S.D. Lifts Moratorium in Rancho Penasquitos to Avoid Developer Suit

San Diego City Council members backed down Monday from a building moratorium they placed on the community of Rancho Penasquitos in December, granting permission for a major condominium project to proceed.

Despite protests from community leaders and Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, the council voted 6-1 to lift the building freeze because of a threatened lawsuit, which Mayor Maureen O’Connor said posed “a very substantial financial exposure” to the city.

In return for the council compromise, Pardee Construction Co. agreed to phase in construction of its 504-unit project and to delay occupancy of any units until new freeway ramps are opened in July.

Threat Called a Bluff

Wolfsheimer, who had championed the building freeze because of the traffic gridlock in Rancho Penasquitos, fought in vain Monday to retain it. She failed to change any council votes when she told fellow members that the developer’s attorney was bluffing in threatening to sue the city for $865,000 plus interest if the project was held up.

Wolfsheimer told Rancho Penasquitos residents that “I don’t buy the bluff” of Pardee attorney Charles Birke, and said the city had the power to freeze development when it is in the best interests of public health and safety.

Wolfsheimer, showing anger over the compromise, said the dangerous traffic situation and lack of traffic signals and adequate roads pose a threat to the public health and safety that developers could not contest.

‘Building a Record’

Wolfsheimer, an attorney, said she was “building a record” with her comments in preparation for testing the city’s powers to enforce a moratorium.

The Pardee project moratorium was placed under a new state law that allows such bans to be imposed to protect public health and safety--in this case, threatened by the dangerous traffic congestion in Rancho Penasquitos.

Pardee officials argued that a new freeway connection--North City Way--linking Penasquitos Boulevard with Interstate 15, plus a new two-lane bus/car pool route down the middle of I-15, will ease rush-hour traffic congestion. Both are scheduled to open in July.

North City Way--which is part of future Route 56, an east-west freeway linking I-15 with I-5 on the coast--is being built with developers’ fees.

The California Department of Transportation is building the high-occupancy-vehicle expressway from Rancho Penasquitos south in the median of I-15 for about eight miles to the California 163 cutoff. Traffic in the HOV lanes will be southbound during morning commutes and northbound in the afternoon.

Rancho Penasquitos residents now spend 25 to 45 minutes to reach I-15 and begin their freeway commute south.

Pardee attorneys filed a claim for damages against the city in January, charging that the development firm had received a “vested right” from the city to construct the condo complex in 1986 and that imposition of the moratorium resulted in “temporary taking of private property without just compensation.”

Rancho Penasquitos residents protested the end to the moratorium, expressing concern that the additional housing units and the construction vehicles will add to the road congestion.

Resident Lois Mangarelli chided the council for its “readiness to change your policy” in closed-door meetings “and without any public hearings.”

“You have a moral if not a legal obligation to live up to your commitment to us,” she told the council.

Initiatives Predicted

Kathleen Zaworski-Burke, a Penasquitos activist, criticized the council for placing Monday’s compromise action on the consent docket, which usually is passed with a single vote and no discussion. She warned that such concessions to developers will bring on “the age of initiatives,” citizen-sponsored petition campaigns to halt the pace of growth in the community.

O’Connor defended the compromise as “the only logical thing to do” because of the “very substantial financial exposure” that the moratorium posed.

“We couldn’t win this in court,” she said. “There is not a council member here that would not like to support your cause, but we must consider the total public good, and this is going to cost the taxpayer.”

Under the compromise, Pardee can begin construction of half the units--252 condos--immediately. Another 126 units can be started after Aug. 15, and the rest after Feb. 15, 1989.

Pardee officials claimed the company has already spent about $3 million on the project and will lose another $850,000 or more from further delays.

The agreement between the city and Pardee was reached during a series of council executive sessions, according to Linda Bernhardt, a Wolfsheimer aide.