Planning commission recommends general plan amendments, rezones

Joe Naiman

Village News Correspondent

Two Bonsall parcels and two Pala parcels will likely have land use and zoning changes in the most recent proposed updates to the county’s general plan.

A hearing, Oct. 6, of the county’s planning commission included a 5-0 vote, with Doug Barnhart and David Pallinger absent, to recommend the general plan amendments and rezones. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors must approve any general plan amendment or rezone, and the county’s Department of Planning and Development Services has targeted a timeframe of late fall for the board of supervisors hearing.

The Bonsall parcels are planned to be part of the future San Luis Rey River Park, and the Pala property was determined to be on private land rather than on the Pala Indian Reservation.

The board of supervisors approved an update to the county’s general plan in August 2011. The initial general plan update was a multi-year process with much of the analysis occurring on a macro scale. It was expected that oversights requiring correction would be found, and the county supervisors directed county staff to develop a “cleanup” in the form of a general plan amendment every two years. The update direction also anticipated the need to clarify or revise policies or definitions in the general plan or community plans and to provide a process to handle changes in circumstances including changes in state law or ownership changes from private to public. The updates also accommodate minor community planning group or community sponsor group requests.

A 6.44-acre parcel on the north side of Camino Del Rey between state Route 76 and Old River Road would be changed from rural lands with one dwelling unit per 40 acres to open space for recreation, and the zoning would be changed from limited agriculture to open space. A 6.0-acre parcel on the west side of Old River Road immediately north of Little Gopher Canyon Road would be changed from rural lands with one dwelling unit per 40 acres to open space for conservation with the zoning changed the same as the other parcel. Both parcels have been acquired by the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation and are now in the plans for the San Luis Rey River Park.

Open space zoning is intended for recreation areas or areas with severe environmental constraints. The zoning allows for structures such as restrooms, storage buildings and pavilions, if a site plan addresses the impacts of the structures. County-owned parks are exempt from the zoning ordinance, so the Department of Parks and Recreation will not need the planning commission’s approval or the board of supervisors’ approval for a site plan.

A mapping error placed two contiguous Pala parcels off Magee Road totaling 80 acres within an Indian reservation, and the cleanup amendments changes the zoning from Indian reservation land to limited agriculture with an eight-acre minimum lot size albeit with the “rural lands with one dwelling unit per 40 acres” land use designation, a G-height designator and a C-setback designator.

A G-height designator allows for a maximum of two stories and a maximum of 35 feet in height. A C-setback designator requires setbacks of 60 feet from the street and 25 feet from the rear of the property, a side yard interior setback of 15 feet from the lot line and a side yard exterior setback of 35 feet from the centerline of a street. The property owned by North American Granite is actually adjacent to the Pala reservation.