‘Yes in My Backyard:’ An Eager Lake Elsinore Embraces Growth

Lake Elsinore locals are part of a rare breed in 21st century America.

They desperately want a six-lane tunnel through town, and are delighted that massive new housing projects, a Costco and other development is coming down the pike -- in this case Interstate 15.

Unlike many small towns that have fought hard to keep big-box stores out and preserve open space, this city of 31,000 in booming western Riverside County is eager for the bulldozers to arrive.

City leaders are tired of being thwarted by “bugs and bunnies,” as newly elected Councilman Bob Magee calls the endangered species that fill the chaparral hillsides ringing the dusty, oft-maligned town.

“They’re YIMBY’s,” said urban planner William Fulton. “ ‘Yes in My Backyard.’ Some people, even in Southern California, believe it or not, have a different attitude about growth. They believe it’s a good thing ... In a place like Lake Elsinore, it’s also a civic ego thing. They want to play with the big boys.”

Long derided as “Lake Smell-some-more” because of the algae-clogged body of water in the middle of town that experiences frequent fish kills, Lake Elsinore has made strides toward reinventing itself.

Some long-suffering residents now smell redemption in the air.

“It’s true,” said restaurant owner Jimmy Flores of the reference to the odor that can waft through town. “Dead fish stink; it drives away business and it hurts our town ... But our time has come.”

Flores and others are optimistic, thanks to a new mayor, an upset vote last Tuesday to join a huge county growth and conservation plan, and an unslaked need in the region for cheap housing. And they’ll do whatever it takes to help their town.

That includes lobbying to beat out Corona, 15 miles to the north, for rights to a tunnel or highway across the mountains to Orange County. People from both cities endure punishing commutes to jobs in Irvine, Anaheim and elsewhere, where home prices have driven tens of thousands into the Inland Empire. Residents here, far from battling a major road project through their backyard, love the idea.

“I’d go over and dig rocks myself if it would help get the highway in,” said Ron Selig, 56, who moved here with his wife in 1998 and has made commutes as long as three hours to his job in Orange County.

Selig is happy these days, though. The four bedroom stucco home he bought for $137,000 in 1998 just sold for $297,000. Hundreds of new homes in the Pacific Splash subdivision are being built all around him.

“We like Elsinore; it’s been very good to us,” he said.Situated inland, halfway between San Diego and Los Angeles with easy access off Interstate 15, Lake Elsinore has the only large natural lake in Southern California. It sits in the shadow of the Cleveland National Forest.

But as new Mayor Thomas Buckley says: “Lake Elsinore has always been almost great. But it’s always missed.”

Founded in 1883 when three men bought nearly 13,000 acres around the lake for $24,000, the wife of one purchaser suggested the city be named Lake Elsinore, after the castle in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Almost ever since, the city has suffered an identity complex rivaling the Danish prince’s tortured “To be or not to be” soliloquy.

Lake Elsinore has made many seemingly suicidal moves, said Buckley, all involving outsiders.

Desperate to attract attention in the 1920s, it gave away land to movie stars, who stuck around for a few years, then packed up for Palm Springs, he said.

An encyclopedia company gave away narrow strips of town to book-buyers around the globe -- making it difficult ever since to piece together development parcels, and leading to tiny homes on steep, unstable slopes.

More recently, the city saddled itself with $23 million in debt for a minor league baseball stadium on “donated” land that Buckley said required the city to pay large sums for other land near the site for parking lots and access roads.

That, large bond issues and other schemes left out-of-towners rich but the little city in debt. Drugs and gang-related crime also plagued residents in the late ‘80s and ‘90s.

Buckley said crime has been cut 65% since 1995, and points to other projects. Lake Elsinore’s water district recently became the first entity in the state not only to accept, but to pay for reclaimed sewage water to help keep the lake full and clean.

One 1,200-home project has particularly thrilled locals.

“As soon as that went through, Costco wanted to come,” said Councilman Magee proudly.

Last week’s vote by the City Council to sign on to Riverside County’s ambitious growth and conservation plan was an agonizing decision for local legislators, because it means they will have to preserve 4,000 to 6,000 acres formerly zoned for development.

“This tramples on private property rights ... When we care more about animals than humans, something has gone seriously wrong,” said former mayor and longtime council member Genie Kelley, the sole holdout against it.

“You gotta understand, this is 47% of our vacant land; our future growth, our tax appraisals, our revenues. It’s gonna cost us financially,” said Councilman Daryl Hickman.

But council members approved it, largely, they say, because of pressure from developers who said they need the plan to avoid Endangered Species Act regulations.

Eastbridge Partners of Irvine won approval for the 3,300-home Ramsgate project, but has been stalled because of the endangered species. Under the new plan, Eastbridge will sell 800 acres to the county for $9 million, and get to develop high-end homes on two smaller pieces, he said.

Even the baseball stadium may turn out to be a good thing. Home to the minor league Storm farm team for the San Diego Padres, attendance is steadily climbing.

But the city continues to lose as much as $600,000 annually on it.

“It has lost money every year, but people love it. It’s theirs. There’s definitely a sense of civic pride,” said Buckley.