Ranch Bypass Backers Stymied Again--This Time by Clues to Life

County supervisors have found themselves in the path of an irresistible force as it heads for an immovable object.

The irresistible force is the combined clout of the Rancho Santa Fe community, whose estate boundaries are breached daily by hordes of commuting motorists heading east and west across the county to jobs and school and shopping.

The immovable object is an internationally recognized site of prehistoric artifacts that archeologists have been poring over for years, seeking the secrets of some of Southern California’s first human residents and those who came after.

Unfortunately, this archeological treasure trove lies smack-dab in the path of a proposed bypass highway that Rancho Santa Fe residents have sought for more than two decades as a way to rid their estate community’s narrow roads of regional traffic.

In June, 1989, the county Historical Site Board voted 13 to 0 in favor of designating the archeological site as a historical site, rezoning it to protect it from intrusion by developers or road builders or anything else.

A month later, the county Planning Commission followed suit, recommending to the Board of Supervisors that it protect the prehistoric artifacts, the oldest yet discovered in the San Diego area.

The board did not take up the issue for more than a year, and, since last October, has delayed making a decision, hoping for a compromise that would both satisfy the present residents of the area while not disturbing those of the past.

Perhaps the artifacts could be removed. Perhaps the road could bridge the archeological site. Or perhaps the road could be shifted to the east to avoid desecration of the area where up to 12,000 years of history lie.

Board Chairman John MacDonald acknowledged the conundrum.

“Highway 680 is very, very important to the traffic circulation of the entire mid-county area,” MacDonald said. No other major east-west route exists between California 78, which is about 10 miles to the north, and California 52, about 12 miles to the south.

The 60-acre archeological site lies in the most accessible river crossing to link 680 with Del Dios Highway and the northwestward extension of the proposed 680 alignment.

David Solomon, deputy county engineer, said three routes are being studied by San Diego-based Boyle Engineering Corp. Two of the sites are to the east of the archeological site and one is directly through it. Solomon said it is not likely that the Boyle studies will be completed in time for county supervisors to act on the issue at a scheduled Feb. 13 hearing.

The Rancho Santa Fe Assn., after more than two decades of waiting for the county to come up with the millions of dollars necessary to build the cross-county highway bypassing its community, have persuaded property owners to join in a massive assessment district to advance the funds for the road.

Now, having found a way to finance the highway construction, Rancho Santa Fe officials find the path blocked by angry scientists who insist that the river-bank relics hold the key to the beginnings of human life in Southern California and contain important clues to the links between these first prehistoric cultures and the Indian tribes that lived on the land thousands of years later.

“We need somehow to find another route” for the highway, MacDonald said, explaining that he is convinced of the importance of the archeological site and the answers it holds about Southern California’s earliest human cultures. But Rancho Santa Fe Assn. officials disagree.

Jim Hare, association planning director, said “the matter is not as straightforward as it appears to be.” Moving the route connection to the east would cause engineering problems and would make a less convenient connection with the rest of the proposed highway, he said.

Association manager Walt Eckard said that an awkward junction of the bypass could be disastrous to Rancho Santa Fe, shunting traffic from nearby developments--such as Rancho Cielo--onto the village’s streets, increasing the congestion instead of alleviating the problem.

Bridging the archeological site is the favored solution by most Rancho Santa Fe residents, but that is an unacceptable solution to scientists, who discovered the site in 1919 and have kept it hidden from the souvenir-hunting public ever since.

Removal of the artifacts would be considered sacrilege because, archeologists argue, it is the juxtaposition of the different layers of relics that hold the answers to many historic and prehistoric mysteries. Did the La Jolla and San Dieguito cultures coexist? The contents of the San Dieguito River site seem to indicate they did, although not all scientists are convinced of this.

The San Dieguito-La Jolla controversy is “a major area of academic conflict,” according to historic site board consultant Ron May. “There is no other known site assemblage that has the potential to successfully resolve this controversy.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see what the studies come up with,” MacDonald said. “I can only hope that they come up with a satisfactory answer.”