By DAVID ROSS
The General Plan 2020 map, six years in the making, is headed for environmental review.
It is a process that had at least one false start which forced everything back to square one. But now GP2020, the grand scheme to rewrite the County General Plan from the bottom up (although in practice it has been from the top down) has produced a map. The Board of Supervisors endorsed it on June 16.
Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn made the motion to move the April 2004 baseline map to the environmental impact report stage. He added his own motion to have an alternative map that contains the objections of many land owners.
The board approved the following motion:
1. Accept the April 2004 Working Copy map for use as the baseline residential land use distribution for the preparation of the GP2020 Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
2. Evaluate pipeline projects in the Environmental Impact Report’s cumulative impact analysis to ensure impacts are included in the review.
3. Defer review of non-residential properties until an assessment is conducted for commercial and industrial land use within each community.
Horn’s added motion directed County planning staff to revise the map it submitted in April to take into account many property owners’ referrals and pleas that they had been unfairly downzoned.
This “Consensus Alternative Map,” will be studied at the same level as the baseline map, i.e., given the same weight as staff’s map during the EIR process.
During hearings before the Board of Supervisors, VC Planning Group Chairman Sandy Smith said that her group had three issues it wants addressed before it could support the map:
1) Equity mechanisms, i.e. some form of reimbursing property owners whose land values have been decreased by downzoning. Smith estimated that about one third of the land in VC will have its buildable density decreased. Most of this land is in the area outside of the Country Town, i.e, the business district.
2) The Villages—Staff has dramatically increased both the population and density of the areas of the Country Town, also known as the Villages. Right now about 500 people live there. The County map would increase this to 10,000 by the year 2020. The group hopes the Supervisors will override staff and reduce the population and density in the Villages.
Smith also stressed that the map imposes too much sudden growth on the central part of town, “too much, too soon.”
The group’s vice chairman, Andy Washburn, noted that there were no opposing votes when the planning group voted on this position.
“Our group doesn’t agree often, but it agreed on this,” he told The Roadrunner.
The final resolution of the Villages is still up in the air as County staff has drawn a “bubble” around it while the rest of GP2020 goes forward.
Staff and the planning group will work with community members on what these numbers should be.
Meantime the planning group has suggested that the County channel some of the growth it plans for Valley Center Road to the area near I-15 served by the Moosa Canyon treatment plant. That area already has sewer and roads, said Smith.
(3) Circulation- The VC group is concerned about the growing traffic on the few roads that serve the community, even after the widening of VC Road. County staff is still showing that Valley Center Road will have a service level of E & F (A is best), even after the road widening.
The planning group feels that the only option is additional intercommunity roads, and east west connections and connections to the freeway.
For that reason the VC group requested that the Board not support the request of the Hidden Meadows Sponsor group which wants to take Mountain Meadows Road off the list of circulation element roads.
The planning group supports connecting Mirar De Valle to Alps Way to provide VC residents with a path to I-15.
Larry Glavinic, also a member of the VC planning group, told the supervisors that they should do what they could to avoid a class action lawsuit and order staff to write an effective equity mechanism that would reimburse land owners who see their values cut by downzoning.
He added to Smith’s point about traffic, asserting that the fastest drive most motorists in VC will experience is from their driveway to the street. To alleviate this problem VC needs a new north-south route, he said.
Other planning group members added their comments about the GP2020 process so far.
James Yerdon told The Roadrunner, “I’m just glad that it’s moving forward.”
Craig Adams said that he thought the GP 2020 process has been “top down, rather than, bottom up,” and said that he can’t support it unless an equity mechanism is included.
Andy Washburn concluded, “I was actually encouraged by the extent to which it appeared that Supervisor Horn had listened to the concerns of the VC community. We certainly didn’t get everything we wanted but we got a few wins and I’m also glad that we’re engaged in the process.”
Vandalism by ten seniors the week of graduation will end up costing the school district $25,000 to repair.
However, according to an agreement whereby the district did not prosecute the young adults, most of whom were over 18, their families have agreed to pay for the repairs.
Asked whether the ex-students themselves would be paying for the damages, or just the parents, school Supt. Karen Jobe commented, “By golly, I sure hope they do! But I have no way to force it. I hope every child is out working eight hours a day with overtime to pay this off as soon as possible.”
Initial bids to replace the seven trees cut down with seven 48 inch boxed trees, are about $1000 a piece.
The cost to cut the concrete around each of the trees and replace it is a total of $6,000, said Mrs. Jobe.
The final item to be paid for is the replacement of a gate motor at the school bus barn. The vandals put a cable around the gate the night of their escapades. This caused the motor to burn out when school employees attempted to open the gate the next day.
Replacing the gate will cost $3000.
Interestingly, the district was able to identify the students as purchasing the cable from Home Depot. That store keeps pictures of customers who make purchases.
So far, the names of the students who did the vandalism has not been released, although one of them voluntarily wrote a letter of apology in this week’s edition. Ten of the students were not allowed to accept their diplomas at the VCHS graduation ceremony.
However, as the families will be reimbursing the district for the repairs, and those records may be available to the public, The Roadrunner intends to request the records under the state’s public records act (Government Code Section 6257).
Michael Crews Development presents a Fourth of July Celebration 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. on Sunday, July 4th at the Valley Center High School Football Stadium.
Join the festivities and see what Pyro Spectaculars of San Diego predicts will be the “Second largest fireworks display in North County!”
Fireworks begin promptly at 9 p.m. as the stadium lights dim and the live band offers America the Beautiful - a fitting culmination to an evening of fun set to begin at 5 p.m. with live music, games, and food.
The featured band, Breezin, will energize the crowd with pop, rock, country, and American tunes. Provided by Michael Crews Development, a large rock wall operated by the VCHS ASB, a 22’ inflatable slide and jumper operated by the VCHS Cheerleaders, and interactive games will be offered with a one time $1 donation to the Valley Center High School.
Have your face painted by Bethany Harris, a senior at VCHS, earning money to compete in the USA Wrestling Championships. Children of all ages are invited to participate in the egg toss, gunnysack, and three-legged races beginning at 6:15 p.m. VCHS Band will be selling refreshments such as cotton candy, kettle corn, hamburgers, bratwursts, and much more! Attendees are also welcome to bring a picnic to enjoy a home-cooked meal under the stars.
The Valley Center Rotary will guide you and your family through the school gates and remind you that alcohol and tobacco are forbidden on the school campus! Arrive early for suitable parking. For more information, call Michael Crews Development at 749-1919.
Property values in San Diego County last year shot up 10.35% in total assessed value according to County Assessor / Recorder / Clerk Gregory J. Smith. That was the highest increase since 1999.
But Valley Center property values, at least measured by the price of real estate, were in the stratosphere.
According to Brett Weeda of Coldwell Banker, Valley Center’s property values were 24% higher than last year.
“In 2003 there were 250 sales in VC. The least expensive was $215,000, the most expensive was $1,175,000. The average sale price was $494,344,” said Weeda.
This year, so far, there have been 148 sales. The least expensive is $340,000, the most expensive is $1,750,00 and the average price is $613,057. That’s an appreciation of 24% so far from the previous year.
Among incorporated cities, San Marcos experienced the largest increase in assessed value for the second year in a row. Its 21% increase in value was due primarily to the San Elijo Hills development and residential and commercial development around California State University in San Marcos.
According to Smith, “The real estate market was very strong throughout San Diego County last year. The Assessor’s Office appraised over 96,400 property sales and 37,500 properties with new construction. An additional 12,912 new parcels were added to the assessment roll this year due to new subdivisions and condominiums.
Property owners who disagree with the new values and can support a lower value must file an assessment appeal between July 2 and Nov. 30, 2004.
By DAVID ROSS
It qualifies almost as a modern minor archaeological find— The discovery in a Hollywood back lot of an abandoned film archive, sound stage and studio unused since WWII.
It probably wouldn’t even merit a second glance if the filmmaker hadn’t turned out to be a distant relative, maybe even an ancestor, of a current director who is being lionized in print and on the screen for his documentary about the origins of our current war on terror.
The dusty studio, which was padlocked and the key thrown away in 1943, almost as though someone was ashamed of it, was pried open this week to reveal a few cans of precious (but hazardous) nitrate film. The only surviving reels of a now legendary piece of filmic history, long talked about in hushed tones by film buffs, but never before screened.
Other pieces of cinematic history were scattered amidst the cobwebs: a director’s chair reinforced with rebar, an oversized ball cap, an autographed copy of Ten Days That Shook the World and a framed photo of “Uncle Joe and Me” with the inscription: “To Mickey, with much affection and admiration. Stalin.” It also includes of photo of a WWII Tiger tank that “Mickey” is shown riding on for a short time before its treads collapse.
The sound stage was part of a battery of studios that were used by the Bureau of Motion Pictures under the Office of War Information shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor to produce films such as The Nazis Strike, Divide & Conquer, The Memphis Belle and Battle of Britain as part of the Why We Fight series.
Less well-known is the fact that a maverick film-maker, 4-F but drafted anyway, was forced by the Army to produce a propaganda film to improve the morale of the troops. The resentful draftee fooled his wartime bosses and filmed a subversive little documentary known as Fahrenheit 1941. It labors to show that the Japanese and the Germans couldn’t possibly be allies because the Germans didn’t take part in the Dec. 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor sneak attack.
The film then mocks the U.S. high command for committing troops to North Africa “when the real enemy, Hitler, is obviously in Germany.”
It also offers “proof” that the U.S. deliberately invited the attack by cutting off Japan’s oil supplies in the summer of 1941, all, it asserts, to help Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s friends in the oil industry make a killing.
The director includes interviews of sources who claim that FDR knew ahead of time about Pearl Harbor, but that he allowed it to happen because his friends held shares in the Krupps arms factories in Germany.
Most devastating is a privately filmed home movie with an apparently unparalyzed FDR rolling around on the White House floor with his grandchildren, aiming a good natured kick at Eleanor and doing somersaults on board the “floating White House” the USS Potomac, before resuming his seat in a wheelchair just in time to greet a delegation of reporters.
The director introduced some revolutionary (for the times) documentary techniques that many have mistakenly attributed to Orson Welles or Leni Riefenstahl. It often shows the smirking director interrogating life size cardboard figures of Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshal and FDR, leaning over with his ear cupped and snickering, “What? No answer? I thought so!”
Why the film was never released is obvious. The government discovered that it was clutching a viper to its bosom shortly before Fahrenheit 1941 was due to open. Mickey’s studio was shut down, and the ancestor of the current hit director escaped to the Third Reich where he was employed for awhile making short propaganda films hailing the positive steps that Germany was making in providing housing for Jewish settlers being relocated to Poland.
He was later shot on orders of Heinrich Himmler.
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
Copyright © 2002, Palomar Community Newspapers, dba Valley Roadrunner. All rights reserved. This content may not be archived, retransmitted, saved in a database, or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of the Valley Roadrunner.