Ranch Water Awaits City-County Truce : L.A.-Based Water Control Panel Takes Ralphs Territory Into Its Jurisdiction

The controversial Ralphs Ranch development southwest of Lake Hodges took a step closer Monday to an assured water supply, but the final decision could still depend on resolution of the dispute between the City and County of San Diego over which agency should control planning for the area.

The water problems committee of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) voted Monday to annex the 5,600-acre ranch into MWD’s service territory. The full MWD board is expected to approve the annexation today.

The district supplies about 90% of the water used in San Diego County and it must approve any new use of its water in areas not currently part of the Los Angeles-based MWD.

In the case of Ralphs Ranch, the water would be supplied through the Olivenhain Municipal Water District, which has agreed to serve the development. Olivenhain is a member of the San Diego County Water Authority, which in turn is a member of MWD.

However, the ranch must also be annexed into the Olivenhain district and that action must be approved by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), composed of elected representatives from various county cities. And LAFCO cannot take any action until the city and county work out their problems.

Initial development on the huge acreage was approved in December by the county Board of Supervisors, who at present control the area’s planning because the land is unincorporated. However, City of San Diego officials object, saying the land properly falls within the city’s planning sphere because it is bordered on three sides by city territory.

A joint city-county study to iron out the problems got under way Monday with a meeting between the staffs of Mayor Roger Hedgecock and Supervisor Leon Williams, chairman of the Board of Supervisors. A LAFCO planner, Rich Miller, said Monday that state law prohibits LAFCO from considering such annexations when sphere-of-influence disagreements are at issue.

Hedgecock, who opposes as premature North City-area developments such as Ralphs Ranch, dramatized the issue in December by focusing on the need for water. He said that no action leading to water for the development should be taken in light of questions over how secure Southern California’s water supply will be in the 1990s.

Hedgecock’s statements sent shudders through water officials, who argue that their agencies are not involved in land-use planning but only in providing the water that cities and counties say is needed. David Nielsen, the mayor’s aide on water and land-use matters, has attempted to play down the use of water as a land-use weapon, saying that the city simply believes it should be the land-use planner in the Ralphs Ranch area. Should the city decide to allow development, it should also provide the water, Nielsen says.

Miller said that LAFCO could go ahead and consider approving the ranch as part of the Olivenhain district if a state legislative proposal introduced recently by Sen. Waddie Deddah (D-Chula Vista) becomes law. It would allow developments such as Ralphs Ranch to proceed with permits and other government requirements ahead of any sphere-of-influence studies if the development was under way before Dec. 31, 1984, Miller said.