Doud appointed to Rainbow CPG

When Greg Doud and his wife were looking for a smaller and quieter community than where they were living in Poway, they purchased property in Rainbow and moved there in 2018 after their house was completed.

Doud does not desire to see the same growth in Rainbow he experienced in Poway and, on Nov. 17, he was appointed to the Rainbow Community Planning Group.

A 5-0 San Diego County Board of Supervisors vote appointed Doud to a term which will begin Jan. 5, 2021 and will expire on Jan. 6, 2025.

"I think it's a great opportunity. I believe in people having some civic responsibility in the community where they live," Doud said. "I feel like I need to be an active participant in the community."

Doud is originally from Aurora, Illinois, which is about 50 miles from Chicago. "I came from a rural setting," he said. "It used to be all just cornfields."

He moved to California in 1983 after graduating from DeVry Technical Institute in Chicago. "Our friends had moved out here in the 70s," Doud said.

Doud initially lived in West Covina and worked for General Dynamics in Pomona. When that division of General Dynamics relocated in the late 1980s, Doud moved to Rancho Cucamonga.

General Dynamics divestitures gave Doud employment at Raytheon. He was in Tucson for 3 1/2 years before returning to California in 1996. He obtained a position at Qualcomm and moved to Poway.

A work trip in 1984 provided Doud with his initial visit to Poway. "I can remember how rural an area it used to be," he said.

By 2012, Poway no longer had the rural character Doud and his wife desired. "We were looking to get out of Poway," he said.

"We wanted to stay in California and we liked San Diego County," Doud said. "We found this property and fell in love with it."

Doud's wife was raised on a farm in Guyana, so she also desired a more rural setting than 2010s Poway. Doud semi-retired from Qualcomm in 2018. "I'm still consulting for them," he said.

Not having to make the daily commute from Poway to Rainbow allowed Doud and his wife to move into the house they had built. "I'm relatively a newcomer in the area," he said.

Gary Drake became one of Doud's neighbors after Doud and his wife purchased the property in Rainbow. Drake was the chair of the Rainbow Community Planning Group from 2013 to early 2018, and Doud attended some of the planning group meetings prior to becoming an actual Rainbow resident. "I got introduced into the group," Doud said.

Interaction with neighbors is one of the differences between Poway and Rainbow. "We lived in Poway for 22 years and barely got to know a couple of neighbors," Doud said.

"Here we get together," Doud said. "It's a whole different environment."

That is an environment Doud would like to maintain. "I'm hoping that I can have some help in preserving that," he said. "We might be able to preserve what Rainbow is today and not let it get out of control."

Doud recognizes that growth is inevitable. "It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when growth will happen," he said.

Growth would need to avoid large developments to maintain community character. "That would just destroy the whole atmosphere of Rainbow," Doud said.

"You have to keep active in the community," Doud said. "If we don't, they'll just railroad this community to what they want to be."