Escondido Neighbors United

The Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is the oversight agency for the Chatham Barrel Yard cleanup.  They have posted the most recent documents about the site for public review.  You can get them on the ENVIROSTOR website or at this link  October2015 regular water monitoring report .  This report includes the regular analysis and monitoring results for the most recent round of sampling.  We will be reviewing it and will share our thoughts in the future.

Also, of major importance is the Feasibility Study for Felicita Creek discharges.  This study evaluates options for stopping or reducing the discharges of pollutants from Chatham into Felicita Creek.  This is a high priority for Escondido Neighbors United and we encourage everyone to take a look and weigh in on this.

Thanks to DTSC for making these documents available to us.

Hope you all well and ready for Spring!

A wonderful and helpful new business has just moved to Escondido.  SPINE ZONE is a unique physical therapy treatment for aching backs.  Our members have had amazing success at Spine Zone. The staff  is fantastic, the program is reasonably priced, and the results are really amazing.
Check out their website: Spine Zone Website
There are free consultations if it is your first time.  The program trains you on a series of specially targeted weight machines modified to strengthen all of the muscles related to your back.

If your back has ‘gone out’, then you know what that pain is like.  This is the place for you so it never happens again!  

If you haven’t yet had back failure, do yourself a favor and go to Spine Zone as a preventative measure.  If it helps even one person from excruciating suffering  of back pain, this post will be worth it!
Spine Zone is located at 1600 SOUTH ESCONDIDO BOULEVARD, ESCONDIDO, CA 92025, 844 316 7979
GO!  You won’t regret it!

Mayor Abed and his on-going hostility toward environmental regulation is now getting regional attention.  An excellent article in the San Diego Union Tribune last month outed the Mayor on his failure to comply with the important stormwater regulations. Abeds Parking Lots Skipped Rules.

Then, the Mayor was featured on the, often conservative, editorial page of the same newspaper Abed Compounds his Error documenting his response stating.   The mayor’s response was to blast the water board as politically motivated partisans trying to drag him down. What evidence did he offer? None. His claim that Escondido has been singled out simply doesn’t hold up.

The Water Board is rightly calling Escondido on the carpet for their failure to enforce water quality regulations.   Since the carrot didn’t work the Mayor and the majority of the city council, it is now high time for the stick.

We support strong action on the part of the Regional Water Board.  This city is flagrantly irresponsible about their responsibilities to our precious natural resources.

This post will be where we document the conditions of Felicita Creek pre-Oak Creek development. Runoff, water quality, and erosion impacts on Felicita Creek, Felicita Park, and downstream residents is a major concern that we do not believe has been adequately addressed by the decision-makers in this project.

Here are the videos we offer as attachments to our January 14, 2016 letter.

VIDEOS JANUARY 6, 2016


In the Park and north of Via Rancho Parkway

Felicita Creek from Park road looking North_Jan_6_2016orth

Felicita Creek from park road looking south_Jan-6-2016

Felicita Creek at Yolanda Fleets Driveway Jan 6, 2016

Along Quiet Hills Drive

Along Quiet Hills Drive #1 Jan_6_2016

Along QHD #2

Quiet Hills Drive Bridge covered

At corner of Quiet Hills Drive and Quiet Place

Here is another update from an ally. 


On
December 17th, the County of San Diego  held a scoping meeting regarding a
Notice of Preparation (NOP) to make General Plan Amendments (GPAs) for 43
Property Specific Requests (PSRs).  All 43 of these requests call for zoning
changes to increase density, mostly in rural North County San Diego.   In total,
these requests call for up to an additional 2,800 dwellings.  This meeting was
not Lilac Hills Ranch related, but there are several new requests regarding
property in Valley Center and Bonsall that are in the same vicinity.  It is of grave concern that after 13 years, $18 million dollars, and countless public meetings, developers  are attempting to subvert the General Plan.   It should be noted that the Board
of Supervisors directed the planning department to initiate these GPA/PSR
studies less than 1 year after the General Plan was adopted at an estimated
cost of at least an additional $1.5 million dollars to tax payers.  This lacks
transparency and begs some questions about a conflict of interest.

Here is a link to the scoping meeting and specific maps: http://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/pds/advance/PSR.html

The public comment period
ends February 4th. Please write the County and let them know that the General Plan should not be monkeyed with.  There is plenty of growth allowed in the General Plan in the planned places.  They should not be increasing it elsewhere.

We recently received a copy of the County staff comments on the Notice of Preparation for the Safari Highlands Ranch project.  October, 2015 Letter from SD County staff on SHR.  We are especially glad that the staff noted the number of annexations coming from Escondido, lack of impact fees, concerns about PAMA compliance, concerns about storm water compliance, and the lack of an adopted multiple species conservation plan for Escondido.  These are just a few major problems with this project.   Stay tuned!

We hope you had a great holiday!  Here is some news on our ‘favorite’ projects!

1. The Draft 401 Water Quality Certification for Oak Creek has been released for public comment by the Regional Water Quality Control Board.   This is an important and final action related to the permitting of Oak Creek.  Here is the link Draft 401 WQ Cert_Oak_Creek  and the Transmittal letter_Dec_23_2015.  Comments on the document are due to the Regional Board on January 29 by 5:00 pm.


We will have more to say about this document in the coming days.  ENU requested a public meeting on this. ENU_Request_for_Public_Meeting_Oak_Creek_401Cert

More soon!

There’s more bad behavior to report from developers in North County.  Representatives of Safari Highland Ranch sent a threatening letter Safari Highlands Letter to Regional Board to local water regulators.
While the letter is uninformed and has no real viable legal basis, it does demonstrate the kind of recalcitrance and reliance on bullying tactics seen more and more in North County developers.  See related story on Lilac Hills troubling-article-in-voice-of-san-diego.html

Community residents objected to this attempt to intimidate the Board and spoke out at the meeting raising the following points:

• The developers do not have an approved project, environmental documents, annexations, or other decision related to the project. 
• The $500 million of value is purely speculative
• SHR doesn’t even have entitlements for the  27 homes allowed under the applicable County General Plan 
• The ‘value’ is limited to the $7 million they appear to have paid for the land.