EDCO has decided to withdraw its plans to put a green waste recycling facility on Betsworth Road.
Steve South, president of the trash and waste company, told The Roadrunner Monday, “As we have always discussed, family owned and operated EDCO was interested in gaining feedback from the community on our proposed green waste recycling project.
“As a result of the feedback we received, EDCO has decided to discontinue pursuit of siting EDCO Organics at the Betsworth Road location.
“We have not made any determination on future uses for the site, but as a longstanding and responsible member of the community, EDCO wanted to share this information,” South said.
The news was met with applause at Monday night’s Valley Center Planning Group meeting.
“This is great news!” said Oliver Smith, chairman of the group, when he learned of EDCO's decision. He said he is still curious about EDCO's plans for the the land that it owns there.
Mel Schuler, one of two chairmen of the Say No to EDCO group that formed recently, told The Roadrunner: “I’m pleased at their decision, what I don’t know is what they may site there at some future date. But I AM pleased at the news. I hope that the feedback from the community had some effect on their decision. ”
It isn't everyday that they wash the dome of the 200-inch telescope and your average ladder and pressure washer just isn't up to the task. The staff of the Palomar Observatory last week called upon the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Dept. to get the job done. Photo courtesy of Scott Kardel.
Sally Cobb of Tapestry Meadows Equestrian Center addressed the VC Planning Group Monday night over her six year struggle to get a major use permit to board horses at her property on Andreen Road.
She found a sympathetic group, which wants to urge the County to work with her and to reduce the nearly $100,000 in fees she faces for wanting to board less than 30 horses.
The members are also interested in getting the County to look at bringing the hundreds of illegal horse boarders who are thought to be operating in the shadows—just in Valley Center alone—out into the light by making the process less onerous and expensive.
But it was leery of taking an official stance on the project since the county Dept. of Planning & Land Use (DPLU) has just released a 30 plus page “iteration” detailing what it wants Mrs. Cobb to do to be granted the permit.
She presented detailed notebooks on what she has done so far to each planner, and 130 letters signed by sympathetic members of the horse community.
“Having a horse facility can be a really good thing for people of all ages. It’s an outdoor outlet. It’s healthy,” she said.
When the County learned of her operation due to complaints to Code Enforcement she was forced to apply for a permit. “In hindsight I should have closed the business and resolved the red tags first because they treat you as a code violator if you go forward.”
Now she can’t resolve many issues until the permit is granted or they withdraw the request. But if she withdraws it she forfeits thousands of dollars spent already.
She estimated that a thousand unpermitted horses facilities in VC face hundreds of thousands of dollars in permitting fees.
“They are forced to stay underground. Even people who have two or three horses boarding.”
Her fees inflated from $8,660 to $36,000 and then $96,000.
Paul Herigstad, the VC planner assigned to her case, estimates about 360 horse boarding facilities operate illegally in VC—whose owners often don’t know they are doing something illegal. “There are people here who thinks that ag zoning actually means something, but the DPLU has a different definition,” he said.
“Nothing speaks Valley Center more than a project like this,” said planner Keith Robertson.
Speaking against Mrs. Cobb was neighbor, Lloyd Dodman, who declared that he is not anti-horse. “I own horses myself,” he said.
Her facility, “definitely does have a huge impact. The people who are here to support Sally don’t live here and don’t understand how it impacts this property,” he said.
He added, “The smell of horse urine is so strong, because for years they piled it up against my fence. We can’t even sit outside.” It creates flies that weren’t generated by the grove that was there before.
When she removed many of the the trees, he said, the runoff impacted neighbors. Dodman also worries about evacuating that many horses during an emergency.
“To me this is a huge concern. How are you going to evacuate them during a fire and how are those of us going to evacuate when the property is filled with trucks.”
He feels that Mrs. Cobb tried to evade paying fees that others pay. “The rest of us followed the rules and we are being saddled with a facility who has proven that they don’t abide by the rules.”
Mrs. Cobb responded that she has answered many of her neighbor’s concerns and moved the horses away from his property.
Her engineer Marco Limon confirmed that Dodman’s concerns are being addressed or looked at.
Planner Rich Rudolf commented, “I’m uncomfortable approving this project without seeing the thirty-four pages from the department. We don’t know enough to approve or reject.”
However, he supports trying to “straighten out the County so that you don’t have to spend one hundred thousand dollars for a major use permit.”
He wondered why smaller boarding facilities can’t get by with a simple minor use permit.
Planner Jon Vick said, “It’s a really nice facility and appears to be the kind of business that we should be facilitating in Valley center. There may hundreds of people in VC who are illegally boarding horses, which they shouldn’t have to do under the county radar.”
Group Chairman Oliver Smith said many things about the project need to be resolved. “Not the least of which are the issues in the iteration letter. When they are resolved maybe we need to vote on it.”
Smith is also interested in clarifying how many horses in a boarding facility triggers the requirement for a major use permit.
Mrs. Cobb repeated her opinion that the County requirements keep changing “because the county needs money.”
Rudolf said, “This process seems to demonstrate that the process appears to be broken. We should ask the County to work with the applicant either to reduce the fees and possibly reduce the impact of the project.”
Herigstad said the law relating to this issues has changed a half dozen times since 1969. “They are broke. They have no staff, but they have a revenue recovery system in place and they tell themselves, ‘If we can just get rid of these tree growers and horse owners they could start developing property and it would all be good.’ ”
“No one should work under the radar and no one should get a major use permit to board one horse,” said Keith Robertson.
Herigstad says he went to real estate and horse groups, including the Vaqueros, trying to interest them in working on a subcommittee to address this issue.
“The Vaqueros were very uncomfortable being told that they are criminals,” he said. He added, “The Realtors are selling these properties without telling people about the problems.”
He said he thought the issue could cause an “exodus” of horse boarders from VC.
Vick said they need people for the subcommittee, “who don’t just want to help Sally, but want to help horse owners as a group.”
Rudolf compared the issue to that of small winery owners, who have spent years trying to get the law changed to accommodate them.
There was no support for creating a subcommittee yet to address Mrs. Cobb’s issue, but it will be brought back for the next meeting.
On Friday, Oct. 16, a car carrying three individuals ran into the south side of California Bank & Trust. The car ran into the depository. The individuals were taken to the hospital.
Boo! Prepare to be afraid, very afraid, as Valley Center’s most frightful denizens, i.e., its children, don costumes that would make Freddy Krueger blanch. Well, no, not really.
This Saturday is, of course, one of Valley Center’s most treasured traditions, the school Halloween Carnival, held 10 a.m.–3 p.m. at the old VC “Upper” School.
According to Teacher Parent Club President Amy Archipov, new rides are coming and a dunk tank opens at noon.
Costume Contest begins at 11 a.m. The VC High School Marching Band, and the VC Middle School Jazz Band and Choirs will perform.
Buy your tickets pre-sale and save money this Friday from 2-6 p.m. in front of the VC Elementary School.
Everyone can contribute to this event: Donate a cake or baked good. Help keep the Cake Walk Booth open the whole day this year. Drop off donations on Friday Oct. 23, between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the VC Elementary School office.
Also new this year are vendor information only booths for businesses to advertise and share information with the community. Call 760-749-3110 to find out more.
Go to www.vcpusd.net - “District Flyers” – for more carnival information.
Valley Center roadside, recreational and landscaped medians and improvements were approved last week by the County Board of Supervisors.
The board unanimously approved the advertisement and subsequent construction award for major pathways and landscaping projects in Valley Center.
“Heritage Trails is the result of strong community support,” said Fifth District County Supervisor Bill Horn. “Many organizations, individuals, and the Rincon tribe of Indians have partnered with us to bring significant improvements to Valley Center.”
In fact, VC resident Lael Montgomery was last week awarded the Revelle Award for her part in obtaining the grant money that will be combined with County money for this project.
The 2.5-mile project involves construction of a roadside pathway including landscaping, irrigation, signage, and other items such as lodge pole fencing, hitching posts, picnic tables, benches, and bicycle racks along the west and north sides of the newly widened Valley Center Road from Woods Valley Road to Cole Grade Road. In addition, this project includes landscaping of the newly constructed medians with Valley Center road from Banbury Drive to Cole Grade Road.
“This project was planned and designed after many meetings with groups and individuals in Valley Center,” said Supervisor Horn. “I was honored to approve Neighborhood Reinvestment Grants from our discretionary District 5 fund in the amount of $285,000.”
Groups whose involvement in the project Horn credited includes the Valley Center Community Planning Group, Valley Center Trails Assn., the Valley Center Town Council, the Design Review Board, and the Valley Center Parks and Recreation District.
The roadside recreational pathway will complement the design and safety objectives of the recently widened Valley Center Road by encouraging pedestrians, equestrians, and bicyclists to use the pathway.
Construction and up to three years of landscape maintenance costs are estimated at $1.8 million. Upon board approval, a construction contract will be awarded in November 2009. Construction is scheduled to begin in December 2009 and be completed in Spring 2010.
Richard Nixon had his enemies list and Barack Obama has Fox News, which, says the president’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is not a “news” organization.
“It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective, and that’s a different take. And more importantly, it’s important not to have the CNN’s and the others of the world being led and following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization,” Emanuel said. Translation: Emanuel doesn’t like the fact that Fox doesn’t genuflect in the general direction of White House, and that its opinionators criticize Obama without ceasing. Or that it covers news that Obama would prefer is not covered, such as the videos of one of his advisers admitting her admiration for Chairman Mao, or the videos that brought down Obama’s ally, ACORN.
Rather like CNBC’s Keith Olbermann criticized President Bush for eight years. But that was an OK perspective, apparently. So is the rest of the main stream media’s current perspective as a cheerleader for Obama’s agenda.
It’s not new for presidents to attack critical news organizations. John Adams signed a law that made it a crime to criticize him. Abraham Lincoln (who was, as we know, almost as good as Obama) put publishers in jail right and left. But not since Nixon—and not even then—have we had a president who brazenly declares that he can decide what news organizations are legitimate or not.
I would guess the next step would be to revoke the White House press credentials of Fox News correspondents. I wonder how the other networks will cover it.
The Valley Roadrunner
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Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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