Council Vote Fends Off Home Construction on Miramar Ranch North

In a decision that virtually precludes home construction on the shores north of Lake Miramar for the next year, the San Diego City Council Tuesday re-imposed tough protections for the environmentally sensitive topography throughout the Miramar Ranch North and Scripps Ranch areas.

The unanimously approved emergency ordinance was designed by Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt as a tactic to force McMillin Communities to negotiate a new development plan for the controversial 1,200-acre Miramar Ranch North area, where the builder now intends to put more than 2,900 homes.

The 12-month temporary ordinance, while not technically a building moratorium, contains hillside protections and other provisions that will make it economically difficult for McMillin to build on the picturesque slopes north of the lake that community activists have vowed to save from development.

The only exception is a 54-acre industrial park at the western edge of the hills that has been fully approved by the city. McMillin began grading the site Thursday, but voluntarily halted the work Friday after negotiations with Bernhardt Thursday night.

“Effectively, (the ordinance) makes it impossible to do anything without working with the community,” said Bernhardt, who repeated her longstanding opposition to the project unless it is completely overhauled.

“It will be very, very difficult to build anything there,” said J. Gary Underwood, chairman of the Save Miramar Lake Committee. “I don’t see how they could build anything.”

McMillin official Walter Heiberg said that the ordinance gives his company the right to build the industrial park, 1,359 homes outside the lake view area that community activists do not oppose and a four-lane road near the lake’s northern shore that they have vowed to halt.

But Heiberg declined to comment on whether McMillin would move ahead with plans to build two miles of a critical east-west link between Poway and I-15, known as Alternate 8A.

“We are just going to sit down after this City Council hearing and review all the options we have available,” Heiberg said.

Poway officials Tuesday renewed their pleas to the council to get the road built, but McMillin has repeatedly claimed that provision of the road, a school, parks, a fire station and other public facilities is not economically feasible without building homes in the disputed area. Bernhardt and community activists disagree.

Underwood’s citizens group created the current stalemate last April by gathering enough signatures on petitions to force a citywide referendum on the “development agreement” that, at the time, guaranteed BCE Development the right to build 3,360 homes on 1,200 acres north of Scripps Ranch. BCE, which owns the land, has since entered into a joint venture with McMillin.

Rather than hold the referendum, the City Council rescinded the agreement, making it impossible for BCE to gain financing for the huge project. The developers and the citizens group attempted to negotiate a new plan last summer but could not reach a compromise.

Tuesday’s vote re-imposes hillside protections removed by the council in a 5-4 vote in 1987, a move backed by then District 5 Councilman Ed Struiksma, whose pro-development stance was a key factor in his loss to Bernhardt last November.

The building restrictions also apply to several other undeveloped parcels in Miramar Ranch North and Scripps Ranch. The ordinance calls for a complete review of the community plans which govern development in the two areas.