New Slow-Growth Council Acts : Escondido Pulls the Plug on 640-Unit Development

The curtain went up on a new era in Escondido this week when the City Council served notice that it plans to say no to growth.

First to feel the sting of the council’s newly seated slow growth majority was Signal Landmark’s Eaglecrest, a 640-unit estate development on the city’s southeastern outskirts.

Veteran Councilman Jerry Harmon and newcomers Kris Murphy and Carla DeDominicis voted with Mayor Doris Thurston Wednesday night to reconsider a development agreement granted the Irvine-based Signal developers and set a July 27 public hearing on the issue.

Thurston, who assumed the mayor’s seat from outspoken Jim Rady this week, conceded that she had voted in favor of the development--a gated estate community in the hills near the San Diego Wild Animal Park--when it first came before the council and still considers it “an excellent plan.”

Growth-Inducing Factor

But, she said, she voted for the development agreement with the proviso that conditions be placed in the contract to prevent Eaglecrest from becoming a growth-inducing factor to surrounding properties.

City Atty. David Chapman said that Rady signed the agreement just before leaving office. He said the former mayor’s action was premature because the development agreement did not take effect until Friday and should not have been signed until then. That made Rady’s signature invalid, Chapman said.

Rady, contacted Thursday, acknowledged signing the document prematurely, saying: “I signed anything and everything that the City Clerk stuck in front of my nose.”

Chapman said that, to go into effect, the document must be signed by Mayor Thurston. He ruled that the new council had the right to reconsider and revoke the agreement if it chose to do so.

Attorney Tim Paone, representing Signal Landmark, protested the council action and disagreed with Chapman.

“We feel we have a valid agreement, which the mayor is required by law to sign,” Paone said. He added that “what this council is considering borders on the verge of illegality.”

He said he feels that the new council’s action was the “equivalent of the Old West version of taking the developer out and shooting him,” which won a round of applause from an overflow audience there to witness the city’s first slow-growth council in action.

‘Trampling’ Rights

He charged the council with “trampling on the rights” of developers who had approved development plans granted by the previous pro-growth council coalition of Rady, defeated Councilman Doug Best and Councilman Ernie Cowan.

Cowan, the only member of the coalition to remain on the council, was on vacation and did not attend the Wednesday-night session.

After Wednesday’s meeting, Paone said he would confer with Signal officials about alternatives for the developers but refused to comment on the possibility of bringing legal action against the city “because I don’t want to inflame the situation.”