SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The San Diego County Board of Supervisors Wednesday unanimously approved a proposed housing development in the communities of Harmony Grove and Elfin Forest, despite opposition from some residents concerned about a lack of evacuation points during wildfires.
Following a nearly four-hour hearing, the board also voted to require additional brush clearance at the development and directed county staff to look at options for a secondary access route.
The hearing featured nearly 100 people, many of them living in Elfin Forest or Harmony Grove who opposed the project.
Many opponents wore red T-shirts that read "Don't Burn Us."
Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer, whose district includes Harmony Grove, said that over the last year, she's received "thousands and thousands of comments on this item," focusing on safety and housing.
Supervisor Jim Desmond said that while the county is still experiencing a housing crisis, the county understands opponents' concerns.
"I'm going to need assurances from our experts that the project being presented today in 2025 is still deemed safe," he added.
On Aug. 22, the county Planning Commission unanimously approved the 453-unit Harmony Grove Village South project. Planning and Development Services staff also recommended approval during a presentation Wednesday.
The Harmony Grove Village South location is a little under one mile west of the city of Escondido, south and east of San Marcos city limits, and north of the Del Dios Highlands Preserve.
The 111-acre project would feature single-family and multi-family units, 5,000 square feet of commercial/civic space, four acres of private and public parks, two miles of public multi-use trails and pathways, and approximately 35 acres of biological open space.
Along with approving an amendment to the county General Plan, the county Planning Commission recommended that supervisors adopt California Environmental Quality Act findings; certify the environmental impact report; and approve the site plan, tentative map, a zoning classification change and a major use permit.
The housing/commercial project sits in an area where several wildfires have happened: Harmony Grove in 1996, Del Dios in 1997 and the Cocos Fire in 2014.
David Kovach, the Harmony Grove Village South managing partner, told supervisors the development protection plan "is the gold standard," validated by a qualified safety experts.
"Can we honestly imagine this team overlooking the absence of secondary access if it were truly required?" he asked.
Citing job creation, better commutes and more affordable housing, labor union members also supported the project.
Opponents said Harmony Grove project only has one evacuation point, and could result in possibly 1,000 additional vehicles traveling on a two-lane road, according to recent media reports.
It was important that county officials learn from the devastating wildfires in Altadena and Paradise, said Nancy Reed, of the Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Fire Safe Council. She said the development fire protection plan was "deeply flawed," and inadequate for residents.
"We are living in a new era of wildfires," which are explosive, massive and brutally fast, Reed said. "We do not have enough heroic first responders or fire trucks to stop these monsters," she said, urging the board to vote no.
JP Theberge, a member of the Elfin Forest/Harmony Grove Town Council, said in an emailed statement that the development "was grandfathered in under outdated regulations from before 2018."
"Doesn't it defy common sense for county leaders to approve a high- fire risk housing project that, under today's regulations, would not be approved because it represents an entrapment risk to all the new residents and their neighbors?" Theberge said.
In July 2018, county supervisors approved the entitlements and a final environmental impact report for the project, which was slowed due to a legal challenge.
In February 2020, a trial court ruling found that the EIR "violated (the California Environmental Quality Act) based on inadequate greenhouse gas mitigation measures, failure to address fire safety and evacuation issues, insufficient analysis of air quality impacts," according to information on the Wednesday supervisors' agenda.
Also, the court "found the project was inconsistent with the San Diego Association of Governments Regional Plan and the county's General Plan related to a policy to provide affordable housing and a community plan policy requiring septic instead of sewer," the county added.
In October 2021, and appeals court sided with the trial court's ruling related to greenhouse gas mitigation and the county's General Plan policy on providing affordable housing.
However, the Court of Appeal "reversed the trial court's ruling related to the other concerns, including fire safety and evacuation, inconsistency with the SANDAG Regional Plan and the community plan policy related to septic systems."
"On Oct. 19, 2022, the trial court issued a revised order requiring the county to rescind the project approvals within 60 days," according to the county.
Following the legal outcomes, county supervisors in December 2022 adopted a resolution that rescinded earlier project approvals.
In a Sept. 25 letter sent to Lawson-Remer, seven wildfire scientists and safety experts wrote that based on research, along with state and national fire safety guidance, they found "that the project would expose residents and surrounding communities to extreme wildfire risk."
The authors cited three primary concerns:
-- increased ignition from new development
-- evacuation times that would exceed wildfire spread
-- no viable population-level protection strategy if evacuation fails
Another letter dated Sept. 25 and signed by over 20 environmental groups -- including the Endangered Habitats League, Preserve Wild Poway and San Diego 350 -- asked the board to deny the General Plan amendment as "inconsistent with the board's direction for sustainable land use. " In an Aug. 22 KPBS report, developers "said they've mitigated the fire danger by proposing to expand a bridge that crosses Escondido Creek into multiple lanes. Residents said that's not enough."
KPBS also reported that Kovach described concerns over evacuation points as a "baseless scare tactic."
Kovach said concerns have "been disproved time and again by fire, law enforcement and evacuation experts, county government and the California appellate court."
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