San Diego Action Draws Fire : Council OKs Disputed Land Lease to Escondido

The San Diego City Council voted, 6-3, Monday night to lease land to Escondido to allow more houses to be built in a controversial residential development north of Lake Hodges.

The lease also will allow extension of a proposed public golf course to a full par-72 length and preserve 11 acres of wetland that otherwise would have been filled in and built on.

Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer fought the lease as “a violation of the law and policy,” calling it “done in the back room with the good old boys at work.”

The 40-acre lease of city-owned land to Escondido will allow 54 more units to be built in the Lomas del Lago development because the open golf course land will be used by developer Jack Raymond in figuring the density of his 524-unit housing development.

Residents of surrounding Escondido neighborhoods have begun a petition drive to rescind an earlier $11.3-million land sale agreement between San Diego and Escondido in an attempt to halt development that they say is out of place with their half-acre and 40,000-square-foot lots. Some of the Lomas del Lago lots are in the 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot range.

Kris Murphy, an Escondido City Council candidate, unsuccessfully asked the San Diego Council to delay its action on the lease until after the referendum petition deadline of May 27. If the referendum drive is successful, the issue of the land sale would go to Escondido voters for approval or rescission.

Wolfsheimer was joined by Councilman Bob Filner and Mayor Maureen O’Connor in voting against the lease. O’Connor said her negative vote was based on the 62-year length of the land lease in an area where a regional park is being planned and on the low rental amount of $28 per acre per month.

“This is an out-and-out means of destroying the regional park,” Wolfsheimer said. She has been the leader in the attempt to establish a linear open space park along the San Dieguito River, stretching 43 miles from near Ramona to the ocean at Del Mar. The city’s San Pasqual Valley Agricultural Preserve, including the 40-acre lease parcel approved Monday, is projected as part of the regional park.

Land Exchange

Tied to the golf course lease was a land exchange with the San Pasqual Winery. The winery currently leases the 40-acre parcel and agreed to exchange it for another 40-acre parcel of city land so that the original parcel could be used to extend the golf course. But the seemingly innocuous land brought out an angry group of San Pasqual Valley residents, who charged that the council members were also approving expansion of the winery building and allowing new commercial uses on the property.

William Barnett, representing the San Pasqual-Lake Hodges Planning Group, argued that action amending the San Pasqual Winery lease was an attempt to circumvent the rights of those opposing the sale and expansion of the winery. A May 17 hearing is scheduled on allowing the new owners to expand the winery building for commercial uses.

Council members approved the winery land swap but deleted language that expanded commercial uses on the property.

Also approved was a 30-year lease of a 100-acre parcel to Evergreen Nursery, also in the San Pasqual Valley.