Supervisors increase security bond amount, grant time extension for Palisades Estates

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved an increase of the security bond amount for the Palisades Estates subdivision which includes a portion of the Bonsall Community Planning Area while also extending the time to complete the required improvements.

The supervisors voted 4-0 Wednesday, Dec. 6, with Terra Lawson-Remer absent, to approve the amendment to the security agreement. The time extension creates a Dec. 6, 2025, deadline to complete the infrastructure improvements although homes or other lot improvements themselves are not required to be completed by that date.

In March 2006, the county board of supervisors approved the tentative map for the 383-acre subdivision located east of the intersection of Elevado Road and Pleasant Heights Road in the area north and east of Vista. The supervisors also approved an administrative permit to allow for lot area averaging or clustering. The project is partly in the Bonsall Community Planning Area and partly in the North County Metropolitan Subregional Planning Area.

The original approval called for 36 residential lots, which range in size from 2.19 to 9.68 acres. The current plan calls for 19 residential lots, one lot reserved for future development and two open space lots. Most of the homes are in the Bonsall Community Planning Area while much of the open space easement is in the North County Subregional Planning Area.

The project will also complete the connections of a north-south emergency route which will connect the development, along with other properties north of the development, to Gopher Canyon Road. Access to the site, which is currently undeveloped and consists of moderate to steeply sloping hillside terrain with large rock outcroppings, will be provided by Elevado Road easterly from the intersection with Pleasant Heights Road.

The steep slopes and rock outcroppings will be part of the open space easement, which will also preserve biological resources and function as a wildlife corridor. The residences would be at the top of steeply sloping terrain and would be visible from a wide area had a requirement to mitigate adverse aesthetic impacts not been implemented. The visual mitigation includes minimizing the grading required for building pads and requiring three of the houses located along a prominent ridgeline to be only one story with a maximum height of 20 feet.

All manufactured slopes of more than 15 feet will require enhanced landscaping, and other conditions of approval such as control of exterior colors and height limitations will ensure that the development blends with the natural topography and vegetation.

A tentative parcel map becomes a final map after all conditions of the tentative map, other than those for which permits cannot be issued until a final map is recorded, are fulfilled. The conditions of a final map include secured agreements to ensure that the infrastructure will be built and that payment for labor and materials used to build the infrastructure will be made. A subdivision map only creates legal lots and does not grandfather a project against updated stormwater or other regulations enacted before grading and building permits are obtained.

In August 2018, a time extension for Palisades Estates was granted administratively by the director of the county’s Department of Planning and Development Services. Program Resources Inc., which owns the land, now anticipates beginning construction on the public improvements in April 2024 and requested an additional time extension.

Existing agreements and their bonding requirements are reviewed by county staff to determine if time extensions are warranted and if the security agreement amounts are still adequate to guarantee completion of the remaining work.

Although county staff recommended the time extension, the security amount was deemed to require an update. The $2,184,000 Faithful Performance Bond which ensures completion of the infrastructure was replaced by a $2,806,964 bond. The Labor and Material Bond which guarantees payment for labor and materials involved in the construction was increased from $1,092,200 to $1,403,482.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].