Accusations Traded on Holmwood : Supervisors Move Toward Decision on San Elijo Project

Representatives of a group of Solana Beach residents and a North County developer exchanged bitter words Wednesday as San Diego County supervisors inched toward a resolution of a months-long controversy over a housing development proposed for a canyon on the edge of San Elijo Lagoon.

Amid allegations of errors, irregularities and improprieties surrounding the county’s approval of the 38-unit Holmwood Canyon project, supervisors voted to delay for two weeks a decision on whether they will even consider overturning their December approval.

The developers, meanwhile, charged that the residents’ allegations were no more than frivolous stall tactics aimed at costing the builders money and eventually pressuring them to give up their project or sell the land for use as a park.

At issue is whether the supervisors based their earlier decision on correct information or were misled by mistakes and intentional misrepresentations by the developers and the county’s staff.

D. Dwight Worden, attorney for the Friends of Holmwood Canyon, questioned the accuracy of conclusions in an environmental impact report on the project because those conclusions were changed as the report moved up the chain of command in the county’s Department of Planning and Land Use.

According to records Worden obtained from the county’s file on the development, a junior staff member in the planning department concluded at one time that the project would have several significant impacts that could not be overcome--or “mitigated,” in planning jargon. That finding, if sent to the Board of Supervisors, would have seriously jeopardized the project’s chances of being approved, Worden said.

But as the report passed through the department’s review process, it was changed to read that the same impacts could be mitigated. That conclusion then became part of the board’s basis for its controversial decision.

“The cumulative effect of all these misstatements and misrepresentations so tainted the process leading to the approval of the Holmwood Canyon project that your board should reconsider and rehear the entire matter,” Worden said in a letter to the board. “Fairness requires no less.”

Roger Woolley, an attorney for the developers--lifelong San Dieguito residents Joseph and Donald Balsley--said the questions Worden raised have already been answered. He noted that the county’s chief administrative officer and the director of the planning department have both said that the changes in the report were made as part of the normal internal review.

Donald Balsley said he believed the residents had done no more than repackage the same arguments they used in their unsuccessful fight to stop the development. He said the matter would best be decided when the courts hear a lawsuit Worden filed Monday on behalf of his clients.

But Balsley also continued to leave open the possibility that the developers will sell the land to the Friends of Holmwood Canyon or to a nonprofit agency that raises money to keep environmentally sensitive land from being developed. Balsley said the 16-acre parcel is worth $2.75 million.

“We’re not bound and determined to build homes in there if the people don’t want it,” Balsley said. “But we’re not going to take a beating on it just so they can have a park. Let them put their money where their mouth is.”