December 2018 Advocacy Minutes

Advocacy Meeting

December 3, 2018  6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

4499 Ruffin Road, San Diego, CA 92123

Ben Stone - Advocacy Committee Chairperson

  1. Welcome and Introductions (Susie Murphy)

 

  1. Questions or comments? No questions were posed.

 

  1. Guest: Jeff O’Conner and Tom Blessent of Homefed Corp

-Jeff, Dir of Ops; Tom, Project manager for Fanita Ranch

-Homefed’s Master Planned Community:

A farm is planned -fruit and veggies for more than 3000 homes; the farm will be professionally run; will provide 1600 acres of open space.

They also have a community park planned; currently 72 acres of parks; 3 planning areas - one is retail with Trader Joe’s, Farm to Table Restaurant, etc. This is destination retail, i.e. the goal is for businesses which will serve the needs and last. 80k sq feet of retail.

Fire and police protection will be included.

Only building on less than of the property.

All homes will have solar on the roof; the goal is for zero electrical use.

Traffic - a big obstacle. First developer to tackle the traffic head on. They’re adding a lane in the westbound direction. These improvements on the 52 will take about 2 years and will be done before a home is built. It will also be two years until to get the roads etc. built and the first homes completed.

Revenue to the city of Santee is projected at 3M.

And the bike lane will be moved to the other side (west side) and other direction of the highway.

Will take 20 years to build out the community.

            Mast Blvd is not underdeveloped for this project - it’s the freeway that causes the backup.

The goal of this community is to promote and be health(y)!

Want to build hiking, biking, walking trails. When asked, they didn’t see why pump tracks shouldn’t be part of this.

The community will be open to everyone, not just residents.

If the community doesn’t get built, the trails will go away. Homefed will have to make a decision about what to do with the property. They wouldn’t keep it because the cost of maintaining it would be prohibitive.

100 miles of trails exist there now.

There’s a large variety of trails there; some need to be cleaned up and some closed and new/better ones built. They’re a different kind of developer.

Where will non-residents park? Parking areas will be planned within the development; build access points also.

How much is Single Track, fireroad, etc/ ?  15 miles of singletrack in the southern areas.

They’ve spent a lot of time on a fire protection plan.

The people in the county are equestrian-oriented; the city of Santee does not want to make these equestrian friendly.

Question: what will happen to the remaining land around the community? (could it get developed?) In 20 years when the development is complete, Homefed will not have any ownership of property left.

  1. Fanita Ranch Questions Comments (Ben)
 

Still don’t have a solution on the west side of the Santee. This is a vital connection that we need HomeFed’s help with -

Trail Design: discussion between Ben and HomeFed and others in attendance around existing trails and what is in the works for what we want the trail system to look like.

It’s better to get the plan as close as possible NOW vs. down the road. Some of the trails are different on the ground than on the map - now is the time to correct this, to fine-tune. HF has worked to preserve connections with the various connecting areas (Sycamore/Goodan, Stowe, etc.).

 

Question: how will the trails and open space be maintained?

Currently working with biologist to find out options. They design it knowing an HOA will be managing it down the road and they want the HOA to be able to manage within the projected costs.

San Elijo hills HOA dues are $80/month. Has very little water use because they’ve designed it to be a natural habitat.


  1. Rockhouse/Mother Miguel Update (Jose)

(Sweetwater area)

Volunteers led by Jose did 3 hours of work this last weekend. A lot more work is coming.

 

  1. Lusardi/Black Mountain update (Matt Bartelt )

Corridor trimming and some benching was done on 12/1 at Black Widow Trail with over 80 volunteers.   More work days to be scheduled very soon. Rain coming so will need to take advantage when conditions are optimized.

 

  1. Public Comment Period Open until 12/10: Fanita Ranch EIR

There are around 50 comments in so far; all comments due by December 10th.

 

  1. Rancho Guejito Event Opens 12/10 (Ben) February 23rd

Registration opens the end of this week.

 

  1. Otay Update (Ben & Susie)

A lot of development in Otay - 3 to 4 that we’re following.  SDMBA’s involvement is similar to what we’re doing with Homefed.

 

Dec. 12, 6pm Next meeting for Sweetwater Authority about the loop trail around the reservoir. Need to confirm item is on the agenda.

 

Old Business (Non-discussion items)

  1. Tecolote Trails plan - (Evan) - (In progress 2018)

  2. Sycamore Goodan Ranch Update (Ben Stone)

  3. Fanita Ranch Trails Plan (Ben Stone) (Unknown)

  4. Castlerock project date June 2016 grading has begun (One year) Ben

  5. Black Mountain/Black Widow (Matt 2017 -19)

  6. Sweetwater Summit Bike Park (2018-19)

  7. Del Mar Mesa Surrounding Development

  8. Rock House / San Diego Wildlife Refuge- update (Jose/Jason)

  9. Otay Valley Regional Park - (Jose)

  10. Tijuana River Valley (Jose)

  11. Palm Canyon Update (in Progress)

  12. San Diego County PLDO Funds

  13. Village 13 Projected Date (First Quarter 2017)

  14. Mission Trails Master Plan (Summer 2018)

 

Attendees:  

Minette Ozaki

Al Allison

Jeff Hodapp

Doug Johnson

Chris Hatch

Andy Darragh

Karen St. Germain

Chris Storms

Cyndi Denny

Julie Klein

John Nail

Tony Dickey

Kat Johnson

John Steele

Philip Erdelsky

Bob Ponting

Evan Sollberger

Kyle Gunderman

David Hernandez

Sean Murphy

Tom Cook

Mike Lowry

Seth Hanson

Matt Bartelt

Susie Murphy

Renee Halsch


Next meeting:  January 7, 2019

4499 Ruffin Road (second floor)