Pact Trims Daley Ranch Size, Ends Dispute

Both Escondido city officials and developers expressed satisfaction Thursday with a tentative agreement of a longstanding dispute that slashes by nearly half the number of houses allowed on a 3,048-acre parcel in the northeast section of the city.

“Everything that’s happened now is positive, the city is happy and we’re happy and we just want to go forward,” said John Daley, president of Daley Corp. and one of two developers of the land.

The developer last year filed a $380-million lawsuit against the city, three City Council members and the city attorney. But on Thursday, Daley expressed some regrets about the lawsuit, saying that it “probably would be safe to assume” he might have reached a more favorable deal with the city using less hostile tactics.

“We’re pleased with the way the result came out, especially since the results are in concert with our new general plan,” said Mayor Jerry Harmon, referring to the plan approved last June which significantly reduced the housing density for the area.

The tentative agreement reached Wednesday is apparently the last chapter in an eight-year struggle over the Daley Ranch project and scales it down from its proposed 3,263 units to 1,700 units, City Attorney David Chapman said.

Daley Ranch Associates, a partnership between the Daley Corp. and Shea Homes, had sued the city last year after the city blocked the original project because of the density of units involved.

The suit claimed that the city refused to honor an agreement reached in 1984 allowing the project to proceed as planned.

The City Council at the time had made a non-binding, preliminary agreement allowing for the construction of 3,263 homes, but a 1986 election brought in a slow-growth council majority that blocked the plan. This year, two new council members came on board, creating a unanimous slow-growth council.

A general plan for the city adopted last June reflected the council’s wish for a lower housing density in the area, but by then Daley Ranch had already purchased $4.9 million in sewer and water connection rights.

The tentative agreement would resolve the lawsuit, which named then-councilman Harmon and council members Carla DeDominicis and Kris Murphy, Chapman said.

“From the city’s perspective, the lawsuit was always a very minor consideration in our willingness to sit down and talk with them. The city was never impressed with the litigation that was filed against it,” Chapman said.

“We tried to have the lawsuit not affect the atmosphere of the negotiations. Inevitably, however, when you have hard feelings over big issues such as this, personal characteristics can enter the situation,” Chapman said. “The negotiations were, for the most part, cordial and productive, and I hope we have passed the acrimony that characterized our earlier relationship.”

City Manager Doug Clark said that “things were contentious at times” during the beginning of negotiations, which started in May, but that the last four months had been “more cordial and positive.”

A newsletter distributed by Daley Ranch Associates extolling the virtues of the proposed development was particularly irksome to community members, Clark said.

“It was seen for what it was, which was basically a public relations tool to make the city look bad and make them look good, but I don’t think that kind of thing fooled people,” Clark said.

“I think the strategies they used are typical,” Mayor Harmon said. “Whenever you are trying to sway public opinion those are certainly tools which, if you have enough money and clout, you can use.”

Harmon believes that the election of an all slow-growth council by Escondido voters sent a strong signal to Daley Ranch that they are committed to controlled growth in the city, thus bringing them to the negotiating table.

Although the agreement allows the development of fewer houses on the same piece of land, it does not necessarily mean that there will be larger lots, Chapman said. Rather, Chapman said, there will be more open space on the land, which currently sits deserted.

Clark said the tentative agreement could allow for a larger project on the same piece of land, but only if the developer is willing to make a major investment in public facilities such as schools, library systems, fire service and parks.