Planning Commission permits Grand Tradition expansion

San Diego County’s Planning Commission approved the modification of the Major Use Permit for the Grand Tradition.

The Planning Commission’s 5-0 vote March 25, with Commissioners Adam Day and John Riess absent, permits the existing arbor terrace pavilion, bathroom facilities and changing area, greenhouse, pump house, and fall house which were constructed in anticipation of a zoning change which has not yet happened.

“We’re kind of permitting the as-built portion,” said Grand Tradition chief executive officer Don McDougal. “This puts the formal stamp of approval on it.”

The property on South Mission Road has RR2 rural residential and RS4 single-family residential zoning, so a Major Use Permit with conditions was required for the McDougal family (Don McDougal’s parents, Earl and Beverly, are the actual owners) to operate the Grand Tradition as a meeting and banquet facility. In January 1983 the Planning Commission approved a Major Use Permit for a community recreation use building with meeting, banquet hall, and kitchen facilities and a maximum public occupancy of 300 persons. In January 1998 the county’s Planning and Environmental Review Board (PERB) approved a Major Use Permit modification to allow the construction of a 1,200 square foot kitchen along with office and storage expansion to the existing community recreation building.

PERB also approved a modification to the MUP in July 2001 to expand the permit boundaries after the McDougal family acquired two parcels totaling 6.63 acres. The permit had covered the original 15.2-acre site, and the 2001 permit modification included authorization of a 6,000 square foot storage building on one of the acquired parcels.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is in the process of final hearings on the update of the county’s general plan, and the property is expected to be rezoned from residential to commercial. In April 2004 the county supervisors adopted a working copy map for use as the baseline land use distribution for the preparation of the general plan update’s Environmental Impact Report, but the actual update approval has not taken place.

In 2005 the Grand Tradition constructed a 5,000 square foot white tented arbor pavilion, a modular building for dressing rooms and rest rooms totaling approximately 1,500 square feet, a 96 square foot fall house used to store ceremony equipment, a 112 square foot pump house where the water feature pumps are located, and associated tropical landscaping.

“We had moved on forward with it and just filed for a major use permit,” McDougal said.

The permit had already prohibited loudspeakers or sound amplification systems and had limited outdoor functions to between 7:30 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. The 300-person limit meant that functions were moved from the Beverly Mansion to the outdoor venue, so neighbors and South Mission Road travelers did not suffer impacts from overlapping events.

“We’ve had a six-year history of operating that project with a stellar record and no problems, and support from the community,” McDougal said.

The application for a modification didn’t process as quickly as McDougal expected. The county assessed a Transportation Impact Fee (TIF) of $154,000, and the Grand Tradition chose to pay for a traffic study rather than to pay that fee which was based on square footage. “The study showed there was no impact,” McDougal said.

The county eventually agreed to a waiver of the TIF payment. The county also determined that the changes from the previous use permit did not require any revisions to the environmental Negative Declaration which had previously been adopted.

“After six years of working on this project, it’s nice to see it finally being approved,” McDougal said. “It’s just highly frustrating that it’s taken so long to resolve such a simple issue.”

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