Planners upset with General Plan changes
By Karen Brainard
San Diego County Board of Supervisors will review and could make a decision on the General Plan Update on Wednesday, Aug. 3. Before then, however, the Ramona Community Planning Group (RCPG) intends to express its dissatisfaction with some of the board’s decisions regarding land use designations.
According to the county’s Department of Planning and Land Use (DPLU), its Aug. 3 report for the meeting contains all final documents necessary for the supervisors to form a decision on the General Plan Update.
Chris Anderson, chair of the Ramona planning group’s General Plan Update subcommittee, said she is disturbed that referrals the planning group sent to the county, requesting modifications to proposed densities in Ramona, were denied.
Instead, she said, the two density changes in Ramona that were approved by the county were never reviewed by the planning group or the subcommittee. The owners of those two properties had either sold land or given land to the county, Anderson said.
“Those are the two referrals that the county gave all of Ramona,” Anderson told planning group members and their July meeting.
“The majority of requests that were rejected were moderate changes based on county staff assessment,” she added. “We feel this process was pre-ordained and disingenuous.”
The planning group “spent years and years on this general plan update,” Anderson noted.
“Our goal was to make our community a better place for future generations of Ramona without conflict of interest or personal gain,” she said.
The planning group voted to send a letter to all five supervisors stating dissatisfaction of the referral process and final results.
The board of supervisors will meet at 9 a.m. Aug. 3 in the San Diego County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway, San Diego.
The Department of Planning and Land Use staff report for that hearing is available online at www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/gpupdate/BOS_Aug2011.html.
Public testimony remains closed regarding the General Plan Update, but county staff is available to answer questions or hear concerns and can be contacted at 858-694-2488.
According to the DPLU online newsletter, the Aug. 3 documents, based on direction from the board of supervisors, contain a number of changes to the General Plan Update that were considered minor because they were consistent with the General Plan Update guiding principles and did not require recirculation of the Environmental Impact Report.