Supervisors to vote on controversial housing project near Escondido

JP Theberge and other neighbors still recall the 2014 Cocos fire, which spread west of Escondido in the Harmony Grove area and caused gridlock traffic as residents struggled to evacuate the area. 

Now a major housing project has them concerned for residents again.  

On Wednesday, a controversial housing development, promising to bring about 450 new homes just south of Harmony Grove, is coming before the San Diego County Board of Supervisors for approval. The project, Harmony Grove Village South, is slated for a rural area that lies along a road with just one exit. 

“We lost a bunch of homes,” said Theberge, a member of the Elfin Forest/Harmony Grove Town Council, of the Cocos fire. “It was tragic and horrific, and I’ll never forget it. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve taken on this project with my colleagues at the town council.” 

The project has been in the works for several years. First approved by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in 2018, the master-planned community has been debated everywhere from town meetings to court rooms. 

On Wednesday, the 111-acre, 453-unit project will return to the Board of Supervisors for another vote. With county leaders’ support, the project will be able to move forward, according to the county staff’s recommendation. After an August planning commission meeting, county staff recommended that supervisors approve the housing project because it adds new housing, 10% of which are promised to be affordable units, while preserving natural habitat and open space. But neighbors and environmentalists remain concerned about the fire risks of placing that many homes in a high fire-risk area with only one exit. 

“The fire danger here is acute,” several environmental groups, including Sierra Club San Diego County and SoCal 350, wrote in a letter to the Board of Supervisors. “There is no good reason to risk public safety and the environment for the sake of this speculative suburban sprawl project.”

Court battle over development

Harmony Grove Village South is one of several developments in the county that went to court over fire safety concerns, inewsource previously reported. 

After the Board of Supervisors first approved the project in 2018, the project was accused of violating the California Environmental Quality Act and went to court. In 2020, a state trial court blocked the project out of fire safety concerns. An appeals court reversed the fire safety ruling, but kept a block on the project due to its greenhouse emissions, according to a letter from county staff.

Now, after developers revised the plan to address the court’s concerns over emissions ruling,  and county staff has recommended supervisors approve the project. The revisions relate only to what the court mandated, and not the fire safety concerns that residents and environmentalists have raised, according to the letter from county staff. 

Debate over fire safety, evacuation routes

According to the letter from county staff, the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office have confirmed that “the evacuation plans are adequate for emergency preparedness.” 

In 2018, California passed Assembly Bill 2911 requiring local governments to identify subdivisions located in high fire hazard severity zones without secondary exits. In 2022, homes neighboring Harmony Grove Village South, on CordreyDrive, were identified, and a second exit route was recommended. 

In a Sept. 17 public meeting, Rancho Sante Fe Fire Chief Dave McQuead said that the newer fire codes did not apply to Harmony Grove Village South given that it was initially approved prior. He did say that were the project passed under today’s fire code, it would not have been approved without a secondary exit. 

Over the years, the project has faced opposition, including in  several letters from environmental experts and consultants  who’ve said the project shouldn’t be located in the area. 

Kevin Barnard, a director on the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District Board, has lived in the area for 30 years. He said he’s experienced many fires and knows how difficult it is to evacuate, he said. 

“We’ve had many many challenges in the past, evacuating out of these communities before, and now we understand that every passing year it is becoming more and more difficult to evacuate because of the increased population,” Barnard said. 

Even without this proposal, residents are already fearful of the next fire. Another housing development, Harmony Grove Village, added about 780 homes to the area, and thereby more cars in any given evacuation — something Theberge said will happen again – it’s just a matter of time. Although the residents remember losing homes to the Cocos fire, the letter from the planning commission cited the fact that no lives were lost in the Cocos fire as proof that the evacuation was successful. 

“While it is true that evacuations can be stressful and involve traffic delays, law enforcement manages the process carefully, prioritizing the highest-risk areas first and controlling traffic at key intersections. It is important to understand that not all vehicles will be moving at once, and waiting is sometimes necessary for safety,” the letter reads. 

For John Dummer, whose father’s house was burned in the Cocos fire, this development might be the tipping point to move out of the community he has called home. 

“This is kind of where I hoped to spend the rest of my years. And I don’t think that’s going to be possible simply because I can’t take the risk,” Dummer said.