#CONCORDIA SENTINEL NEWSPAPER UPDATE#

Those hearings are expected before the end of this year, he said. Once the staff recommendation is completed, the project will be scheduled for public hearings before the Escondido Planning Commission and City Council, Strong said. “Before city staff finalizes its recommendation, we’d like to see what all of those pieces look like and not pre-determine a position,” Strong said.

#CONCORDIA SENTINEL NEWSPAPER UPDATE#

The city also wants to update the project’s fire safety and evacuation plan, as well as the economic impact analysis, Strong said. Those include adoption of a final environmental impact report and a development agreement. Mike Strong, Escondido’s director of community development, said the city needs to finalize several components of the project application before planning staff can formulate its final recommendation. In addition, the letter asks the city to complete additional analysis of the project’s economic impact, and to wait for Escondido’s new city manager, Sean McGlynn, to assume his post, which is scheduled for June 29. The letter calls for the city to complete the annexation agreement before considering the project for approval, and also to secure San Diego County’s blessing for the project. “It seems this would fly in the face of decades of conservation land-use planning,” said NeySa Ely, president of the San Pasqual Valley Preservation Alliance, who lives about a mile from the proposed project site. Not only does the project pose a fire risk to residents of the San Pasqual Valley, said Hunter, but “it will decimate 1,100 acres of highly valuable natural habitat.” “It undermines Escondido’s purported commitment to smart growth and it’s wrong for the city and the region.” “It’s basically the wrong project in the wrong place,” said Laura Hunter, an Escondido resident who helped organize the group letter. Silver said a better option for the parcel would be for a partnership of government agencies and conservation groups to buy the land for use as permanent open space. This is sprawl of an extreme nature it’s a leapfrog into wildlands.” The opponents’ letter was signed by representatives of more than 40 organizations, including the North County chapter of the Sierra Club, the Buena Vista Audubon Society, the North County Climate Change Alliance, the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians, the San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy, the Endangered Habitats League and the San Pasqual Valley Preservation Alliance.ĭan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League, said, “We hope the city of Escondido will look at the risks and merits and decide this is a very bad idea. “Harvest Hills will be Escondido’s first net zero energy, carbon neutral and agri-neighborhood housing community that sets the new standard for thoughtfully designed communities,” Underwood wrote. Residents of Harvest Hills would bear the annual operating costs for the new fire station through a Mello-Roos special assessment district formed to pay for infrastructure and service costs, Underwood said.

The new fire station would significantly reduce emergency response times for Harvest Hills and surrounding neighborhoods from the current level of 13-15 minutes, potentially saving one life a year, said Underwood, citing a fire protection plan prepared for the project. In addition, the development would enhance the region’s public safety because it will include a new fire station, a new emergency evacuation road and expansion of an existing evacuation route, he said. Underwood said the project as proposed would preserve about 70 percent of the project site, or some 760 acres, as permanent open space. “It’s unfortunate to see factually-inaccurate claims and misleading scare tactics continuing to be weaponized against badly-needed housing in the City of Escondido,” said Don Underwood, managing member at Concordia Homes, in a written statement.

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