February 23, 2005 - Top Stories
The local planning group, County staff and members of the community have worked on it for close to five years.
Now it’s the planning commission’s turn to review the Valley Center commercial and industrial land use map.
Among the issues that the commissioners will take up is the land use designation for Bates Nut Farm.
The Planning Commission on Feb. 25 and March 4 & 18 will conduct hearings on GP2020 that will not only look at VC’s proposed Village, commercial and industrial land uses but also those of various other unincorporated areas such as Bonsall, Pala-Pauma, Rainbow and Fallbrook.
It is expected that Valley Center and Pala-Pauma will be taken up at the March 4 hearing.
VC’s Village is being looked at as a “special area refinement,” to the GP2020 map.
This won’t be the time to give input if you support or don’t support the residential land uses outside of the Villages (Country Town) that have been adopted in the plan, since the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors have already endorsed that map.
The Commission, which is just under the Board of Supervisors in terms of authority, will give direction on land use map revisions, including the resolution of special study areas, such as the Village (Town Center) area of VC.
Washburn told The Roadrunner the significance of the three days of hearings:
“My understanding is that this is the first opportunity for the Planning Commission to look at the commercial and industrial designations for all of the unincorporated areas of the County and the special areas which includes the VC Villages, and in those areas they are looking at residential as well.
“This is one of several steps where specific land owners can come forward and present their requests, which may be different from the Dept. of Planning & Land Use’s recommendation.”
On March 4 Bates Nut Farm will likely ask that it be given a land designation commensurate with its retail operations.
Bates Issue at Forefront
Last month planning group failed to take a position on the designation, leaving, by default, the County Dept. of Planning & Land Use’s designation of SR-4 Semi-Rural: 1 dwelling unit per 4 acres, instead of the commercial land use that the 40-year old business had sought.
The Bates family says this could make their business a legal non-conforming use, a designation that would prevent them from ever expanding.
DPLU’s Bob Citrano, in charge of VC’s GP2020 plan, says that the County has yet to determine whether the designation applied to Bates would do what they fear.
“In general, the County has no intention of recommending new zoning designations that will not enable existing legal businesses to continue,” he wrote recently to the VC planning group.
The issue of Bates is expected to be heard on March 4.
What the Commission Does
Asked what options the commission has, Washburn said, “The Planning Commission will likely respond to each of the requests although doing nothing is one of the options. They can send it back to the staff, recommend to the director that a change be made or investigate it further themselves.
“Ultimately, working with DPLU staff they will create a recommendation which will go forward to the Board of Supervisors on April 20. Once again, there will be an opportunity for land owners who disagree with the map and, at that point, the Planning Commission’s recommendation to plead their case before the Board of Supervisors, the ultimate non-judicial authority for land use decisions in the county.”
The hearings will be held beginning at 9 a.m., 5201 Ruffin Road, Ste. B, San Diego, California 92123, Dept. of Planning & Land Use Hearing Room
The Planning Commission report and attachments will be available on the GP2020 website and at the Planning Commission hearing.
The web site address is www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu (click on General Plan 2020).
For additional information regarding the hearing, contact Stephanie Gaines at (858) 694-3493.
By DAVID ROSS
A group of local leaders, including leaders of two reservations, have begun meeting to present a united front as Valley Center demands that $12 million pledged to the County by the Rincon and San Pasqual tribes as casino mitigation be spent here and not disappear into the black hole of the County general fund.
Larry Glavinic, chairman of the VC planning group’s tribal liaison subcommittee, described putting together a meeting of “all of the stakeholders for impacts of tribal stuff here in Valley Center.
“We are going to decide what impact we all want to fight for. Is Valley Center going to be the next Las Vegas? Maybe we want something better,” he said.
The point of getting representatives of both the non-reservation and reservations is that the issues are cross jurisdictional and no one is in charge at this point.
The group will meet to ultimately figure out “something that we can all say hallelujah to,” said Glavinic.
Subcommittee members include, besides Glavinic, Ron Adair, Terry Van Koughnett, Jon Vick and Robert Rutherford. The group is working with Rincon Tribal Chairman John Currier and James Quis Quis of the San Pasqual band.
The subcommittee is working under the aegis of the VC Planning Group. It recently requested an oral and written report from the Dept. of Public Works and Deputy Director Doug Isbell on the funding of Valley Center’s road widening and funding. The planners also requested to know what has become of Rincon’s $6 million and San Pasqual’s $6 million, which were pledged by the tribes after the initial $33 million funding of the two road widening projects.
“What is being done with this money,” asks Glavinic. “We want it spent here. Whatever that is, median, beautification, whatever. We don’t care. We just want to make sure that the money doesn’t disappear.”
Earlier this week Planning Chairman Andy Washburn sent the letter requesting the report and asking for information on the following items:
• An overview of the original and current budget, current cost projections and sources of funding.
• Status of landscaped medians and funding.
• Status of other road improvement projects contemplated for Valley Center.
“Our interest in the funding sources stems from our desire to ensure that traffic mitigation funds are used to mitigate traffic problems and to make the roads safer in Valley Center, as the tribes have requested,” said Washburn’s letter.
According to Glavinic, the leaders of San Pasqual and Rincon are sending similar letters to the County.
Allen Lawson was reelected last month to a fifth term as chairman of the San Pasqual Band of Indians and begins his tenth year in the job.
The election was held Jan. 9 and the officers assumed their positions on Feb. 9.
In addition to Chairman Lawson, other tribal officials who took office were vice chairman, Rudy Contreras; Secretary Treasurer, Angelina Martinez McNeal and Council members Jerry Cope, and David Toler.
McNeal told The Roadrunner that her goal on the council is “to assist in securing a sound structure for the tribe and helping to guide the tribe in the right direction.”
McNeal previously served on the land and housing committee as vice chairman, where she was responsible for helping to replace houses that were burned in the 2003 wildfires.
Lawson told The Roadrunner, “Our council is very excited about the next two years. We’re looking forward to leading our tribe to the next level of economic success.
The tribe owns and operates Valley View Casino.
“We are anticipating growth with our casino and looking forward to entering into a whole new structure for the tribe and our community and in being a better partner with our community.
“We’re looking forward to being better involved in the growth of our community and to achieving better education for all of the children. We are very excited about the goals that we have set.”
Chairman Lawson added, “We are an integral part of our community. We are there forever. We are not going any place. We are concerned about the infrastructure of the whole valley.”
Last week the tribe announced that it was committed to providing $50,000 annually to the upkeep of a landscaped median for Valley Center Road.
For a few weeks rumors were flying that there wouldn’t be any Western Days in 2005 because the seed money that the Chamber of Commerce normally gets from the County was not going to be there when it was needed.
However, last week Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn’s office announced that the Chamber will be getting the seed money after all.
Last year the Chamber of Commerce missed the deadline to apply for the $10,000 that is used to jump-start the annual Memorial Day weekend festival, which is the largest, best-attended event in Valley Center.
There was talk that Western Days wouldn’t happen.
However, even though the deadline to apply for the seed money officially passed, Horn’s office came through with the money.
Chamber Pres. Tom Bumgardner, who took office in January wasn’t entirely clear on why the money wasn’t applied for in a timely manner last year, but he’s happy the money will be there.
“That $10,000 seed money helps us to get the community revved up about it. It costs us almost $3000 just to rent the community center, which is not bad because it goes back to the community,” said Bumgardner.
He added, “It’s money we use to enhance the program. That’s the biggest part of our job, promoting events such as this.”
Bumgardner says the paperwork is filled out to apply for seed money for the 2006 event.
“We’ll fill it out and get it to the County the first of March, and then we’ll go down the First of June and have two minutes to tell the Supervisors what the money is for.”
The Valley Roadrunner
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Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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