An issue most Valley Center residents thought was settled: the widening of Cole Grade Road and several other VC thoroughfares, apparently isn’t.
This sets up a battle between those who want rural road standards and those who want efficient roads—although just about everybody involved would say they want both.
You can put Larry Glavinic in the camp of those who want efficient. “You don’t want to put a motion in place that reinforces stupid. We ought to be able to drive around between our schools and shopping centers,” he told The Roadrunner Monday.
Glavinic opposes a motion that was adopted at Thursday’s meeting of the Circulation Subcommittee of the Valley Center Planning Group.
With six of its ten members present, it voted to support a two-lane Cole Grade (a downgrade from a 2006 vote) and to downsize most VC roads from four to two lanes.
Subcommittee member Andy Washburn defends the vote: “I supported the motion because it asks the County to consider our community as they design our roads. Specifically, we want them to consult the Valley Center Community Plan during their road type selection process.”
When taken up at the Jan. 12 meeting of the planning group, it will be among the thorniest issues new members will decide next year. It must be resolved by February, the deadline the County set for comments on the roads element of the General Plan Update.
In addition to downzing most of VC’s road network the motion also made specific requests: 1) Remove Road 3A (the celebrated “Hornsville” Road) from the plan, 2) Reduce the size of three of the 22 road segments on the map, and 3) Designate Miller Road and Woods Valley Road as Scenic Highways, which the subcommittee hopes will protect them and prevent them from becoming like suburban streets.
This issue, particularly the width of Cole Grade Road, was voted on two years ago by the group after several workshops and heated public meetings.
According to County Policy I-1, planning groups cannot vote again on an issue unless the issue has substantially changed.
Planning group Chairman Oliver Smith says it is back because the County has changed a substantial part of the plan relating to Cole Grade Road in the draft General Plan Update.
“The County in their circulation element has changed the third east-west route from starting at Oak Glen to starting at Hilldale,” Smith said.
The widening of Cole Grade Road is tied to whether the County plans for a future road that provides another east-west route parallel to VC Road.
Smith explained: “If you look at the original votes and the information that was provided, it was that if the east-west corridor was out of Oak Glen they [the traffic on Cole Grade] would have to travel all the way up to Oak Glen. That was part of the justification for why we were looking at four lanes all the way up to the high school.
“Now it has moved [in the County proposal] to just north of Cool Valley. It is a mile and a half short of Oak Glen. I brought it back because one of the basic assumptions changed,” he said.
In 2006 the group voted to support widening Cole Grade Road to four lanes as far as the high school and go to two lanes beyond that. The high school was considered the end point because the east-west access on Hilldale would begin there.
The Circulation Subcommit-tee, which calls itself the “Mobility Subcommittee” these days because the County’s road or circulation element is the “Mobility” element, voted 4–2 to support rural road standards, and roads of no more than two-lanes.
Voting yes was Deb Hofler (a planning group member), Jon Vick, Andy Washburn (planning group member) and Jim Quisquis. Voting no was subcommittee chairman, John Coulombe (planning group member), and Anne Geinzer. Not present were Eileene Elmore, Cal Townsend, Dennis Sullivan and Larry Glavinic.
Glavinic, former member and chairman of the planning group, objected to the vote because, 1) he says it was held without enough public notification and, 2) a quorum wasn’t present.
He calls the new motion a “revisionist rewrite [of] years worth of VCCPG, workshop and other community work.”
Coulombe, although he voted with the minority, believes the meeting was legal.
“I sent the agenda on December 9 and posted it on the 11th, well in advance. I don’t believe there are any legal issues with that,” he said. He believes the vote was legal because, unlike the planning group, it is not required to have a majority present to vote.
It’s a moot point anyway, since the only official act that counts is the planning group’s vote—and, of course, it is an advisory body to the Board of Supervisors.
Coulombe voted no because, “it is uncomfortable for me to set in stone how wide a road should be without taking into account development. Past planning groups have hamstrung the current group. I don’t want to hamstring future groups. Development should widen the road structure. I like the idea of a small community. That’s why I moved here. But if someone turns one hundred acres into a development, we have to move those people.”
He concedes that traffic figures don’t support a four-lane road. “The Dept. of Planning & Land Use (DPLU) has said that there will be 6,400 ADT (average daily trips) on Cole Grade between Cool Valley and the school. That doesn’t justify four lanes.”
County road standards, he says, call for two lanes with turning pockets and no median up to 13,500 ADTs.
“If the numbers don’t justify a wider road you can scream all you want and you won’t get the money,” said Coulombe.
Vick told The Roadrunner that he supports the preamble to the motion, which “commend[s] the San Diego DPLU’s GPU–Draft General Plan for its ‘environmentally sustainable approach to planning that balances the need for adequate infrastructure while maintaining and preserving agricultural areas and extensive open space within the county.’ Worthy of special commendation is the plan to ‘maximize traffic movement and enhance connectivity by creating multiple connections between…different areas within communities,’ for ‘addressing traffic congestion by reducing travel demand rather than increasing transportation capacity,’ and for ‘reducing the need to widen or build new roads through the effective use of the existing transportation network…’ ”
“I support the motion because the contents of the Mobility Element and our comments are responsive to what I believe is best for the community to improve circulation without ruining VC,” said Vick.
He added, “We support the County’s ‘commitment to facilitate efficient development near infrastructure and services, while respecting sensitive natural resources and protection of existing community character in its rural and semi-rural communities,’ and to its commitment ‘to respect Community Plans that are reflective of the unique character’ of communities such as Valley Center.”
A recent planning group chairman, retiring planner Keith Simpson, also objects to the vote. “The community at large thinks the Cole Grade Road expansion was decided some time ago. …The circulation element was adopted after a long period of time with many large public meetings, workshops, etc. To change such a huge part of the circulation element, therefore, when underlying conditions have not materially changed and without substantial effort to re-educate and engage the public would be travesty.”
Glavinic and the other members of the subcommittee have a basic philosophical disagreement. “What they want to do will ultimately make the roads more dangerous,” said Glavinic.
“They don’t want to change VC’s character and by narrowing the road they will force the issue. My take on that is that we will reach gridlock sooner,” he said.
Valley Center’s long community nightmare, the VC Road widening project, will continue unabated and unaffected by traffic funding freezes emanating from Sacramento.
Valley Center is due to wake up to a functioning four-lane throughway from Escondido city limits to Cole Grade Road around the end of summer of 2009, according to latest estimates from the county Dept. of Public Works (DPW).
When word came last week that several state highway projects were going to be halted in mid-project, it occurred to The Roadrunner to inquire whether that same fate awaited the road widening project.
Michael J. Long, P.E., project manager, public works, engineering services, for DPW responded that, “Funding for the Valley Center Road project is already in place. The State’s budget issues cannot affect completion of the project. We continue to expect project completion summer of 2009.”
This was also confirmed by the director of DPW, in a separate email message from the DPW’s public information officer, Michael Drake.
Reaction to the good news was swift from VC Planning Group Chairman Oliver Smith: “I was elated to hear that the Valley Center Road construction is not being put on hold by the State. I've seen a lot of progress in the last couple of weeks and really look forward to project completion by July,” he told The Roadrunner.
“Two plus years of a cone zone through the center of Valley Center is enough. I was beginning to wonder if they would ever finish the bridge north of Lilac Road or remove the telephone poles from the roadway north of VC Market. Since they finished both in the last couple of weeks, it truly looks like the end is near!”
Post Master Replacement Kathy FitzGerald makes her way to work at the tiny Palomar Mountain Post Office Thursday morning after a winter storm dumped over a foot of snow on the mountain. See more photos of Palomar Mountain snow on our Web site: www.valleycenter.com/
Dec. 18, Pauma School held its annual Winter Concert showcasing the beginning and advanced band and orchestra at Pauma and some grade level dancers and singers. The program ended with another Pauma School tradition: the staff singing their own version of a familiar holiday song, “Oh Pauma School.” See more on A9.
Bo Mazzetti was elected chairman of the Rincon Luiseño Band of Indians at elections held on Dec. 13. The results of the tribal council election are as follows:
Chairman
Bo Mazzetti, 184 votes
Douglas Calac, 64 votes
Mazzetti is elected chairman. He moves up from his position as vice chairman the last two years. Vernon Wright, who was elected chairman two years ago, died in office, and as a tribute to him Mazzetti did not move up to take has place.
Vice Chairman
Stephanie Spencer, 196 votes
Jerri Mazzetti, 58 votes
Spencer moves up to vice chairman from her position as a council member. By winning that post her council seat becomes open. There will be a special election next month to fill that vacant seat, which has one year left on its term.
Council Seat
Charlie Kolb, 196 votes
Joe Hibdon, 61 votes
Kolb is reelected to this seat for the second time.
The tribe is the owner and operator of Harrah’s Rincon Casino. Its reservation is made up of 3,918 acres with a population of about 1,495 and a tribal membership of 651.
What Valley Center or Pauma resident made the most impact in the news in 2008? Who was the greatest force for good in our community?
We want your nominations!
Think of this person as being the local equivalent of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.
You have the chance to put in your two cents’ worth with the third annual Newsmaker of the Year.
It will honor the person who has been in the news most frequently, had the greatest impact or done something of great benefit to the community during the year.
The Newsmaker of the Year award is not an award for merit, so much as it is an award, like Time’s Person of the Year used to be, that recognizes the most newsworthy person. The winner is chosen by the newspaper.
The possibilities are wide. The only restriction is that this person needs to have taken his or her actions during 2007.
There is no prize money, or even a physical award of any kind associated with this recognition. It is a metaphorical laurel leaf.
Last year’s winner was the entire congregation of Ridgeview Church, so recognized for their efforts in helping fire victims after the devastating Poomacha Wildfire.
The year before that was VC-P School Supt. Lou Obermeyer. The winner for 2005 was VCHS Coach Rib Gilster. The first Roadrunner Newsmaker Award went to to four Valley Center Fire Relief “angels,” Terry & Mimi Van Koughnett, Michelle Schied, and Dianne Conaway.
We invite nominations for this award. We will make the final determination from the nominees received. So please feel free to write an essay as to why this person should be given the award. Deadline is Dec. 31, 2008.
Drop nominations off at The Roadrunner office, mail them to POB 1529, Valley Center CA 92082, or email them to editor@valleycenter.com/
Valley View Casino General Manager Michael Gorczynski (second on left) and Joe Navarro, CEO of the the San Pasqual Casino Development Group (with scissors) Friday present representatives of the American Lung Assoc. of California with a $1,000 donation shortly before cutting the ribbon to the casino’s newest addition, a non-smoking casino—the first of its kind in San Diego County. See story A5.
The Valley Roadrunner
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Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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