FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Laura Hunter, ENU, (619)-997-9983), Jack Monger, IEA, (619)-922-7200
Coalition formed by community, industry, and environmental leaders to prevent incompatible land uses in Escondido, protect health, protect businesses.
Coalition cites health risks, impacts to existing businesses, calls on city to prevent incompatible land uses.
A coalition of community, environmental, and industry groups released a joint letter formally opposing two proposed General Plan Amendments (GPA) in the City of Escondido: the Meyers Avenue residential project and the Hill Valley residential upzone and requesting updated planning policies to guide development in the city.
The letter states that recent decisions to allow new housing projects to move forward in areas in and adjacent to active industrial operations, including chrome plating and welding gas storage, creates unacceptable health risks and represents incompatible land-use planning.
The projects include the Meyers Avenue GPA which would re-zone current industrial land as urban residential resulting in increased health risks to future residents and a direct loss of zoned light-industrial land. The Hill Valley project proposes a significant upzone adjacent to industrial operations. In addition, these proposals would create new operational and liability risks on existing businesses from the location of new residential development in a zone of impact.
The coalition seeks a planning policy that requires separation of incompatible uses would ensure these conflicts would be avoided and requests the city to adopt one.
The letter was signed by Escondido Neighbors United, Industrial Environmental Association, Sierra Club North County Group, and Escondido Neighbors for Solutions.
The coalition states that these proposals result in incompatible land uses that have been rejected elsewhere in the county due to documented consequences such as increases health risks, business closures, and significant costs to cities, developers, and residents alike. Planning policies requiring the separation of incompatible land uses are the only proven action to reduce these impacts.
The projects have not yet been approved, but a majority of the Escondido City Council has approved requests to move forward through the GPA process. Signatories urge the city and project proponents to change course now before millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of staff time are spent.
The letter requests specific actions including:
- Withdrawal of the Meyers Avenue and Hill Valley GPAs
- City assistance identifying zoning-compatible alternative uses for the sites
- Amendments codifying required buffer distances between industrial and sensitive uses in the city’s Environmental Justice and Economic Development policies
- A technical briefing from the County Air Pollution Control District on the health impacts of incompatible land uses.