San Luis Rey Downs going down?

As you drive along Camino del Rey through the middle of San Luis Rey Downs Golf Resort, you see a beautiful manicured greenbelt on both sides, a golf course that’s walkable, an active tennis club, condos bordering the course, homes overlooking the course, a restaurant and sports bar, a grass practice facility, high school competition, a wildlife sanctuary and state-of-the-art grade school. The fire station is being moved and a new housing development is planned overlooking the course, next to the school.

Help me understand why our government now thinks that the highest and best use of the golf course is to turn it into wetlands. It seems okay to them to destroy residential values, create a fire hazard brush zone, ruin the views of many, destroy jobs and tax revenue, and place an insect breeding ground near an elementary school!

The local family that owns the course could stop this right now. Have they decided that Bonsall needs a wetlands right in the middle of town? Have they turned their backs on all their friends and neighbors? The various government agencies should never have entertained this deal to begin with; it should be stopped! All this was done in secrecy, behind our backs. But you know what they say - - - follow the money.

So, bottom line, all we get is a marsh right in the middle of town and all they get is money. They might as well turn their ranch into a wetland and leave town.

Howard Townsend