Divided Council OKs Controversial Housing

A divided San Diego City Council Tuesday approved construction of 676 homes on the sharply sloped terrain of a controversial “county island” near Scripps Ranch.

The council’s approval of two developments came despite claims by opponents that the heavy grading of hillsides and filling of canyons required for the projects contradicts the council’s intention of protecting that kind of topography as part of a growth-management plan it is preparing to place before voters in November.

In the case of one of the developments, the 316-home Sunburst Scripps project, the approval came despite sharp criticism of the plan from the city’s Planning Department and rejection by the Planning Commission and planning director.

“You cannot continue to approve this kind of project while simultaneously trying to convince the people that you want to control growth and protect sensitive lands,” said Kathy Giles, a Sierra Club member. “The people are too smart for this.”

“I have never seen so much cut and fill, and such a lack of sensitivity to the topography since I have been sitting here . . . “ said District 1 Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, who voted against both projects. “I am truly shocked.”

But supporters of the developments noted that most of the grading and filling is required to build community parks and realign Pomerado Road, which is scheduled to be rebuilt when the city annexes the 435-acre county island in August. They also cited majority votes of the community planning group for both projects.

“When it is all said and done, the matter before us meets the needs and requirements of the community, but has run afoul of the Planning Department,” said District 5 Councilman Ed Struiksma, who represents the area where the homes will be built.

By a 6-2 vote, with Wolfsheimer and District 8 Councilman Bob Filner dissenting, the council approved the Scripps Eastview development, which will consist of 360 single-family homes on 123 acres on the northwest side of Pomerado Road. In a second 5-3 vote, with Wolfsheimer, Filner and District 2 Councilman Ron Roberts dissenting, the council authorized the Scripps Sunburst project of 316 homes on 57 acres.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor, the council’s ninth member, is in the Soviet Union making arrangements for a Soviet arts festival tentatively scheduled to be held in San Diego next year.

The two votes could end the long debate over at least part of the county island, which began in 1979 when annexation was first proposed. The Local Agency Formation Commission approved the annexation in April.

In March, the council voted to keep Pomerado Road closed to traffic from Poway until that city completes a 2.1-mile stretch of the South Poway Parkway between Pomerado Road and the Mercy Road interchange with Interstate 15.

Two lawsuits claiming that the annexation violates terms of the city’s 1985 slow-growth initiative were dismissed last month.

However, the development may be subject to restrictions imposed by the growth-management plan if the council votes to apply those restrictions to previously approved projects when it completes the plan next month.

Environmental Issue

Giles, of the Sierra Club, raised the environmental issue first, testifying that both projects would require cutting 75 feet off the tops of some hillsides and using that earth to fill equally deep canyons. The Scripps Eastview project would require moving 2.8 million cubic yards of earth, and the Sunburst Scripps project would require moving 1.6 million cubic yards of earth, she said.

“It is the epitome of land-form alteration,” Giles said. “It is the epitome of greed.”

Filner agreed, noting that the council will take up its land-protection regulations July 14. “I just think, as good policy, we ought to have the plan first and then take up the projects. . . . We are just making more and more problems for ourselves as we go along,” he said.

The city’s Planning Department, which recommended approval of the Scripps Eastview project, also criticized the Sunburst Scripps development. It cited “the packed-in nature of 154 single-family homes on small lots with very minimal front-yard setbacks, inconvenient guest parking, narrow streets . . . slopes which are substitutes for open-space features commonly found” in Scripps Ranch.

The open space is primarily in the back yards of the single-family homes, the report said.

But Paul Peterson, an attorney representing Sunburst Homes Corp., developers of Sunburst Scripps, said the project contains twice the usable open space required by city regulations, and could contain more open space if Giles and others on her Scripps Ranch street had not insisted on a 200-foot buffer between their homes and the project.

The developers agreed, “and what did it get us? Their continued opposition, year after year after year,” Peterson said.

Peterson said developers also reduced the development by 90 homes in negotiations with the community planning group and will install $14 million worth of infrastructure improvements before residents move in.

City planner Judy Braswell said grading of the site could in four to six weeks.