FAIR PLAN forms to oppose upzone

A new local group, Fallbrook Fair Plan, has been formed to fight the drastic up zone (to possibly 9,000 homes) in the Pala Mesa Valley from the current allowance of about 1,750. According to Fair Plan, the San Diego Department of Planning and Land Use is the force pushing to build another city along the intersection of I-15 and Hwy. 76, hoping to squeeze a disproportionate amount of the county’s growth into Fallbrook.

Dozens of people listened to a presentation given by Jim Tudor Tuesday night regarding the proposed growth and the lack of road improvements, water, sewer, etc. to support it. Fair Plan is being organized as a long-term sustained group prepared to spend at least 5 to 7 years funding and fighting for fair growth.

The founding board consists of Chris & Lisa Hasvold, Jim & Minamaree Tudor, Wallace & Karen Tucker, Claude & Rhonda Reinke, Sam & Ann Logan and Bob & Susan Lucy. These founding members are recruiting and building an organization that they hope will be in the thousands.

Fair Plan’s mission statement includes protecting historic land owner’s rights while preserving local community character, providing for growth, addressing issues such as traffic, pollution, open space, project design, maintaining agriculture, and preserving the character of the Pala Mesa Valley.

Tudor told attendees of Tuesday’s meeting, “We see this as an opportunity to be significant to the town that’s important to us. We might end up like Spartacus heading into Rome, but I don’t think so. I’m encouraged by the support I’m seeing. We have to be of considerable size, wealth & commitment to see the struggle through against outside interests with deep pockets. They have to know that we’re going to be around a long time. This is who we are in Fallbrook—and we hate to lose.”

Wallace Tucker calculated the traffic impact by using county figures of 12 trips per day per household. Using a more conservative figure of 8000 homes he came up with an additional 96,000 trips a day on 76 and the I-15. “That doesn’t include traffic from the casinos, the dump or Rosemary’s Mountain,” said Tucker.

Fair Plan believes the Fallbrook/Bonsall area is being forced to bear an unfair portion of county growth because the county can plan maximum density with the least amount of problems because we are unincorporated with no city government to represent us.

Chris Hasvold talked of supporting the local planning group, which has consistently not supported the large developments as proposed. According to Hasvold, a representative from Passerelle homes submitted a new plan to the planning group. Harry Christianson said to the presenter, “Why are you submitting a plan to us with even more density when we turned down the last one?” The representative reportedly said, “The San Diego County Department of Planning & Land Use asked us to.”

Fair Plan believes the County is trying to grow Fallbrook by about 50% or 9,000 homes to grow property tax revenues by as much as 48 million dollars a year plus permit revenues and fees into the DPLU.

According to Hasvold, normally DPLU would have submittals before our local planning group for approval for the projects and as of yet our group has nothing. In addition, according to Wallace Tucker, the densities (units per acre) are being decided between the developer and the county, instead of the local planning group. According to Tudor, in some cases, these densities are being changed from 1 dwelling unit every 2 or 4 acres to 14.5 dwelling units per acre, again with no significant additional infrastructure.

They are encouraging everyone to attend the special planning group meeting on Tuesday, March 15, at 7 p.m. at the Live Oak School on Reche Road, and to visit their website (www.fallbrookfairplan.com) to sign up and enroll on the email list. People who are interested may also call 594-4646.