Gopher Canyon Landowner at Odds With County Over Use of Home-Zoned Site

A Vista businessman who says he is preparing a parcel of land along Gopher Canyon Road for commercial development is in hot water with San Diego County authorities who charge, among other things, that he graded to within a foot of a major underground water pipeline.

San Diego County Water Authority engineer Bill Temple said the dump trucks that are driven across the pipeline could crush it if they are fully loaded, as only a foot of earth covers the 6-foot-diameter pipe.

Furthermore, county officials said, the property, zoned for rural residential use, has been graded without necessary permits and is now being used illegally for truck parking and a trucking business. In addition, they said, a structure on the property has been erected without a building permit.

Gus Janis, who owns a trucking business with other family members, said he has done nothing wrong.

Janis, his attorney and a host of county officials are scheduled to meet today to discuss the issues.

Janis said he bought the parcel, about half a mile west of Interstate 15 and north of Escondido, in December with the intention of getting a grading permit to do some preliminary earth moving.

He said he has no plans to develop the property now, but rather will sit on it “for three, four or five years” until he can have it rezoned for commercial use. At that time, he said, he will do his fine grading for commercial development.

The dump trucks are at the site, he said, so that as soon as he gets the necessary grading permits, he can begin work there. He acknowledged, however, that he uses those trucks on other jobs in North County and parks them on the Gopher Canyon Road land when they are idle.

The structure on the property, he said, is no more than two pairs of portable cargo containers, stacked two-high, for storage of material and equipment.

There is nothing wrong, he maintained, with putting trucks and storage equipment on the site, the residential zoning notwithstanding, because it is in preparation for site development, pending final engineering work required for a grading permit. It is a common practice among contractors preparing to work on a job site to bring construction-related equipment onto the property temporarily, he said.

Grading Claim Denied

Janis said he has done no grading on the site, save having moved some asphalt and concrete scrap onto the property as fill material--which he promptly removed as soon as he was called to task by grading enforcement officers.

Janis took particular issue with the contention by the County Water Authority that he graded down to within a foot of the pipeline, which is one of three that run along a 130-foot-wide easement across his property. The other two, larger pipelines are buried deeper.

“Nothing has been done” in grading along the easement, Janis insisted. “We didn’t touch it. That’s a fact. I know better than to do that. Why would I want to grade it?

“They’re just trying to flaunt their authority out here.”

No Formal Citation

Sue Gray, a zoning enforcement officer for the county’s Department of Planning and Land Use, said Janis has been sent a letter notifying him of a zoning violation because of the way he is using his property, which is zoned for minimum-size two-acre residential lots. But the county hasn’t formally cited Janis as yet.

“Neither the (trucking) business nor the parking are permitted in that zone,” she said. “He has been told to correct the problem and he has not done so.”

Gray said it has also determined that Janis’ structure requires a building permit, and that he has none.

Marilyn Broz, a grading enforcement officer, said she has visited the site twice--once in November, and again Feb. 8--and saw evidence of significant site grading even though Janis has no grading permit on file.

Most apparent, she said, was an 8-foot vertical cut into the slope of a hillside, alongside which the trucks are parked. On her return visit earlier this month, that cut was closer to 10 feet high, she said--an indication of continued grading.

Put in Fertilizer

Janis said the original cut was made before he moved onto the property--most likely by the very contractor who leveled part of the property during the installation of the water pipelines so he could store the pipes on site. The cut looked deeper on Broz’ return visit, he said, because he put a mound of fertilizer on the high side of the cut for use in his grandmother’s garden.

“Every little grandmother in the county is going to be in trouble with the grading department,” he said.

Temple of the County Water Authority said when the pipeline was originally buried on the property some 30 years ago, it was under 3 1/2 to 4 feet of earth.

“Mr. Janis, without talking to us, then cut a fill so he could drive up to his diesel (fuel storage) tanks, fill up his trucks and make a turn-around,” Temple said.