Land-Use Poll in Fallbrook Is Called Slanted

A group that wants to see the land-use status quo preserved in Fallbrook has released a poll indicating that residents of the rural community back its position by a 2-1 margin, but opponents have blasted the survey as slanted.

Leaders of Citizens Advocating a Rural Environment say their poll indicates that about two-thirds of the residents in Fallbrook favor retaining the one-acre minimum lots that have been a zoning feature in the community for more than a decade.

But members of Friends of Rural Lifestyle (FORL), a grass-roots group that is pushing for minimum lots of two acres, contend the survey was biased and does not represent the wishes of citizens in the unincorporated town of 27,000 nestled amid the rolling hills southeast of Camp Pendleton.

The two groups have been jockeying for position as the issue of lot sizes winds toward a showdown vote before the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which is slated to debate the matter in July.

Three Options

In determining the fate of Fallbrook’s land-use future, the board will have three options to choose from--the one- and two-acre proposals and a third option being pushed by the Fallbrook Planning Group.

The planning group, which makes recommendations to the board on land-use issues, is backing a hybrid proposal that features one-acre lots in a doughnut configuration immediately surrounding downtown Fallbrook and two-acre lots in regions farther from the central core.

Citizens Advocating a Rural Environment (CARE), a newly formed group composed primarily of property owners and real estate agents, commissioned the $6,500 poll in hopes of proving its claims that Fallbrook residents prefer the smaller lots.

The telephone survey was conducted between May 12 and 16 by San Diego-based Decision Research, which has conducted polls for several local lawmakers. The firm used a computer-generated random list of 440 registered voters in Fallbrook for the poll, which has a 4.5% margin of error.

30 Questions in Poll

Participants were asked 30 questions, according to Diane White, a CARE member and president of the Fallbrook Board of Realtors.

The poll indicated that when the one- and two-acre options were pitted against one another, 67% of the respondents favored the one-acre idea while 23% sided with the two-acre proposal. The remaining 10% were undecided.

When asked to choose among the three plans going before the Board of Supervisors, the poll revealed that 65% favored the one-acre plan, 15% backed two acres, 9% selected the hybrid plan backed by the Fallbrook Planning Group and 10% were undecided.

Given an even broader choice, 9% of the respondents favored minimum lots of a quarter acre, 22% chose half-acre parcels, 47% sided with one-acre, 11% wanted two-acre, 3% wanted minimum lots of more than two acres and 8% were undecided.

Retaining the Character

The poll also indicated that 68% of the residents feel it is important for Fallbrook to retain its rural character. In addition, it showed that 63% of the respondents felt Fallbrook was growing too fast, while 30% said the growth rate was about right and 3% would prefer to see the community grow faster.

CARE members say the poll provides solid proof that Fallbrook residents want one-acre lots.

The group argues that larger lots would result in Fallbrook becoming an elitist community, cordoned off to all but the very rich. Moreover, they maintain that two-acre lots will be much more difficult for homeowners to maintain than the smaller parcels.

“It appears that residents here want other people to come to Fallbrook and have the same opportunities they did,” White said. “We have been called the friendly village. We don’t want it to be the FORL village with a wall built around it.”

Granger Haugh, chairman of the group, said the poll proves that opponents of one-acre lots were little more than “a vocal minority.”

“I think now we’ve got something that we can take to the supervisors and say, ‘This is what the people of Fallbrook really want,’ ” Haugh said.

Results Discounted

But leaders of Friends of Rural Lifestyle, organized more than a year ago to fight for lower densities in Fallbrook, discounted the results of the poll and insisted that it would have little effect on their efforts.

Jack Wireman, a leader of the grass-roots group, said questions in the survey were worded in such a way that the results were “preordained to the point of view CARE wanted to produce.”

“This poll is kind of like the poll a political candidate runs--he always knows the answers before it starts,” Wireman said. “I would say this poll is about as believable as Gary Hart was the morning after.”

Wireman said he did not feel Fallbrook residents would “take much credence in a study run by the real estate people and the developers. Their bias and their economic interest show through too much.”

He maintained that two-acre lots would preserve the area’s rural life style, while one-acre parcels would lead to traffic congestion and other problems that would spoil the bucolic ambiance of the community.

“We think this is a very transparent, last-ditch effort by the realtors to keep higher density in Fallbrook,” Wireman said. “And we think the Board of Supervisors will see through it.”