Fallbrook

A housing development in Fallbrook got the green light Friday from the San Diego County Planning Commission, despite complaints from angry residents that the project defies a current moratorium.

The commission voted, 4-3, in favor of the Brook Hills development, a 520-acre project in the rural southeast section of Fallbrook. The project involves construction of about 350 housing units, nearly 200 of them condominiums.

Developer Arthur Appleton, of Chicago, took the project before the Planning Commission because the county’s planning staff had refused to accept his development application. County staffers argued that development applications should not be accepted in Fallbrook because a building moratorium is in effect.

The building ban was ordered by the Board of Supervisors last summer to give Fallbrook residents time to decide several key planning issues, among them whether to restrict clustering of dwelling units and require two-acre minimum lot sizes in outlying areas.

But the Planning Commission ruled that the moratorium should not apply to the Brook Hills project, a decision that angered several Fallbrook residents opposed to the development.

“It means they busted the moratorium wide open,” said Jack Wireman, co-chairman of Friends of Rural Lifestyle, a Fallbrook-based group. “We are just madder than a wet hen. They’ve shown a blatant arrogance toward Fallbrook.”

Wireman said he felt that the developer was trying to slide his project through the planning process before tougher standards are set in place in Fallbrook. Friends of Rural Lifestyle plans to appeal the planning commission decision to the Board of Supervisors, he said.

Appleton could not be reached for comment.