County supervisors set to vote on controversial Harmony Grove housing plan

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) —  A controversial plan to add hundreds of homes to an unincorporated area near Escondido faces a key vote by county supervisors on Wednesday afternoon.  

Harmony Grove Village South got approval from the planning commission in August, but the proposed project has faced ongoing debate and legal battles since 2018 – with fire safety being a major point of contention. 

“We have 1,200 petitions signed. Handwritten petitions from everyone in this neighborhood, everyone in the nearby communities. People are not supporting this project," said JP Theberge, who sits on the Elfin Forest/Harmony Grove Town Council.

Theberge is among a group of North County residents fighting to stop the proposed housing development from breaking ground.

The plan calls for 453 homes to be built in Harmony Grove, which is an unincorporated rural residential area between Escondido and San Marcos.

It's an area prone to wildfires, such as the destructive Cocos Fire in 2014, which forced thousands to evacuate, including James McKim, a 40-year resident of Harmony Grove and a 15-year veteran of the local fire department. 

“Minutes later it had already burned down the hill, across the creek through Harmony Grove Spiritual Association and across the vacant land where the old dairy was. That is way faster than anybody is even going to get here. The call hadn’t even gone in yet," said McKim as he recalled the response from fire crews and other first responders.

After settling lawsuits filed since the 2018 proposal, the developer added affordable housing and solar panels, but not a second evacuation route.

“It has one egress that they’re addressing with widening a two-lane to a three-lane road just down to a quarter mile out," said McKim.

Others share similar concerns.

“They claim that this driveway is a secondary emergency access. It leads up to here and turns into a dirt road," said Kevin Barnard, who is another longtime resident and a member of the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District Board. 

A FOX 5/KUSI crew drove down the dirt road and ran into a boulder. 

Residents also noted that during a community meeting earlier this month, Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District Chief Dave McQuead addressed their concerns when he noted that the project "could not pass" without a secondary evacuation route.

FOX 5/KUSI reached out to the county for comment on the matter and were told that "staff is recommending approval of the project in concurrence with the Planning Commission. The board is not required to approve General Plan Amendments and may deny the project as the Court of Appeal ordered the previous approvals to be rescinded," according to Donna Durckel, communications officer with the county's Land Use and Environment Group.

The statement also noted that the Harmony Grove Village South project was reviewed and approved by the County Fire Authority, Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection, including the Fire Protection Plan.  In addition to the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District reviewing the HGVS Fire Protection Plan, the County Fire Authority reviewed and approved the plan, as did the county sheriff, and a third-party reviewer. 

A lawsuit was filed after the project was approved in 2018, and the court of appeal upheld the fire evacuation analysis including the Fire Protection Plan. No changes regarding fire have been made to the project since that time, and the fire district has confirmed they support the previous analysis and confirmed they can evacuate the project during an emergency.  

The project proposes to widen Country Club Drive to three lanes where it meets Harmony Grove Road, construct a new three lane bridge over Escondido Creek, add significant fuel modification around the project site, and provide increased water pressure for fire hydrants. 

As each project and site conditions are unique, the fire code allows for improvements such as this in lieu of secondary access.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune, applicant David Kovach at the Aug. 22 planning commission meeting said, “We followed every rule, we passed every test, we earned every approval. Again.”

Still, residents say they aren’t anti-housing, but feel this project falls short in terms of safety, especially if more people move in.

“We’re still talking about 1,500 more cars at least now you add another thousand cars to that. It's not sustainable," said Theberge.

FOX 5/KSI reached out to the developer for comment but did not hear back in time for this report.