Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
The County of San Diego agreed to sell the county's former Health and Human Services Agency building in Fallbrook to the Mission Resource Conservation District.
A 5-0 San Diego County Board of Supervisors vote Dec. 15 authorized the director of the county's Department of General Services to execute the purchase and sale agreement and to take other actions necessary to complete the transaction. The Mission Resource Conservation District will pay the appraised value of $125,000 for the 0.32-acre property with a 2,920 square foot single-story building.
"Very exciting for us," said Mission RCD board president Scott A. Murray.
The building at 130 East Alvarado Street was most recently utilized by the county as the Fallbrook Family Resource Center.
The Health and Human Services Agency also used 3,000 square feet of leased space at 127 Hawthorne Street, but by 2014 the combined space was no longer sufficient for HHSA needs and, in June 2014, the Board of Supervisors approved a five-year lease with Citrus Equities to move the Fallbrook Family Resource Center to 202 West College Street.
The Department of General Services offered the 130 East Alvarado Street building to other county departments and agencies for potential use, but no county use was identified. On Sept. 15, 2015, the Board of Supervisors declared the property to be surplus and no longer necessary for county or public purposes. The declaration of the property as surplus allowed sales or competitive bidding subject to Board of Supervisors approval for the subsequent transaction.
"This works for us and for the Mission Resource
Conservation District," said Supervisor Bill Horn. "The county no longer needs the .32 acres or the building on Alvarado Street, and the district needs more office space. This deal for $125,000 is the perfect solution."
The county acquired the property at the northwest corner of East Alvarado Street and North Vine Avenue in 1919, and the building was constructed in 1958. The county has no record of any subsequent major changes to the structure. The property is in Fallbrook's Village 2 area and has FB-V2 zoning which allows retail, office, civic, and automotive service uses with residences allowed as a co-principal use subject to limitations.
If another public agency desires to purchase real property, a direct sale rather than a public auction is permissible. The Mission RCD offered to pay the county the appraised value in August 2015.
"It gives us an opportunity to lower our cost of providing services and to expand our services to the community," Murray said.
The Mission RCD currently leases approximately 1,200 feet of office space in the 1500 block of South Mission Road. "We've been very happy there, but the one disadvantage was the space wouldn't grow," Murray said.
The five-year lease for the South Mission Road office began in November 2011 and has an annual rent increase clause. The district currently pays monthly rent of $2,025.
The elimination of rent payments is one advantage of the RCD owning its building. "It gives us an opportunity to lower our costs," Murray said.
The savings can be used for the former county building. "We can actually invest in upgrading the building," Murray said.
Murray noted that the upgrades would likely include landscaping as well as renovating the inside of the building, which would promote the educational mission of the RCD as well as the site's aesthetics and water use efficiency.
Resource conservation districts, which were formed to
control water runoff and prevent soil erosion, originally focused
on agricultural use of land but now involve themselves in watershed management, recreational area management, urban and agricultural irrigation and water use, water quality, forest land productivity, and public education for children and adults.
The Mission RCD educational efforts include workshops, educational booths at community events, and the http://www.missionrcd.org website which has resources for residential, agricultural, and equestrian properties. The San Diego County Water Authority contracts with the Mission RCD to perform agricultural water management audits free to the growers and to implement landscape water management programs free to homeowners and commercial property owners; those programs are available to growers and landowners throughout the SDCWA area and not just within the Mission RCD boundaries.
The Mission Resource Conservation District was organized as the Middle San Luis Rey Soil Conservation District on September 14, 1944. "We've never owned the property for our office and it's limited our ability to provide services to our community," Murray said.
On April 27, 1935, the Soil Conservation Act was passed which created the Soil Conservation Service branch of the United States Department of Agriculture. Farmers were skeptical about federal involvement, so the program included the creation of local soil conservation districts with locally-elected boards. Those boards and districts had no regulatory power but worked in conjunction with the Soil Conservation Service.
The Soil Conservation Act was passed in response to the Dust Bowl of that era, and the agencies involved have since taken on additional duties to help educate farmers and non-farm landowners. The Soil Conservation Service is now the National Resources Conservation Service and is still part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In the 1970s, California's soil conservation districts became resource conservation districts, although some states retain the soil conservation district designation. The Middle San Luis Rey Soil Conservation District was renamed as the Mission Resource Conservation District in 1971.
The Mission Resource Conservation District currently has 10 staff members. Members of the RCD board of directors must live within the district boundaries and are appointed by the Board of Supervisors for four-year terms; there is currently one vacancy on the five-member board.
San Diego County currently has three resource conservation districts. In 2009, the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego moved into the former Riverview Water District building (the Riverview district and the Lakeside Water District merged in 2006); the Fire Safe Council of San Diego County is also in that building and although the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego and Fire Safe Council of San Diego County are separate entities, a contract between the two organizations allows the RCD to handle the administration of the regional fire safe council's finances. The Upper San Luis Rey Resource Conservation District holds its monthly board meetings at the Yuima Municipal Water District building although that RCD has no staff and does not rent an office.
"We have a lot of aspirations for our new building in town," Murray said.
The plans include an agricultural support center which would include helping farmers transition to different crops. "That's an economic engine for Fallbrook," Murray said.
Water efficiency programs will likely also be a result of the expanded facilities. "One of the things that's really important is to help landowners install different water harvesting schemes," Murray said.
The RCD will remain in the South Mission Road office until the lease expires in November 2016. That will allow the RCD to assess the Alvarado Street building including potential improvements. "We're looking to redesign it so it will meet the current needs of the staff and the needs of growing our staff," Murray said. "If we can add any space to it we'd love to do that."
Murray does not expect the RCD to begin moving into its new facilities until later in 2016. "We're probably going to take, at a minimum, six months," he said.
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