuff on the roadway.
It took several hours for authorities to sweep the fuel off the road and deal with the toxic aspects of the spill.
“Red liquid” was reported on the westbound lanes of Hwy 76 at 2:36 a.m. Authorities were concerned because the substance was slippery.
By 4:30 a.m. Hwy 76 was closed at Lazy H and Valley Center Road was closed at Harrah’s.
Cleanup was complicated by the fog and at 4:43 a.m. California Dept. of Forestry took over command of the incident.
By 5:47 a.m. the roads were closed on Hwy 76 from Lazy H. to Rancho and Valley Center Road was closed from Hwy 76 to Harrah’s.
Traffic was restored on all roads by about 1 p.m.
A giant California grizzly bear has moved into its new permanent home, the Valley Center History Museum, and will go on public display for the first time at the museum’s public opening on Monday, June 23, at 12 noon.
For the past several months, the taxidermy mount of the 1,200 pound bear has been in storage or, as museum chairman Norman Syler states, “in hibernation.”
The 8-foot tall grizzly will become the centerpiece exhibition at the new museum which is located next to the County Library branch on Cole Grade Road.
Valley Center, one of San Diego County’s oldest communities, has had a connection to the bear since 1866 when the largest such grizzly in history was killed in the area later known as the town of Bear Valley.
Visitors to the museum, which will be free to all, will view a major educational exhibit and learn about the largest and most powerful of the bears whose numbers once reached 10,000 in California. The grizzly has been extinct since 1924 and survives today mainly as a state symbol...and as a taxidermy mount.
It took half-a-dozen men to transport the grizzly into the museum building. The moving team was led by Dean Garcia, a Cemetery District board member who provided the appropriate moving gear so as not to damage the grizzly. He was assisted by museum Board members Don Bowen, Bill Hutchings and Bob Lerner.
The original 2,200-pound Bear Valley grizzly remained in Valley Center until about 1900 when it was sold to a buyer in the south. Efforts to locate the original bear have been unsuccessful. The bear to be displayed is about 100 years old and originally was owned by the San Diego Natural History Museum. It was moved to the Escondido Historical Society in 1992 which maintained the animal until it was donated to Valley Center.
For more information on the museum or the history of the grizzly, visit www.valleycenterhistory.org.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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