Fairbanks Ranch Field Now a No Man’s Land

A legal duel between county and school district attorneys has turned a 10-acre Fairbanks Ranch playing field into a no man’s land.

County planning commissioners voted Friday to side with county lawyers and turn down an appeal by the Solana Beach School District to allow its future Fairbanks Ranch school site to be used for recreational activities without requiring an expensive county use permit. Under the decision, future use of the site will be out of bounds until a permit is obtained or until construction is started on an elementary school building.

County planner Ben Grame told commissioners that the issue was not an emotional one of whether kids should be allowed to play games on the future school site, but a legal matter of the school district violating the county zoning ordinance and, in effect, making land-use decisions itself.

If Solana Beach school officials are allowed to continue to flout county zoning regulations by allowing non-school uses on the school site, they could also allow an auto repair shop or a San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium to be placed on the site.

Backers Cry Foul

Backers of the school district stance cried foul over county intervention in a community activity that they say benefits the public, arguing that the site serves as a community center, much as the school building will become when it is built in the next 3 or 4 years.

Crossing swords over the issue were D. Dwight Worden, attorney for the school district, and Roger Woolley, representing Fairbanks complainants Paul and Barbara Bouzan. In the middle of the muddle are 225 soccer players who use the field year-round, plus half a dozen other groups sponsoring benefits, special olympics, concerts, picnics and recreational events on the field.

Worden argued that the school district, which was given the site by Watt Industries in 1979, was required by state educational codes to allow its use for “civic purposes.” Woolley and county lawyers argued that the school district is required to submit to county zoning controls and to obtain a county permit before allowing non-classroom activities on the playing field.

Friday’s Planning Commission vote affirmed that the soccer players and other playing field occupants will be illegally using the school site until school district officials obtain a major use permit from the county, a process that Planning Department personnel estimated could cost from $3,000 to $12,000.

School Supt. Ray Edmon said after the hearing that the school district had no intention of applying for a county permit or of denying use of the field to any group entitled to use it.

“The ball is in their court,” Edmon said of county zoning enforcement officials.

Conflict Began Last Summer

Edmon said that the conflict over the playing field arose last summer when the Bouzans, who live next to the playing field, complained about noise, litter and other negative impacts of the school site use. Since that time, when district officials took control of the playing field usage, “not one complaint has come into our district offices.”

The superintendent conceded that there had been some earlier violations--such as beer drinking and littering--on the playing field, but contended that the school district now has taken over supervision of the site.

Woolley and Thomas Lundmark, a deputy county counsel, countered that the school officials were in violation of county zoning ordinances that regulate land-use controls and face penalties if they ignore the county’s warnings about the violations.

Solana Beach school trustees voted last week to exempt the district and themselves from county zoning controls, an action that Worden argued is allowed under the state Education Code.

A dozen playing field supporters urged planning commissioners unsuccessfully to find some compromise solution to the legal tangle that would allow continued legal use of the school site for Fairbanks Ranch civic and recreational uses.