Canyon Project Expansion Rejected : Council Refuses to Let Genstar Build 640 More Homes

Rancho Penasquitos residents and environmentalists seeking to protect Penasquitos Canyon Preserve won a narrow victory Tuesday when the San Diego City Council voted, 5-4, to deny a plan for increased density in a 743-acre Genstar residential development on the canyon’s northern rim.

Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer spearheaded the successful appeal by the resident-environmentalist groups to overturn a revised development plan for the Park Village project that would have added about 640 more homes to previously approved subdivisions stretching almost two miles along the edges of the park.

Genstar, a Canadian conglomerate that acquired the Penasquitos holdings in 1978, agreed to give the city the 2,000-acre canyon preserve in return for development rights on about 5,000 acres on the northern edge of the canyon between Interstates 15 and 805.

Maps approved by the city for Park Village between 1980 and 1982 permitted 1,909 single-family homes to be built, but Genstar returned to the city to seek an increase in density under planned residential development regulations. Genstar argued that, by clustering development, the project would cause less intrusion into the finger canyons at the edge of the canyon park.

Bruce Warren, spokesman for Genstar, argued that the new proposal, despite the increased housing density, was “far superior” to the earlier, lower-density project and would generate about 1,000 fewer students for overcrowded Penasquitos schools. He attributed the lower student count to the smaller townhouse and condominium units planned for the revised project.

Dennis Ainsworth, a Penasquitos resident, criticized the new housing proposal as a violation of the Penasquitos community plan, which called for low-density single-family homes along the canyon edges. He challenged the developers to propose an equivalent density reduction somewhere else in the community to balance out the increased density requested in Park Village, “or we will end up with 60,000 people in a community planned for 40,000.”

Lynn Benn, spokeswoman for the Sierra Club, said that “it would be a terrible loss for San Diego to have this development go forward.” It would encroach on the canyon preserve and would further degrade the park which, she said, has been reduced to about 1,800 acres of flood plain and floodway, which is unsuitable for development.

Wolfsheimer challenged Genstar executives to pare down the density of their proposed project and to incorporate more environmental niceties that would leave undisturbed a Penasquitos finger canyon with a running stream, but Genstar spokeswoman Mim Scott said any further reduction in density would make the housing project economically unfeasible.

Councilman Ed Struiksma, who favored the new Genstar proposal, challenged council members to choose between the less dense but less environmentally sensitive plan already approved and the more tastefully designed new proposal. But Councilman Mike Gotch proposed that the council “take the gamble” that Genstar would not pursue its earlier project if the increased density was denied, but would present a revised development acceptable to the community.

Gotch admitted that the city “struck a bargain” with Genstar when it accepted the Penasquitos Canyon land as an open space park in return for granting development rights to the firm.