S.D. Council Approves Land Sale to Escondido : City Gets $11.3 Million, Half Interest in Public Golf Course in Controversial Deal

The City of San Diego sold 263 acres to Escondido on Tuesday, receiving $11.3 million in cash and half interest in a public golf course in exchange.

The negotiated sale passed by a bare majority of five San Diego City Council votes and is contingent on Escondido’s buying about $8 million in water and sewer rights from San Diego.

The controversial land sale involves property surrounding the North County Fair Shopping Center in southern Escondido. The Escondido City Council last week approved the sale conditions under which the San Diego land will be acquired and then sold by the City of Escondido to Lomas Serenas developers in a three-way escrow.

San Diego Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer fought the land sale, arguing that more than $9 million in taxpayers’ money would be lost because the property was not put up for competitive bidding.

Listing “10 good reasons for not entering into this agreement,” Wolfsheimer challenged fellow council members “to give me one good reason why we should.” Her vehement opposition to the agreement drew criticism from outgoing Councilman Bill Cleator.

“Abbe, you just don’t understand. You are embarrassing yourself,” Cleator told Wolfsheimer when she continued a mini-filibuster over San Diego’s water and sewer rights on the land.

But Councilwoman Judy McCarty stood up for Wolfsheimer, pointing out that “I get the idea here that we were about to give away $8 million a few minutes ago. Now we are saving taxpayers $8 million.”

The property involved is owned by the San Diego Water Utilities Department and lies to the east and west of Interstate 15 and the regional shopping center along the northern edge of Lake Hodges. The developer, Lomas Serenas, has pledged to buy the two parcels from Escondido for the price that city pays San Diego for the land, then deed back 120 acres east of the shopping center to the two cities for development of a golf course.

Wolfsheimer argued that sale of the San Diego city property was against the City Council’s policy calling for retaining ownership of city-owned property and leasing it on a long-term basis, not selling it outright. She also stressed that if the city land were to be sold, it should be through competitive bidding.

Opponents of the land exchange included the Sierra Club and members of the San Dieguito River Regional Park planning committees, who said that the land should be used as exchange for sensitive river valley property needed for the proposed 43-mile-long regional park extending from the ocean to near Ramona.

Under the agreement approved Tuesday, the City of Escondido will pay the City of San Diego $11.3 million for the land and will acquire the $8 million in sewer and water entitlements that San Diego holds on the property. The developer, presumably, would purchase both the land and the utility rights from Escondido.

San Diego plans to retain two other small parcels in the area, including a 9-acre frontage on I-15 that, according to the two-city agreement, would be rezoned for neighborhood commercial usage by Escondido and leased to the developer by San Diego.

The two cities would cooperate in constructing and operating an 18-hole public golf course that Escondido and San Diego residents would be able to use at reduced greens fees, similar to San Diego’s Torrey Pines and Balboa Park courses. The two cities also would share in any profits from operation of the course.

In an announcement sent out by registered mail last Thursday, Escondido planning officials reported that the city would be the lead agency in preparing an environmental impact report on the private residential development.

The developers plan to transfer development rights from the golf course property to a 107-acre tract west of I-15, building a maximum of 552 homes and a small commercial center there.

Spokesmen from the Lomas Serenas development were unavailable Tuesday to comment on whether the $8 million in sewer-water entitlements claimed by San Diego might cause the firm to withdraw from the three-way escrow.