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NOVEMBER 4

Accretive Group files PAA for 1,745 unit development near I-15

On Monday the Accretive Group filed its long anticipated PAA (plan amendment application) with the County for a 1,745 unit development adjacent to Old Hwy 395 and south of the Old 395 interchange near I-15, that says its president, Randy Goodson, could transfer high density from Valley Center Road’s Northern Node and prevent VC’s roads from becoming unusable.
The proposal is called “Valley Center Sustainable Community,” and it is, Goodson claims, “the only plan that makes Valley Center’s roads work.”
The County has 45 days to react to the proposal. Whatever decision it makes is subject to appeal to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.
Although Accretive controls 400 acres, according to Goodson the County asked it to file a proposal for how the surrounding neighborhood, which Goodson and the County call the “Western Village” might be developed, including a commercial center.
“I’m uncomfortable telling other people how their land should be developed, but the County is requiring it,” said Goodson. On Monday he sent an “overall conceptual plan” to the county Dept. of Planning & Land Use’s director Eric Gibson.
So, for instance, the commercial center in conceptual plan would have 30 acres, whereas five acres of commercial are set aside in the actual Accretive proposal.

Click here to download maps of both Accretive’s Conceptual Land Plan and Project Description for its property and the overall conceptual plan. (928kb)

The land there is zoned A-72, which allows for one home for two acres. Accretive wants to change the density to about four units to the acre, although there will be some homes with two acre estates as well as a row of one acre estates.
Goodson told The Roadrunner that the project will be designed by Peter Calthorpe of Calthorpe Associates, a Berkeley, California-based designer who also designed the San Elijo Hills development in San Marcos for Accretive.
Goodson obviously wants people to associate this new development with San Elijo, about which he gets many positive comments.
“Calthorpe is thought of as the best land planner in the world,” Goodson said. The designer was named one of 25 "innovators on the cutting edge” by Newsweek magazine for his work redefining the models of urban and suburban growth in America.
“What people like about San Elijo Hills is getting back to the old time town, the small town feel,” said Goodson. The development will include one town center and two “hamlets” or villages, all within a five minute walk of each other on interconnected trails.
The town center could have a fire station, store, coffee shop, while one hamlet could have a school and recreation center.
As many as a dozen parks will be scattered throughout. The main intersections won’t be dominated by retail operations, says Goodson, but will have parks or a school.
“We think it makes the whole community more valuable,” he said. “People will pay more for something of value.”
He anticipates it will provide housing not only for middle and upper middle class residential, but also people just entering the home market and those retiring.
“It will be a community that will accommodate all kinds of lifestyles,” he says. “We will have homes for when you leave the nest and when you retire. Right now Valley Center doesn’t have anything for these people.”
This is Goodson’s fifth development with Calthorpe. The proposal will be, essentially, “a new community,” he says.
The subject of roads first brought this development to the attention of VC planners last year, when they discovered that Road 3A had been added to the general plan update for the area without them being notified.
Goodson maintains he doesn’t have any connection to discussions of such a road, which would connect Valley Center to I-15, although obviously he would like to see such a road built.
Goodson’s relations with the Valley Center Planning Group could, at best, be described as “chilly.”
He maintains that when he tried to make a presentation to the group they “told me to go away and not come back for five years.”
He thinks the reception he has gotten from the planning group is based on its belief that he can do the development. “They believe I can actually do it and that’s why they are so hostile. I consider it flattery.”
For months Goodson has had an employee videotaping the group’s sessions and collecting quotes that he can use.
Re: the group’s perceived opposition to his PAA, Goodson comments, “We’d like to point out to the planning group that your existing plan creates road failures.” His plan to transfer density from the Southern Village, would, he says, “make the roads work.”
He accuses the planning group’s leadership of deliberately planning a road system that fails for the express purpose of keeping the County from putting additional density in Valley Center.
“They just want to make the density disappear,” he says. “It’s more responsible for them to find a place to put it where the roads will work.”
Asked by The Roadrunner if he plans to make a presentation to the planning group. “I will if they invite me,” he says. “I’ll come talk to anyone who invites me.”
Goodson has not yet had talks with the Deer Springs Fire Protection District, the VC-Pauma Unified School District or the VC Municipal Water District about providing services for his proposal. His goal is to build a school that would provide classes for grades K-8, although that decision would be up to local school officials.
He anticipates that details on the development will emerge over the next two years—if the PAA is approved by the County to move forward.
Accretive has been holding open houses for several months to gauge public sentiment regarding the proposal.
Another open house will be held Nov. 11, 6:30-8 p.m. at Castle Creek Country Club. The newest information will be made available.

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