‘Tecolote Twins’ Campaign Proved Neighborhoods Can Save Canyons

There’s an IBM personal computer in the kitchen, two full file cabinet drawers in one bedroom, and four boxes stuffed with documents in a second bedroom. Hand-written and computerized logs show the dates of telephone calls or interviews with city officials, developers and even newspaper reporters.

They are the weapons of legal and political war. They are stored in the Clairemont home of Eloise Battle.

That’s right, Battle.

In this case, the name fits perfectly. The 55-year-old school district employee is a grizzled veteran of San Diego’s canyon wars, having waged combat for more than 10 years to preserve 850 acres of Tecolote Canyon from development.

She has blended charm, persistence, hard work, planning, cynicism and motivation. With her neighbor and cohort Sherlie Miller, Battle has led hundreds of angry neighbors into City Hall and toiled in relative obscurity to write a “master plan” for the canyon.

“During the election year, everyone loves canyons,” Battle said in reference to local politicians. “So the voters go to the polls, dumb and happy, never looking into the backgrounds of the candidate. And they’re stunned when the bulldozers roll.”

That’s why, Battle says, the work is never done and she is busy transferring notes from her reams of paper onto computer disks. Now she can call up the outline for her speech, titled “So You Want to Save a Canyon,” with the push of a few buttons.

Although times are quieter now around the canyon, Battle’s vigilance is deeply ingrained. She still becomes irate about the least bit of encroachment on the slopes. For instance, launching into a monologue about why a proposal--since abandoned--to build a 19-story housing project on the rim of Tecolote was a bad idea.

“I’m one of those big bad environmentalists,” she admits with a smile.

Battle’s involvement to save Tecolote began in 1971, after other neighborhood activists had rented a storefront and fought proposals to build a highway through the canyon, as well as 1,500 apartments and houses.

Figuring there had to be a better way, the activists finally persuaded the City Council in 1969 to pass an ordinance making assessment districts possible. These are special geographic areas that allowed residents to tax themselves for additional city services. This way, they reasoned, they could buy the canyon and keep development out for good.

In 1971, the City Council drew the boundaries of the proposed Tecolote Canyon Natural Park, and it gave resident activists three months to determine whether a clear majority of homeowners on the canyon would be willing to pay the self-imposed tax.

But while the survey was being conducted, trouble started. “In July, I began to get very angry phone calls,” Battle recalled. “Someone had bulldozers right in the middle of our designated park district.”

As it happened, the company doing the bulldozing had received its permits from the city in November, 1970, shortly before the City Council established the park district boundaries, Battle said. “It was the first time I really understood the duplicity that comes up in these situations sometimes. That is when I began looking for details,” Battle said.

Residents were able to shut out the developer with the bulldozer, but there was still the important political struggle to get formal approval for the assessment district. That required a crash course in lobbying.

Battle enlisted the help of next-door neighbor Miller, and the two sat down one day in 1972 to study the success of the developers and big-shot lawyers who lobbied the City Council. They came up with a formula for success:

First, you have to show strong community support--involve enough people so the same old faces aren’t always protesting at City Council meetings. Have clear goals. Go to every meeting you can. Tap all of the talent in your community, including people who will do things like print flyers for free. Never attack elected officials, especially in print. When a city official or staff member helps you, always thank him publicly.

Above all, get council members out of their offices and over to the canyon.

Battle and Miller--they became known as the “Tecolote Twins”--launched a new offensive. Miller helped mobilize an army of volunteers to poll most of the 2,400 homeowners along the canyon rim, 67% of whom said they would support the assessment district.

The Twins also lobbied the council members directly, then arranged for people around the 6 1/2-mile-long canyon to open their homes for lunch with elected officials. Munching on chicken cacciatore, the officials “could step out in the yards and see the land,” Battle said.

Most importantly, The Twins decided to hire an ambitious young attorney to plead their cause. Roger Hedgecock, the future mayor, helped persuade the City Council in 1974 to formally establish the Tecolote Canyon assessment district. It voted a one-time tax; for homes sloping into the canyon $775 each, while homes across the street were taxed $175 each.

“When I came home from that hearing, there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my front porch from all the children in the neighborhood, thanking us for saving their canyon,” said Battle, who takes fifth-graders on tours of Balboa Park for the school district.

“It was all worth it--the amount of time we put into this, the vacations we didn’t take. At times, it was almost a consuming effort,” she said.

When the city decided in 1979 to reimburse the residents for their $1.3-million purchase of the canyon, The Twins launched another drive to use the refunds for park improvements.

In addition, Battle worked on an advisory committee to write a master plan for the canyon. “I was the one with pen and paper who wrote the document, over 100 pages,” she said. The plan was formally adopted by the city May 24, 1983--also Battle’s 32nd wedding anniversary.

Now there must be more vigilance. The Twins are particularly concerned about a City Charter provision that gives the City Council power to put roads through park lands.

“With the pressure of increasing population growth, there may at some time be a discussion of a road in Tecolote Canyon Natural Park, which would be a direct contradiction of the whole purpose of the park,” said Miller, 41, a counselor intern at the Navy Hospital.

“Because of the clause in the City Charter, the community must be aware of what is happening with their park,” she said.

Battle, who was among the volunteers for Hedgecock during his latest campaign, said that is why people who want to save canyons must seek a political solution.

“The direction has got to come from the bottom to the top, and down through the chain of command,” she said. “The voters have to put officials in office that they understand are serious about preserving canyons in San Diego.

“Then, the City Council majority has got to put the word down through the city staff, down through the subdivision board, to the developers, all the way down to the guys on the bulldozers.

“Until that happens, we will continue to flounder along. Some canyons will be saved. Others will not.”