MRNPC
- November 2002
The Miramar Ranch North Planning Committee (MRNPC) met on Tuesday, November 5 for its regular monthly meeting. MRNPC regularly meets the first Tuesday of each month at 7 pm in the Information Center. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. Please contact Peggy Shirey at 530-3833 if you’d like to be added to the distribution list for the agendas for upcoming MRNPC meetings.
MRNPC is pleased to welcome our newest member, Don Denis, who resides in Autumn Ridge. Don had attended our last meeting to request our assistance with the intersection of Mandrake Point and Blue Cypress and decided to submit his application for membership. He was unanimously elected. At the same time, MRNPC announced the resignation of Allan Bokser.
Thus, MRNPC still has openings for 3 new members. Members must be at least 18 years of age and either reside in or represent a property owner or a business within the Miramar Ranch North planning area, which includes most of the Scripps Ranch neighborhoods north of Miramar Lake. In addition, you must have attended at least one meeting within the past 12 months. If you are interested in getting more involved with your community and helping to shape future development, please contact Bill Bernard at 549-0979. We will be holding elections at our next meeting on Tuesday, December 3.
The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) returned to inform us that they are considering using the 4-acre parcel just west of the Scripps Ranch Villages Marketplace to locate a mining shaft from 2004 through 2007 for their San Vicente Pipeline project. This is one of three alternatives that they are considering for their project. This site, you may recall, was recently purchased by the City with community funds to be used for community recreation. Based on community input, MRNPC, along with the Scripps Ranch Planning Group (SRPG), the SRCA, and the Scripps Ranch Recreation Council (SRRC), recommended that the City and the YMCA initiate a detailed evaluation assessing the feasibility of using the site for a Y.
Some of the benefits that SDCWA presented for proceeding with this alternative, referred to as Alternative B, over the other two alternatives is that they would pay the City a fee to use the land, which could help partially fund a Y or other facility, and that they could reduce the number of truck trips per day along local streets by spreading some of the fill over the site to level it. MRNPC discussed the negatives of this alternative, which included around-the-clock noise and lighting concerns, increased congestion at an already busy location, and the inability to proceed with the 4-acre parcel until at least 2007. MRNPC decided the cons outweighed the pros and voted unanimously to recommend that the SDCWA not proceed with Alternative B. Although the SDCWA assured us that they did not want to proceed against the community’s wishes, there is opposition to the other two alternatives as well. Public scoping meetings will be held in December. If you are interested in voicing an opinion on this issue, please contact John McCullough of the San Diego County Water Authority at 858-522-6751 or jmccullough@sdcwa.org.
Jeff
Brazel of the McMillin Companies returned to update us on the Rancho Encantada
project. This project will be developed
east of Scripps Ranch in the Future Urbanizing Area of San Diego. We can expect to see significant grading in
that area beginning in December. In addition,
the $3 million which was allocated to Caltrans for I-15 main lane improvements
and improvements at the Pomerado Road and I-15 interchange as part of the
mitigation for the Rancho Encantada project will soon be turned over to
Caltrans.
Rudy Cesena, President of the Botanic Garden of San Diego (BGSD), returned to ask for our support in petitioning the City of San Diego to develop the open space, known as Mt. Struiksma, located West of I-15 and South of Mercy Road, into a botanic garden. While planning group members still seemed to support a botanic garden at that location, we decided we needed more information. Marc Sorensen, Chair of the Scripps Ranch Recreation Council (SRRC), volunteered to determine the official status of the land from the City’s Parks and Recreation Department. An additional concern is that the land is located in the Mira Mesa Planning Group area and planning members felt that it was inappropriate for MRNPC to take the lead on this project.
Marc Sorensen, Chair of the Scripps Ranch Recreation Council (SRRC), announced that the SRRC and the City’s Parks and Recreation Department are moving forward to complete the Community Park Plan by lighting the last unlit ball field (field #2) in the Community Park. He explained that the Community Plan had specified that all of the ball fields would be lit but at the time of construction of the park there weren’t sufficient funds to do that. Now, the funds have been approved and the lights will be installed next summer, right after school ends. MRNPC had no objection to this plan.
Peggy Shirey, Chair