FW: NCTimes-Pfingsten: Bonsall: Horse community looks good to planners

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From: <char.ayers@att.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:11:35 +0000
To: Charlene Ayers <char.ayers@att.net>
Subject: NCTimes-Pfingsten: Bonsall: Horse community looks good to planners

Thursday, April 17, 2008
Last modified Wednesday, April 16, 2008 6:42 PM PDT


BONSALL: Horse community looks good to planners

By TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer

BONSALL ---- Planners in Bonsall said they were pleased with a developer's proposal to build an equestrian-friendly neighborhood of 22 homes on 206 acres in the Camino del Rey area west of Interstate 15.

Dubbed "Brisa del Mar," the project would be built just east of Saratoga Estates, a gated community of large, expensive homes off Camino del Rey.

 

"Everything in (the area) is equestrian, so we are kind of going to market it as an equestrian project where the lots are large enough for residents to have their horses on the site," said project manager Thure Stedt, who works for TRS Consultants in San Diego.

Bonsall Sponsor Group member Margarette Morgan said the project's only drawback is that county planners want the developer to include all the trappings of a suburban development in a neighborhood that would be rural in nature.

"The challenge that we seem to have is that, in the semi-rural area of Bonsall, the standards that the county establishes for a subdivision are all based on urban requirements," Morgan said. "We're dealing with street lights, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, which do not fit in our community.

"We're rural estates ---- half an acre of the smallest portion of the district, on up to 60-acre parcels," she added. "The majority of property is (split up into) two acre s or better."

Stedt said the project originally consisted of 27 homes.

"The county came back with some feedback, and the current 22 lots is a reflection of that feedback," Stedt said. "It's well below the theoretical maximum for that site."

In this rural part of San Diego County, as in nearby Fallbrook, lot sizes are often the most controversial part of a development. When builders ask to erect dense neighborhoods with several homes per acre, planners often balk, saying such developments do not fit in with the rural character of the area.

At Brisa del Mar, Stedt said the plan is to preserve about 110 acres of the property as open space, and to remove invasive species from Moosa Creek, which runs through the site.

"Over time, most of the drainages in San Diego County degrade because exotics get into the streambeds," he said, adding that by removing invasive species, crews will restore wetlands that are currently in poor condition.

Aside from what she termed unreasonable requests from the county, Morgan said the sponsor group seemed positive about the Brisa del Mar project when it met two weeks ago.

"We like the way the property has been designed and it's very beautiful," said Morgan. "We were happy with the layout, with what they're doing. The project looks like it would fit very well in the community."

Stedt said the project is about to undergo its required environmental review, and that construction on the development would begin in 2009 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Morgan said the group will keep reminding the county that many of the neighborhoods that will be built in Bonsall should be considered rural developments.

"We'll continue to request that they look at each of the projects submitted in Bonsall on a case-by-case basis," she said.

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.


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