Council Votes Not to Close Old Black Mountain Road

Old Black Mountain Road, once a bumpy trail for the Butterfield stagecoach and now a dusty route for inland commuters to the coast, will remain open despite concerns by San Diego city officials that its users may sue the city for megabucks one of these days.

Impassioned pleas by drivers who use the east-west roller coaster in lieu of crowded Interstate 15 or even more crowded Mira Mesa Boulevard convinced San Diego City Council members that the substandard “back door” from Rancho Penasquitos should remain open until a paved, safe alternative is built.

The route, which meanders westward from a Penasquitos East development, is within city boundaries but not recognized as a city street because of its 1.5-mile stretch of rocky, dusty roadway that includes hairpin curves and narrow lanes.

City attorneys have warned that the city could be forced to pay out millions in civil damages to motorists injured on the unimproved roadway and have recommended that the road be closed until a safer route is built that would allow Penasquitos commuters and other North County residents to reach the coast without running into the traffic snarls that I-15 and Mira Mesa Boulevard engender.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, with Councilwoman Judy McCarty absent, the council opted to keep the old road to the coast open until a safe alternative route is built. To pacify Penasquitos homeowners who are plagued by the through traffic on their residential streets, the council pledged to intensify traffic enforcement to a point of making the Woodcrest Glen area a “speed trap” during commuting hours.

Speeding Up Negotiations

The council also ordered the city manager to speed up negotiations with Escondido-based Signal Landmark to reach a development agreement to provide a paved east-west road from Penasquitos to I-5 in return for approval of a planned residential development. The development firm has been negotiating with San Diego city officials for about a year to obtain the right to build clustered housing in an area now reserved by the city for development after 1996.

Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer said that progress is being made with the Signal group and promised that a final project will be presented to the full council soon.

Councilman Ed Struiksma led the fight to keep the Black Mountain Road segment open, arguing that, if it were closed, the more than 2,000 cars a day that use the road would go south, congesting residential streets and Mira Mesa Boulevard in his district.

Al Frowiss, chairman of the San Dieguito Planning Group, warned that, if the east-west connector were closed, traffic would gravitate north to Artesian Road or Del Dios Highway to reach the coast, affecting “the heart of Rancho Santa Fe.”

City planners recommended to the council that the old, unpaved road be closed temporarily because it does not meet city street standards and the city could be held responsible for accidents. Even though the council voted to erect signs at the ends of the unpaved portion, warning motorists that they proceed at their own risk, the liability remains, city attorneys said.

Closure Backers Outnumbered

Residents of the Woodcrest development who sought to have the road closed in order to prevent through traffic on their residential streets leading to the shortcut were outnumbered 4 to 1 by speakers urging that the road is needed.

Norm Osborne, owner of the Evergreen Nursery, said the company’s site on Black Mountain Road receives 30% to 40% of its trade from the east--customers who could not reach the nursery if the road were closed. He estimated that his firm and five other nurseries in the area would have to lay off as many as 100 workers if the road closed.

Councilman Ron Roberts grudgingly voted not to close Black Mountain Road, but warned that “someday, someone is going to come in here and sue us . . . and we are going to lose (the money for) a park or other much-needed improvement.”

Wolfsheimer argued against the road closure under any condition, contending that, “with rapid growth, now is not the time to close any road, anywhere.”