Living a Catch-22 : Del Dios Residents Face Devil of Time Bringing Homes Up to Code

In Del Dios, on the western edge of Lake Hodges, relaxed is a way of life. Wildflowers line the narrow, winding roads leading from the cliffs to the lake below. Horses graze in small back yards, next to clotheslines with freshly hung laundry.

Few would guess that Del Dios has become a battleground, where almost no one is happy or optimistic about keeping his home.

“People feel chased out, down on their luck,” said Gregg Sawyer, who has lived in Del Dios for five years. “They want so much to maintain this little island in the midst of an ugly suburban sprawl. But holding on? It’s like trying to prevent the inevitable.”

For years, Del Dios has seen the problem coming--not in its way of life but in how it is perceived by San Diego County. Officials say that almost all the 184 homes in Del Dios, a small, unincorporated strip between Rancho Santa Fe and Escondido, violate at least one county ordinance.

Most of the laws govern the size of leach fields needed for septic tanks, the area’s only method of waste disposal. Homeowners are eager to buy land next to their own lots, most of which are 50-by-100 feet. By doing so, they could improve existing leach fields and conform to code.

But the city of San Diego owns more than 70% of the land in Del Dios, meaning most adjacent lots. City Manager Jack McGrory says the city has no plans to sell the land or lease it to homeowners.

The city bought the land in 1954 when it planned to flood the entire area to build a much larger reservoir and dam at Lake Hodges--the so-called Super Hodges project--but that went awry when the lake proved too shallow.

So, at the moment, residents are left with what Ali Shapouri, a senior planner for San Diego County, calls a classic Catch-22.

“The people can’t bring their buildings to code, because they lack the leach field areas,” Shapouri said. “And they can’t expand existing leach fields, because the city owns the land. The city refuses to sell, so, it’s a bad situation. Homeowners are just there, stuck in illegal buildings.”

Barbara Cokeley, a Del Dios homeowner for 15 years, said that, since October, “it’s felt like almost daily harassment. They go up and down the streets, telling us we’re not at code. Oh, really, no kidding? It’s like asking us to take an old Model T and get a smog certificate. It ain’t gonna happen.”

Last month, the County Board of Supervisors approved a joint task force with the city and the San Dieguito River Valley Joint Powers Authority, which seeks to build a 55-mile-long open-space park from the Del Mar Fairgrounds to Volcan Mountain near Julian.

Lake Hodges and Del Dios would be a part of the park, which residents endorse.

“It’s long overdue,” Cokeley said. “Most of the folks around here are true environmentalists. We pray for the park. What we worry about is the city selling it to developers, condemning us and making it all this big resort.”

Officials say it was part of the park inspection plan--an effort to “clean up” the river valley east of Del Mar--that led to the scrutiny and sweeps of Del Dios. But, in its actionlast month, the Board of Supervisors ordered that, except for serious abuses, prosecution of all outstanding citations be put on hold until the task force can evaluate the problem.

County planner Shapouri said the city has yet to appoint its task-force members, but, once it does, work can begin next month, and a report can be ready by October. Shapouri hopes that all sides can find a solution that will satisfy both homeowners and local governments.

City Manager McGrory said San Diego welcomes the task force but plans to hold on to its land to protect both the concept of an open-space park and the lucrative assets that land in Del Dios represent.

McGrory called the park “a valuable, east-to-west greenbelt,” complete with trails for hiking, horseback riding and bicycling. He said some of the city’s property “could be designated for future development, but the city needs those assets. To use it for leach fields is not the best use of the property.”

But Cokeley, who says her house is up for sale because of the strain living in Del Dios has caused, sees ulterior motives in the city’s position. She, like many residents, believes the city will sell to developers and make, in her words, “a killing.”

McGrory denies that’s the case--he says protecting the water supply of Lake Hodges is another high priority--and Shapouri says, even if the city had such designs, the county would intervene.

“The city cannot condemn the land,” Shapouri said. “They don’t have condemnation authority, not in Del Dios. Secondly, the county regards Del Dios as a historic community. It has established neighborhoods, and a past.”

It also has color--restaurant-bars in Maxine’s and Hernandez’ Hideaway--and what Cokeley calls a bright, funky, eccentric community that writers, painters, professors and refugees from the 1960s call home.

As a patron at the bar at Maxine’s put it, “This is real California dreamin’ around here, if you can get the authorities off your back long enough to enjoy it.”

Del Dios started as a fishing village in the 1920s, just before the onset of the Great Depression, which, of course, stopped its development cold. Shapouri said it was “log cabins, small-lot designs. It was never meant for living purposes, only for recreational use.”

“But, through the years, people purchased cabins and slowly developed places to live. Because of its slow evolution, the county did not take corrective measures in bringing the buildings to code. But now we have a real situation,” he said.

“It puts us in a tough position. On one side, we’re supposed to protect public health, but on the other, we’re trying to help these people--to legalize the problems and take care of it. The situation is so bad, some of these people can’t even get (homeowners’) insurance.”

As for the city, Shapouri said, “We want to cooperate, but we get mixed messages.” Part of the task force mission, in his words, is “to clear up the city’s intentions and find a solution.”

Both Cokeley and Kim Werner, another Del Dios homeowner, say it’s only the hassles from agencies that make living by Lake Hodges a vexing experience. Werner, a 15-year resident, recently went to court in yet another dispute over a leach field.

She was fined for not having a permit to build a retaining wall, “when, in fact, I was well into the process of getting it.” She said the permit was necessary, in the county’s eyes, because the yard where the wall is situated is considered a reserve leach field.

“They said I didn’t need a permit if the wall had stayed at 3 feet,” she said, “but we built it to 4. I still can’t explain it. All I know is, it really gets tiring.”

From the road in front of her house, Werner’s home looks like a candidate for a magazine spread on the pleasures of country living. Solid oak door, stone fireplace, sealed windows, elegant design--it hardly resembles the A-frame-cabin look newcomers expect in Del Dios.

Residents say that, in many cases, people have upgraded homes without obtaining the proper permits. They’d never get them, the thinking goes, so why bother? Shapouri said the habit of building without permits--in the county’s view, a clear zoning violation--is yet another item on the task-force agenda.

“We’d love to stay here,” Werner said, “but everybody knows, something will happen someday--probably someday soon. I hope it doesn’t get like L.A., where I’m from. That’s why I left. But the same things are happening here.”

“It is the most desirable area,” Cokeley said sadly. “I love waking up and hearing the birds--and nothing else. And watching the sun come up over the lake. I can get to San Diego in 20 minutes, if I want to, but it feels like miles and miles away.

“I had hoped it wouldn’t change, but it’s changed already. I’ve fought it and fought it, but it’s sapped my strength. I’d rather sell and have peace of mind than to go through this.”