What’s Wrong with General Plan Amendments?

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A common refrain from the building industry is that "all General Plans, including the one currently in effect in San Diego County, allow for amendment to respond to conditions as they exist in the moment, rather than lock in policies that address conditions as they were decades prior when the documents were drafted." 

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Let's just set the facts straight: the current county General Plan was approved in August 2011, not decades ago. It did, however, take 13 years and $18.6 million of taxpayers’ dollars to painstakingly work out compromises all over the county to direct future growth close to existing infrastructure, away from firetraps in rural areas, away from valuable habitat, and close to employment centers to reduce traffic and pollution. At last count the general plan has 52,000 pre-approved units ready to be built in the unincorporated County, no lengthy entitlement process, no delays, build by right. And if there are obstacles in the way, I would champion their immediate removal so we can build housing where it belongs, right now.

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Yet developers choose to ignore those pre-approved locations because the price of those parcels, well, reflects the fact they are zoned for high density. Instead, they choose to speculate by buying or optioning agricultural or low density parcels in the hills because those are cheap, and bet they can get 3 out of 5 supervisors to grant them an upzone, reaping huge windfalls in the process.

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To boot, there is no evidence that the conditions on the ground have not changed, so there is no need for amendments, other than greed. Most of the behemoth projects lumbering their way toward the Board of Supervisors were in fact evaluated (and rejected for sound planning reasons) during the general plan update process, or actually voted down by either the Board of Supervisors (previous incarnation of Newland Sierra), or the voters (64% rejecting Lilac Hills Ranch).

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Finally, hundreds of community members throughout the County spent thousands of hours during the General Plan update process participating in good faith in arduous meetings to arrive at compromises to plan for growth and protect community character. To dismiss that effort as the fruit of an uninformed citizenry is un-democratic, insulting, and wrong.  Communities like the one I live in, Elfin Forest / Harmony Grove spent years planning for our valley in good faith with county planners over visioning workshops, roundtables and countless meetings as part of the update. The County also worked extensively with the Building Industry in industry working groups to get their input as well.  In our community, the result was a compromise, to accept a 742 unit development (Harmony Grove Village) in our midst as our "fair share" of population growth, with a buffer around it and downzoning of individual surrounding properties to retain the rest of the area's rural character. 

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Now, out-of-town speculators are pushing two GPAs (Orange County-based Integral's Valiano and Colorado-based Real Capital Solution’s Harmony Grove Village South) right at the doors of the approved village. Have the facts on the ground changed? Nope. Is there demand for more housing in the valley? Nope, HGV has taken several years to sell the first 100 homes they thought they would sell in the first 3 months. 

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This is a perfect example of a rural community deciding to act as responsible citizens, and accept a certain share of growth, only to see that public trust broken by the County shredding the General Plan and circumventing the voters to bring in big money projects. Developers will call these citizens “NIMBYs” as if their multi-year coordination with the County to responsibly increase density never happened. 

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That is why the Save Our San Diego Countryside ballot initiative is sorely needed.  It is also why I am running for Supervisor, to be a strong voice on the Board of Supervisors for San Diego County residents. 

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Existing property owners have property rights too. They checked zoning before making the largest financial decision of their lives, and speculators should have to abide by the same rules as the rest of us. There is a General Plan -- we spend years and millions painstakingly crafting it. If you want to deviate from its policies and zoning, go ask permission from the voters, the very people who will have to subsidize the costs in road improvements, schools and fire services that your ill-planned GPAs will create.