Dense Zoning Approved for Land Around Quail Garden

Almost 100 mostly rural acres surrounding the Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas will become densely populated when the land is developed under new zoning approved Wednesday by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

The board’s action came despite the impassioned objections of nearby residents, who argued that the eventual construction of housing, office and commercial projects would clog area streets with traffic and damage the plants and peaceful atmosphere at Quail Gardens, the county’s only botanical park.

“Do what’s best for San Diego County and not just for a few developers who will benefit by this unconscionable density increase,” Loretta Dunn, a property owner in the neighborhood and a member of the park’s executive committee, told the supervisors shortly before they voted.

But board members said the area was destined for development, and they said they were satisfied that any traffic problems could be avoided with the almost $3 million slated for road improvements, at a cost to developers of more than $1,100 for each residential unit. The board also ordered that other, as yet unspecified, measures be taken to protect the park from the effects of development.

The zoning change, known as a general plan amendment, will allow as many as 29 units an acre on land that had been slated for one-tenth that amount. The land, 93 acres controlled by 17 separate property owners, is bounded by Encinitas Boulevard, Quail Gardens Drive, Saxony Road and the park.

More than a third of the land--34 acres--was zoned Wednesday for office and professional buildings, or housing as dense as 29 units an acre. An additional 26 acres were zoned residential at 10.9 units an acre. The 33 acres closest to the gardens were zoned for housing at 7.3 units an acre.

Combined, the zoning changes will allow as many 1,510 units to be built where 270 were originally planned.

The Quail Gardens issue has drawn considerable attention, in part because 13 of the 93 acres involved are owned by the family of Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas). Nine more acres are owned by James Bashor, a wealthy apartment developer who first asked for the zoning change on his land 2 1/2 years ago.

Bashor’s request was the subject of an intense lobbying campaign in May, when five state legislators --all Democrats--telephoned Board of Supervisors Chairman Leon Williams and urged him to support the zoning change. Williams said the legislators told him they favored Bashor’s project because it would provide low-income rental housing.

Although Williams said he was not influenced by the lobbying, he voted for the zoning change Wednesday, saying he supported it “with considerable reservations.”

“I know it’s nostalgic in Encinitas to watch those flower-growing hot-houses disappear, but in some ways, from my point of view, it’s better for us to utilize areas that already have infrastructure, to improve living conditions and maintain high-quality living, than to scatter it all over the county even further than we have up to now,” Williams said.

Supervisor Paul Eckert, who has reported $1,000 in political contributions from Bashor and his family this year and whose land-use aide once worked for Bashor, has been the board’s strongest backer of the zoning change. On Wednesday, Eckert proposed that the land closest to Quail Gardens be allowed to develop at twice the rate suggested by the county Planning Commission.

Eckert argued that such a move would allow the property owners to earn more money from their land. Some of that profit could then be used to protect the park, he said. With the density approved Wednesday--7.3 units an acre closest to the park--Eckert argued that the land would remain undeveloped until the pressure for housing becomes such that supervisors approve an even higher density.

“The only thing we do by keeping the density lower at this time is force the property owner to bank the property . . . You’re only prolonging the agony,” Eckert said.

Eckert’s proposal died when none of the other supervisors would support it.