Interest Groups Line Up to Put Imprint on Park

For all the government agencies involved in the development of a proposed 43-mile-long regional park along the San Dieguito River Valley, there are even more citizen groups--ranging from full-blooded environmentalists to neighboring property owners--who hope to apply some leverage of their own to its shape.

Some see their role as pricking the conscience of movers and shakers, helping them focus on a goal that they fear could too easily become mired in government bureaucracy.

Others are working behind the scenes, believing their quiet involvement might be more effective in bringing the plan together than government officials operating publicly.

Some groups want to guarantee a place within the park for their interest--perhaps a preserve for an endangered species, an enhanced lagoon habitat or equestrian trails.

Others see their mission as developing countywide enthusiasm for a regional park that, at least geographically, might otherwise win support only from a North County constituency and, thereby, lack the necessary countywide political support it needs for success.

“I don’t know of a project that has received as much interest from the public as this one,” said Susan Carter, the regional park project coordinator for the San Diego Assn. of Governments (Sandag), which is serving as a middleman of sorts in coordinating the efforts of federal, state, county and city government agencies and regional special districts.

The park planning is generating a lot of interest, Carter speculated, because individuals and special interest groups are eager, at this early stage in the planning, to imprint their own vision onto the park.

No fewer than 35 groups and organizations are represented on Sandag’s citizen advisory committee for the proposed park, ranging from the narrowly focused Native Plant Society to the League of Women Voters to the future-minded Citizens Coordinate for Century 3. Homeowner groups, planning advisory groups to the County Board of Supervisors and even the American Society of Landscape Architects are represented on the committee.

Focusing Attention

“I sincerely believe we will never have a park unless these people are active. The more active they are in the process, the more they help focus the elected officials on the goals,” said Carter.

“We don’t want government saying, ‘Here you go, here’s a park,’ and just plastering it on the ground and have it please no one,” she said.

Who are some of the groups represented on the advisory committee to the park, and what are their interests?

* Brewster Arms is president of the Rancho Santa Fe Assn. and served in 1987 as the chairman of the association’s river valley committee, established to monitor planning of the park because it borders the southern edge of Rancho Santa Fe.

“We don’t want to see another Mission Valley come up here, rising out of our river valley,” he said. “We favor limited development, if any at all. We don’t envision a Central Park, either, but more of a greenbelt, an open area with hiking and riding trails and the natural environment. We don’t picture a manicured, developed park area, but one that, to the greatest extent possible, will be kept in natural open space.”

* Albert Frowiss is vice chairman of the San Dieguito Planning Group, which advises county supervisors on land-use issues within the San Dieguito valley. No other advisory group represents a larger portion of the park planning area, and Frowiss is his group’s representative on the Sandag committee.

“We have elected politicians who want to create a regional park, but at the same time they want to approve their personal supporters’ projects that exist within the planning area for the park. . . . People want to develop their own property, yet we want to create a park with minimal development,” he said. “We’ve got to stop the onslaught of urban densities.”

* Norma Sullivan is chairman of the conservation committee of the San Diego Audubon Society.

“We’re concerned about the restoration of the (Batiquitos) lagoon. It’s half restored, and we’d like to see the other restored. There are over 160 bird species in the lagoon. And we want to protect as much of the natural river habitat as possible.”

* Bob Sensibaugh is vice president of the San Dieguito Land Conservancy, which was established two years ago to enlist the support of landowners willing to sell or dedicate their property for park use.

“We like to think there are some advantages in pursuing these negotiations privately. We can talk more candidly with landowners than can public agencies . . . we’re trying to solve the landowners’ problems, too, but obviously we have an objective.”

* Alice Goodkind is president of the Friends of the San Dieguito Valley, formed in 1986 and today boasting 350 dues-paying members.

“Our goals are to preserve the sensitive resources of the river valley watershed, whether by lobbying for preservation or for regulation by existing statutes, or by assisting in any regional park efforts. We’re concentrating on lobbying the agencies to purchase as much land as possible in the valley. We’ve got members from El Cajon to the Palomar Mountain, to Coronado to Oceanside--people who care about open space, bird habitat, even just the view from Interstate 5.”

* The League of Women Voters may conjure images of election forums, but the San Diego County chapter, like its counterparts elsewhere in the country, is studying environmental issues such as this park, says Veronica Seay, former president of the San Diego league and now its representative on Sandag’s advisory committee.

“If we agree with the final recommendations of the (Sandag) executive committee, then we’ll do our best to get the word out, to convince people--including public officials--to get behind the park, to commit to it, not only in money but in planning resources.”

* Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 is a 27-year-old organization “dedicated to improving urban planning through education and citizen participation,” said Karen Berger, the group’s representative on the Sandag committee. Historically the group has focused on urban issues, especially Balboa Park’s master plan for development, but now it is looking outward.

“There are developments we wish hadn’t gone into the San Dieguito Valley, but there are still opportunities for open space,” Berger said.

Her group’s contributions to the planning process? “We want to get the planning effort moving forward, so there’s something that can be acted on and implemented. This project won’t be completed in my lifetime. This is for the future, not for now. But I don’t want this left on the shelf. Now is the soonest we can start. We can’t do it yesterday.”