Time extension granted for Barr Ranch

Joe Naiman

Village News Correspondent

A time extension for the Barr Ranch development has been granted.

A preliminary decision to approve the time extension for the tentative map was made by county Department of Planning and Development Services Director Mark Wardlaw, Aug. 28. A Sept. 8 hearing of the county’s planning commission allowed a member of the public or a planning commission member to request a hearing on the preliminary decision, and when no objection was raised, the time extension to Feb. 5, 2023, became final and immediate.

The Barr Ranch property is south of Fallbrook Street between Golden Road and Morro Road. In March 2006, the planning commission voted 5-0, with two members absent, to approve a tentative map which will subdivide the 8.39-acre property into 23 residential lots and one detention basin lot. The residential lots will range from 10,000 to 28,000 square feet.

A tentative parcel map becomes a final map after all conditions of the tentative map, other than those for which permits cannot be issued until a final map is recorded, are fulfilled. A final map is required for grading and building permits, although the conditions of a final map include a grading plan. The standard county procedure is to require the final map within three years of the tentative map approval, although the deadline to record the final map may be extended. The original expiration date was March 10, 2009, but due to the statewide economic and market situation state legislation automatically extended the expiration date four times. The most recent of those extended the expiration date to March 10, 2016.

In 2009 the Fallbrook Public Utility District declared a moratorium on the release of new water meters. The moratorium was in effect from April 27, 2009, to March 22, 2010, and in 2016, county staff determined that the 329-day moratorium warranted a 329-day extension in the Barr Ranch tentative map expiration date to Feb. 5, 2017.

If an application for a time extension is filed prior to its expiration, the owner is not in default if the extension is granted. An application for a time extension was filed on Feb. 3, 2017. Although no changes to the tentative map are involved, Wardlaw's decision updated stormwater maintenance and erosion control conditions and the decision also adopts an addendum to the environmental mitigated negative declaration to reflect the additional conditions based on updated requirements.