Mountain Turns Back Into Molehill

It’s the kind of dispute that stereotypical notions about government are built on.

A non-issue turned into a big deal because of one anonymous complaint. Then it took two years of public hearings, zoning debates and action by the Board of Supervisors to settle the matter.

In the end, only minor changes were made in zoning laws.

What happened was that the Solana Beach school district was allowing children and community groups to use a vacant piece of land it owns in Fairbanks Ranch. The land will eventually be used for a school, but, in the meantime, the school district saw no reason that the land should not be used for soccer games and the like.

Seems like a common-sense approach.

Apparently someone disagreed, however, and complained to the county. After a zoning inspection, it was determined that the use fell into a gray area of the law. School districts have absolute control over their properties once a school is built. But the county has some say before that. Trouble is, no one had ever brought up the issue before.

Once the anonymous complainer made a fuss, however, a legal solution had to be found. The only ones available were the cumbersome permit processes used for substantive zoning matters. And they would have cost the school district thousands of dollars. A molehill had become a mountain.

After two years, the Board of Supervisors came to a reasonable resolution, which allows children and community groups to use the land, much as before, with a few minor changes such as a requirement to provide parking.

But the process, no doubt, left many North County residents wondering about how so much time could be spent on so little.