Fallbrook

The San Diego County Planning Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend that residential development in Fallbrook be limited to one house per acre, rebuffing a citizens group which said the decision would erode the area’s rural ambiance.

The decision, which followed an all-day hearing before a packed crowd at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Fallbrook, sets the stage for a Board of Supervisors hearing on the matter in November.

Members of Friends of Rural Lifestyle, a grass-roots group that sued the county over the issue, expressed disappointment. The group has been working during the past year to have the county require lots of two acres or more, saying such large parcels are needed to help insure that Fallbrook retains its bucolic character.

Despite protest from group members, the planning commission went along with a proposal supported by the Fallbrook Planning Group, a 15-member elected board that serves as an advisory body to the county on land-use matters.

That proposal calls for much of the 56-square-mile area to have lot sizes of at least one acre, with a requirement that the lots be bigger if a home is built on a slope. In addition, it calls for lots of two acres or more in the region surrounding Olive Hill Road.