New Park May Be Inaccessible--by Design

High in the rugged hills that march across the midsection of San Diego County’s coastal terrain is a very exclusive mountain named Israel.

Someday, the county willing, it and surrounding peaks will be home to Rancho Cielo, an enclave of residents who will live high in the sky and gaze down on the rest of the world.

Much sooner than that, however, it will be home to a new park, one that is open to everyone but available to very few.

And, in about five years, a reservoir.

David McCollom, assistant manager for the Olivenhain Municipal Water District, said the agency did not plan to have a restricted-access park but that’s what the neighbors wanted. What the neighbors did not want was a lot of traffic and noise from outsiders creating the kind of environmental pollution they were leaving the big city to escape.

Construction is expected to begin in 60 to 90 days, McCollom said, adding that more than $600,000 will be spent the first year to create Mt. Israel Park.

The district in 1979 bought about 230 acres, situated in a V-shaped box canyon at the 900-foot level, for a reservoir and dam. To protect the watershed around the reservoir, officials leased about 500 acres from the federal Bureau of Land Management. The BLM said recreational development of the land would be required.

To meet that requirement, initial plans to develop Mt. Israel Park included a paved access road to the mountain heights from Del Dios Highway on the southwestern outskirts of Escondido. Del Dios and Escondido residents in the area protested. And won.

In their roughly 700-acre park, which will eventually include the reservoir, Olivenhain officials had planned in the early ‘80s to develop hiking and horse trails as well as overnight camping sites with electricity, water, and perhaps showers and a laundry room. They had envisioned large picnic areas for family or community gatherings of up to 100 people, a summer camp with cabins, a botanical garden, a riding stable, rental cabins, ball fields, an outdoor amphitheater, interpretive tours and recreational vehicle campgrounds.

But overnight camping of any kind was strongly opposed by the neighbors--Rancho Santa Fe, Harmony Grove, Elfin Forest, Del Dios and Fairbanks Ranch. So was any type of group activity that might attract rowdy crowds into the bucolic setting. Those communities--squeezed between the bustling cities of Escondido and San Marcos, hemmed in on the south by the booming San Diego suburbs of Rancho Bernardo, Penasquitos and North City West--do not welcome strangers.

Riding stables and summer camps were deleted from the plans because, a study showed, they “are very difficult to maintain due to labor problems and their low margin of profitability.” RV parks and mountain cabins were scratched because of the lack of access roads. Ball fields were rejected because the site is “too remote for league play” and the native botanical garden erased when it became obvious that volunteers, such as retirees, and most visitors, would not be able to climb the mountain trails to care for the place.

What was left in Mt. Israel Park after all the paring and pruning with the community planners was completed were:

- A “staging area” off Harmony Grove Road, where 20 cars or 10 vehicles with horse trailers can be accommodated.

- About 7 miles of hiking trails and about 6 miles of horse paths, leading to and from the staging areas to the heights.

- Several rustic picnic areas, equipped with tables and benches, chemical toilets and water for horses and humans. No cooking or campfires will be allowed, McCollom said. In fact, no smoking will be allowed in the park confines because of the remoteness of the area and the often tinder-dry condition of the brush.

- Outlook points with simple gazebos. For those hardy enough to reach them, the viewpoints offer spectacular vistas from heights above 1,175 feet on the valleys below.

McCollom concedes that water district officials, who didn’t particularly want to get into the park-operating business, were not all that unhappy about losing the road and scaling down the initial plans. The present project, costing almost $1 million, satisfies both the neighbors and the BLM.

But, in five years or so, when a lake will be added to the park in the form of a major reservoir holding 10,000 to 24,000 acre-feet, McCollom said, public pressure will probably build to make the park accessible to all.

A road or two would open up the recreational areas to everyone, he explained, and, “in Southern California, the lure of water is strong.”