Quality of life is deteriorating rapidly

Is it just me or does anyone else feel like our rural nature and quality of life in Fallbrook is deteriorating rapidly? As a 26-year resident of Fallbrook and a San Diego county native, the last year or two have really seen a marked change. I have noticed a great increase in condensed infill developments, extremely marginalized steep slope lots being built on and Carmel Mountain type subdivisions being planned and permitted. The I-15 Highway 76 intersection is already a travesty and will only become more of an eyesore in the not too distant future.

Now Granite Construction is quietly trying to permit one of the largest open pit granite mines in the country on our northern border directly adjacent to the Santa Margarita Ecological Preserve. This mile long, thousand foot deep quarry will grind rock 20 hours a day, with continuous blasting and spewing of noxious dust, noise and diesel exhaust. Their own spokesman says that this facility, which will include a ready-mix concrete plant and hot asphalt batch plant amongst many other nifty industrial features, will add between 600 and 1200 gravel trucks a day on Interstate 15. A prudent person might want to buy stock now in windshield glass companies. An industrial megalith of this size is certainly not in keeping with the rural nature of its neighbors and will adversely affect many poor homeowners.

What our conservative apathetic town fails to consider is that our last remaining areas of open space are like ripe plums to be picked by the Granites of this world and other rapacious developers. Zealously guarded for years, they are suddenly swooped up and lost forever. We are told that effects will be “mitigated”. Right. We will end up with a home that is not fit to live in. Suddenly we will be living in Murriettaland.

The San Diego Association of Governments, which has yet to take an official stance on the project, says that we need aggregate for more roads. When will this road building and incessant growth spiral stop? How much progress and how much more population can we afford with our limited water resources?

I plead with my fellow citizens to educate themselves and consider the consequences of this quarry. Do not expect much help from your representatives. Hollingsworth, Haynes, Issa, Filner and many other of our representatives have been the recent beneficiaries of Granite’s corporate largesse. The fix is in, ladies and gentlemen. Please join me at 7 p.m. June 30th at the Mission Theater for a benefit concert in opposition to this travesty.