Areas in Fallbrook and Bonsall are slated for increased density

Four Fallbrook areas and two Bonsall areas are slated for dwelling unit density increases.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors heard property-specific requests for general plan amendments and rezones Sept. 12 and directed county staff to prepare the necessary documentation for the actual rezones and general plan amendments.

“We do have to consider increased units in some places,” board of supervisors’ chair Kristin Gaspar, whose 3rd District had a request for increased density only in unincorporated Escondido.

In some cases, a property-specific request covered multiple parcels to allow for consistency. The 23 requests covered 882 parcels, totaling 9,336 acres. Staff from the county’s Department of Planning and Development Services made recommendations on the requests based on consistency with the county’s general plan, an analysis of the site and how the changes would conform to county policies including general plan elements, consistency with community plans, consistency with the county’s Zoning Ordinance, California Environmental Quality Act compliance and public outreach response.

The county’s planning commission heard the property-specific requests for general plan amendments and rezones during hearings June 22 and June 29. Tentative planning commission votes were taken on each property-specific request before an overall vote incorporating all but one of the tentative vote results was taken.

The 7-0 vote to recommend the overall changes or lack thereof was followed by a 6-0 vote for a Valley Center area whose applicant’s previous business relationship with planning commission member Michael Edwards required Edwards’ recusal for that proposal.

One of the Bonsall analysis areas covers 120 parcels totaling approximately 921 acres. The area just west of Interstate 15 has semi-rural, one dwelling unit per 10 acres, land use designation, which would allow for 129 dwelling units. The proposal sought semi-rural, one dwelling unit per 4 acres, land use, which would allow 196 dwelling units. An alternative map which provided for the SR-4 designation only in the northeastern portion equates to 165 dwelling units. A 6-1 planning commission tentative vote recommended the density proposed by the property owner.

PDS staff had recommended the alternative map while the Bonsall Community Sponsor Group supported retaining the existing SR-10 designation. SR-4 land use throughout the area was deemed inconsistent with the general plan policies which require land use mapping to minimize exposure to hazards, especially fire hazards and with the policy which requires development to be consistent with the community development model and close to existing infrastructure and services.

The southern and western portions of the reviewed area include steep slopes with habitat constraints, multiple dead-end roads and roads not built to fire access standards. Some of those roads have steep drop-offs on one side, which would preclude improving those roads to compliance. The northeastern portion near Calle de Talar is adjacent to a public road, has multiple roads currently built to fire access standards, is one-quarter of a mile from an I-15 on-ramp and has few steep slope or habitat constraints.

The constraints will likely result in fewer than 196 residences being built.

“You can’t build on all these slopes anyway,” Supervisor Bill Horn said.

Mount Ararat Way resident and property owner Bob Drowns, who had 7 acres of avocados on his property before increased water costs made the grove unsustainable, proposed the change to SR-4.

“It’s consistent pretty much with what’s there already,” Drowns said.

“It’s adjacent to existing SR-4,” Horn said.

A 4-1 board of supervisors’ vote, with Dianne Jacob opposed, approved changing the land use designation to SR-4.

One of the Fallbrook study areas is south of Pala Mesa Heights Drive and west of Rice Canyon Road. The 23 parcels total 491 acres. The general plan currently has rural lands, one dwelling unit per 20 acres and RL-40 land use designations, which would allow for 26 dwelling units.

The property owner request including additional parcels for consistency will change the RL-20 designation on the northwest part of the land to SR-4 and upzone the RL-40 land to RL-20, which will allow for up to 42 dwelling units. The proposed density received the planning commission's 6-1 vote in favor of that recommendation.

PDS staff had recommended an alternative map which provided an RL-20 designation for the entire property and would have allowed 37 homes. The Fallbrook Community Planning Group recommended an SR-10 designation for the entire area, although that recommendation was not analyzed by PDS.

“I think staff got this one right,” Jacob said.

Although the analyzed area is near higher-density specific plan areas on the east side of I-15, a mountainous area of habitat preserves and agricultural preserves separates the analysis area from the specific plan areas.

“This is not going to affect a wildlife corridor at all,” Horn said.

Horn noted that significant development surrounds the area.

“The property includes the Gregory Canyon landfill and Meadowood,” Horn said.

In January 2012, the board of supervisors approved the 384-acre Meadowood development which will include 397 single-family homes and 447 multi-family dwelling units, along with 13 acres for an elementary school which will be built by the Bonsall Unified School District. Although the Gregory Canyon area is still zoned for a solid waste facility, Gregory Canyon Limited never received all of the necessary permits to operate a landfill, and in 2016, the Pala Band of Mission Indians purchased the Luiseno sacred site on Gregory Mountain and eliminated the possibility of a landfill being constructed on the site which also included a buffer area. GCL retained approximately 1,000 acres and plans residential and commercial development for that land.

A 3-1 vote, with Jacob opposed and Ron Roberts abstaining, approved the property owner request.

The planning commission’s 6-1 tentative vote recommended retaining the SR-2 land designation for six parcels of Fallbrook land north of Reche Road between Camino Zara and Ranger Road which total approximately 107 acres. The existing land use designation equates to 49 potential dwelling units. The proposed change to SR-1 and SR-2 densities would have allowed up to 82 dwelling units. An alternative map to consolidate the SR-1 zoning on the northeast side will allow 64 potential dwelling units.

PDS staff recommended the alternative map and the Fallbrook Community Planning Group recommended retaining the existing density. The central portion of the area includes wetlands areas along the public road frontage, and areas of steep slopes and coastal sage scrub are outside the wetlands. The Fallbrook Public Utility District does not have latent sewer service powers for the area.

“It really doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense,” Fallbrook Community Planning Group chair Jim Russell said of the proposed change.

Paul Garrett has lived on his Garrett Ranch Road property for 21 years and had been farming since he purchased the property.

“It is not paying off,” Garrett said. “Water is too high. Labor is almost impossible to get.”

Wilt Road resident Noel Glaser said that the evacuation during the December 2017 Lilac fire took residents more than an hour to leave the area and that the increased traffic would also adversely affect emergency travel since there is no nearby hospital.

“The thought of trying to get out of there sometimes is really getting kind of crazy,” Glaser said.

“There is no way to get out of Fallbrook in the afternoon or the mornings without tremendous delay,” Via Zara Court resident Michael Trinkle said.

Peony Drive resident Tina Andruss has lived in Fallbrook for 17 years.

“There’s no reason to increase the density of this parcel other than to satisfy the desire of the owner,” Andruss said. “It was enacted for a reason.”

Horn grows grapefruit, tangelos and avocados on his grove in Valley Center and understands that former agricultural land may no longer be feasible for farming.

“We’re an industry that’s on its way out,” Horn said. “You can’t afford to grow enough avocados to pay the water bills.”

The county supervisors voted 4-1 to approve the alternative map with Jacob opposed.

Horn said that any development would require existing roads to be improved to current standards.

“It’s better access for both the roadway and for fire,” Horn said.

“We have to create a careful balance between private property rights and also what’s right for the community overall,” Gaspar said.

Gaspar said that statutory residential density limits are reviewed when applications are processed.

“That number always goes down from there,” Gaspar said.

“I, too, respect private property rights and also the rights of those who live in the area,” Jacob said.

The evaluated area by Stewart Canyon Road covered 61 parcels, totaling approximately 579 acres. All of the parcels have an RL-20 designation which allows for 61 units. Because of steep slopes in the area, only one of those properties would be able to subdivide into two parcels if the land use was upzoned to SR-10, so the proposal which would increase the potential dwellings by only one residence had a 7-0 planning commission recommendation in favor.

No alternative map was provided, and the proposed change had the support of both PDS staff and the Fallbrook Community Planning Group. Because the applicant, the planning group, PDS staff and the planning commission were all in agreement, a 5-0 board of supervisors vote adopted the change to SR-10 without discussion.

The 51 parcels by Sandia Creek Drive and West Sandia Creek Trail total approximately 679 acres, and all currently have RL-20 zoning which allows for up to 61 dwelling units. The proposal to upzone the land to SR-10 will increase the maximum potential dwelling units to 68 residences, while an alternative map with an SR-10 designation east of Sandia Creek Drive and RL-20 density west of Sandia Creek Drive could allow 63 dwelling units. A 4-3 planning commission tentative vote recommended the alternative map.

The Fallbrook Community Planning Group recommended retaining the existing general plan designations while PDS staff recommended the proposed map. The area is constrained by Sandia Creek, tributary wetlands, steep slopes and native upland habitats. The analyzed area lacks public roads and Sandia Creek Drive, which is the main private access road, has sharp curves and steep roadside drop-offs.

“Any subdivisions would have to conform with the wildlife corridor,” Horn said.

A 3-2 board of supervisors vote supported the property owner request with Greg Cox, Gaspar and Horn in favor and Jacob and Roberts opposed.

“It only increases the density by seven units,” Horn said. “This is negligible.”

The Western Champagne Gardens area is on the eastern edge of the Bonsall Community Planning Area, whose eastern boundary at that point is Old Highway 395 rather than I-15, which is west of the property. The reviewed area covered eight parcels and approximately 44 acres.

The existing land use map has some of that land as a specific plan area and the rest of that land with RL-20 density, which would allow one dwelling unit. A 7-0 planning commission vote recommended the requested change to SR-10 density with rural commercial areas, which would allow for up to eight dwelling units.

The Champagne Gardens Specific Plan was adopted by the board of supervisors in 1999 and allows visitor-serving commercial uses on both sides of Champagne Boulevard north and west of the Welk Resort, although the necessary implementing actions were not taken before the plan expired in 2007.

The 2011 general plan update retained the specific plan area land use designation and zoning for Champagne Gardens. The western portion of Champagne Gardens is in the Bonsall Community Planning Area and the eastern portion is in the Valley Center Community Planning Area. The two portions were reviewed separately during the property-specific request process.

The alternative map was identical to the proposal, although PDS staff also reviewed an environmentally superior map which would have created an SR-10 designation for the entire property and allowed up to seven parcels. A dwelling unit may be built on an existing parcel even if that parcel size is less than the density size. The proposed alternative map was found to be consistent with the general plan goals and policies as the area between I-15 and Champagne Boulevard is highly constrained.

The area is mostly in the Pre-Approved Mitigation Area of the county’s draft North County Multiple Species Conservation Program because of the presence of coastal sage scrub and the potential to host California gnatcatcher birds in the area. The rural commercial land use designation which will have C42 Visitor Serving Commercial zoning will be in areas which have previously been cleared or which have mostly non-native grassland vegetation and will also be near existing commercial uses.

The county supervisors voted 5-0 to change the Western Champagne Gardens land use designation to SR-10 and rural commercial.