November 9, 2005 - Top Stories
Valley Center is at the beginning of the biggest surge of residential building in its history (and you thought all that traffic was the casinos) with an estimated total of 1620 lots either in the pipeline or already under construction.
We thought you’d be interested in knowing a little bit about each of them.
We’ll also throw in some current non-residential projects, such as the Valley Center pipeline replacement project.
Here’s most current info. We will post this on our web site (www.valleycenter.com) and periodically update it for your reference. If we missed something, tell us, and we’ll add it.
Valley Center Road
Widening, Phase II
The project to extend the widening of Valley Center Road from just below Banbury to the intersection with Cole Grade should begin just after the beginning of next year.
The County just awarded the contract for the job to Archer Western Contractors Ltd. The contract is for $32,141,816. Minor tree trimming will occur during December (no, not THAT kind of tree). The project will take three years to complete.
VC Municipal Water District pipeline replacement
While the County is widening Valley Center Road, the water district will be replacing 17,709 feet of water main, most of which has been there since the 1950s. This project will cost $4.5 million.
Meadows No. 2 Reservoir
The water district is finishing work on a 3 million gallon tank that will increase storage for the Meadows service area. It will go online in December-January.
Couser Pump Station
The water district has just approved a contract to replace this pump station at a cost of $1 million.
Cole Grade Road Widening
Cole Grade Road improvement is in the design stage. The widening will run 2.5 miles, from Horse Creek Trail north to about 1/4 mile south of Pauma Heights Road. No cost estimate has been made yet.
Weston Shopping Center
Although the recent Traffic Impact Fees adopted by the Board of Supervisors put this project on life support, it still has a pulse.
The original project, which would be built on 73 acres in the Northern Village behind the post office bounded on Valley Center Road and Cole Grade, called for 187,000 sq. ft of office and commercial and 63 condos, with two, two-story office buildings. A 55,000 sq. foot market was also part of the plan.
TIF have, at the very least, slowed down the project and may make a redesign necessary. The project proponent recently filed a six month extension with the County.
“Although the TIF fees have frustrated us, we hope that the County will make it a little fairer,” Herb Schaffer, one of the principals for Weston, told The Roadrunner.
The project, which had originally been planned for a faster pace, will be done in phases.
It is also undergoing some redesign and looking at increasing the number of residential units, depending on how much density is allowed in the lower 43 acres of the property by GP2020.
Currently the developer is working with the County on the regional road network that includes Miller, Cole Grade, Valley Center Road and Horsecreek Trail and how much the project will be required to contribute to it.
Once the County completes the regional road network the developer plans to split the project into several components.
Loranda
West of Cole Grade, north of Miller and South of Cool Valley, the Loranda subdivision is planned for 169 units on 435 acres.
The development is called Spanish Trails. Going through the environmental review process.
Rancho Lilac (aka Lilac Ranch)
The proponent for this development on Lilac Road near Keys Creek Road of 909 acres and 332 units is searching for a new financial backer, since the former partner, Empire, has decided not to proceed.
“We are in play, moving forward, doing studies of toads and gnatcatchers,” says developer Lou Wolfsheimer.
A package sewer plant is planned for the project, he says.
The VC Municipal Water District staff had been in discussion with the developers, but all activity on that project has stopped for the time being, according to the water district.
Live Oak Ranch
This project of 142 units on 307 acres is located on Cobb Lane & Valley Center Road. It is part of an approved specific plan. It is obtaining funding and moving forward although the developer is still putting together a final application to the County.
It is eligible to receive sewer service and the water district is studying locating a wastewater treatment plant on the property.
Orchard Run
For 20 years John Belanich has dreamed of building this project, which is now calling for 300 homes on 118 acres behind the community ballfields. It is part of an approved specific plan and is nearing the end of its review process.
Now D.R. Horton is in the process of buying the property from Belanich to develop it.
Originally Orchard Run was to have its own sewer treatment plant. Now, however, the water district is under discussions with D.R. Horton to expand the existing Woods Valley plant to serve both.
Ridge Ranch II
Ridge Ranch II Specific Plan Area is a residential development of 108 homes on 687 acres, much of it in steep slope, oak woodland and rocks. There has been no activity on this project in over a year.
Woods Valley Ranch
This specific plan of 283 units on 437 acres (this is the property with the golf course visible from VC Road) has built a number of units and has a temporary functioning wastewater plant. A new, permanent facility is being constructed in and around it. When the permanent facility is complete in about a year, the interim unit will be removed. That plant is seen as the linchpin for sewer development in adjoining properties, including Orchard Run and the Southern Village that includes the Bell, Alti properties and possibly the Crews project (Brook Forest) on Betsworth.
Wastewater Plant
That wastewater plant is seen as providing 70,000 gallons per day treatment for Woods Valley Ranch, 75,000 GPD for D.R. Horton with an undetermined capacity available for others. The plant could treat between 250-300,000 GPD, but the determining factor in how big it is is how much winter storage is available for the reclaimed water.
Brook Forest
Development by Crews Development, west of Orchard Run on Betsworth. It will have 56 units on 226 acres. Sixty percent of the property would be in open space.
Paradise Mountain Ranch
Also known as the Retlaw subdivision, this is a project of 31 units on 550 acres near the historic Rancho Guejito. It has just begun its approval process.
Tri-Mark (previously Sherwood Ranch)
Construction has begun on this project of 128 homes on 556 acres near Banbury Estates and west and south of the dairy.
Sundance Ranch
This is a proposed development of just under 79 homes on 254 acres south of Cool Valley Road and east of Wilhite.
The big issue of this project, which is at the very beginning of the approval process is access.
The County is insisting on two roads in by extending Paso Robles to Via Sierra. This would create a situation where motorists could go from the high school to the middle school, bypassing Cole Grade Road, on private roads.
VC residents are invited to the Cemetery District’s annual Veteran’s Day observance Friday, 11 a.m. at the cemetery.
Ken Botts will be the keynote speaker.
Oldsters and history buffs may recall that on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at 11 a.m. World War I, the Great War, ended. Later that observance was changed to be Veterans Day to honor all of America’s vets of all wars.
Botts, who served in the United States Navy in WWII, will tell some amusing incidents that happened to him while serving on a small sub chaser in the Aleutian Islands.
Later, on a more serious note, Botts will talk about a subject that is much in the news today: suicide bombers.
Also on the program will be a skit by John McKenna and Donna Jorgensen on “guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier.”
As part of the event, there will be the traditional posting of the colors and Taps.
Refreshments will be served afterwards.
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Botts served in the U.S. Navy from 1943-45 in the Pacific, fighting the Japanese.
He was SONAR man, affectionately known in the Navy as a “ping jockey,” aboard No. 1080, a 110 foot boat that “rode like a cork” and whose mission was searching for enemy submarines.
After 15 months of chasing enemy subs, Botts returned to Chicago to attend electronics schools before being shipped to Treasure Island (San Francisco) IN January, 1945 as a member of a crew of a new destroyer , the USS Stormes (DD 780).
The next four months were spent putting the Stormes into commission, including a shakedown cruise to the Puget Sound area for target practice.
On April 7 the destroyer left the Straits of San Juan de Fuca, headed for Pearl Harbor and, ultimately, Okinawa.
Then, after seven months of preparing the ship and another month to sail to Okinawa, the Stormes entered the war in earnest.
What happened next is the subject of Botts’s talk.
It’s an amazing story about a ship that was a big, beautiful, new destroyer one minute and no longer in the war a few minutes later.
Although the ship itself was badly damaged, most of the 400 crew members escaped alive. Twenty-three men were lost.
The ship stayed in floating dry dock until August of 1945 when it headed back to San Francisco under its own power at eight knots.
By that time the Empire of Japan, reeling from two Atomic Bombs, had surrendered.
A few weeks later Botts was discharged from the service.
Recalling that time, Botts says, “We learned a lot, we griped and moaned at all the discipline but in the long run it was a heck of an experience.”
You are invited to share this experience at Friday’s observance.
For years Skyline Ranch mobile home park has wanted to run its own sewer treatment plant. Now it looks like it will.
On Monday the VC Municipal Water District board voted to approve the transfer of the waste discharge permit from the water district to the country club.
Skyline had requested this since 1997, but the change was opposed by the State Regional Water Quality Control Board.
That board reversed itself after the water district upgraded the facility. On Oct. 17 the regional board issued the tentative order to transfer the waste discharge permit. A formal decision by the board was expected Nov. 9.
Before the transfer happens, the water district wants to finish a couple of projects, including noise abatement and outflow control, at a cost of nearly $100,000. Until that work is completed the discharge permit will remain with VCMWD.
The water board’s action Monday authorized Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant to develop and enter into a transfer agreement with Skyline, and notify property owners around the site that the country club will be operating the plant.
The transfer will have minimal impact on the district. Several different employees take part in its operation, but that adds up to about one half of a staff position.
The district had expected to raise the number of sewer technicians from four to five to accommodate sewers coming on line. They won’t have to do that now.
Stan Johnson, general manager at Skyline, explained why the park wants to take over the operation: “We feel that to have control of our own property and our own plant would be in the best interests of the owners and residents.”
At Monday’s board meeting, Arant explained to directors, “I think they feel that with a new treatment plant they are in good shape for awhile and might save some costs for awhile. And perhaps for a short term they will save.”
Director Chuck Stone asked, “What would happen, and it might happen, that would make us have to take it back several years from now?”
“If I were to still be here ten or 15 years out I would be very cautious about taking it back because we wouldn’t know what kind of maintenance will have been taken,” he replied.
Former Miss Valley Center and current news anchor Tamara Damante will MC the grand opening of the Maxine Theater Nov. 19, 7 p.m.
After leaving Valley Center for her first on-air job in Casper, Wyoming, Tamara Damante returned to her home state to join KESQ in Palm Springs where she is the morning and noon anchor.
Miss Damante is a 2001 graduate of the University of San Diego with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication studies. Following a year’s internship at KGTV in San Diego, she was hired by the station as a producer. She wrote and produced family, health and financial segments that aired on four McGraw-Hill stations across the country.
A former, Miss Valley Center, she credits the experience for assisting her in feeling comfortable presenting information to the public.
Her parents Angelo and Ursula live on a ranch in Valley Center, CA with her younger brother, John-Paul.
A self-described pet-lover, Tamara has four horses, four birds, and three dogs in Valley Center. She loves keeping her 5 pound Yorkie, Reba cool with her in the desert.
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Tickets are now on sale for the grand opening. Call 749-7390 or buy them online at http://maxine.vcpusd.net. Tickets are $30 apiece. Refreshments are free.
You can find information on future productions at the same web site. The Roadrunner will also provide a schedule of events each week in the Dining & Entertainment page.
Music on the 19th will be provided by the Crazy Rhythm Hot Society Orchestra, playing music of the 1920s and 30s.
The orchestra will perform first inside the theater and then, weather permitting, take the music outside for dancing.
The premiere will offer the opportunity to honor the donors and the theater’s design team.
On Nov. 11 at VC Community Hall from 5-8 p.m. students will serve spaghetti, salad, bread and spumoni. Students raising funds for the 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. will hold drawings for prizes from local businesses and restaurants. They will also honor a veteran just returned from Iraq. This week after school, they will sell dinner and drawing tickets in front of the Town Center and VC markets and, also, at CJ’s Deli. Questions? Call 749-6823.
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 © 2005, 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.