I am a resident of the Whispering Palms community of Rancho Santa Fe, but was born and raised in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, now lying in ruins following last month’s tragic and devastating fire. The Palisades fire, and others in the region, should be a wake-up call for those of us living in and around Rancho Santa Fe. We must learn from the Palisades disaster and demand safety from our elected officials. We must not allow politics and profits to put our lives and property in jeopardy as they are where the massive and contractually prohibited overuse of the former polo fields in the San Dieguito River Valley is concerned.
You may be aware that there is an ongoing lawsuit between the Fairbanks Polo Club Homeowners’ Association (FPCHA) and the City of San Diego. The FPCHA is suing the City to enforce the provisions of the Grant Deed that governs the use of the 114-acre property that was formerly lightly used for polo and is now leased by Surf Cup Sports from the City. The Grant Deed runs with the land, not the tenant. It specifically prohibits large assemblages of people or cars and/or any commercial use. Surf Cup Sports, which is violating all three prohibitions, intervened in the lawsuit as a defendant and now funds and manages the defense. The principals at this profit-motivated youth sports business will stop at nothing to ensure that they continue to make money, even at the expense of our safety and property values.
Is it right that former city employees are profiting from their relationships and insider knowledge to game the City while they guide a relentlessly profit-seeking enterprise to ignore the requirements of a Grant Deed put in place specifically to protect our region from expansive commercial development? Incidentally, Atlantis Group has also donated thousands of dollars to San Diego politicians – go figure.
The former polo fields, granted to the City of San Diego by Watt Industries, and now used for sporting and other large public events, were never intended to support thousands of people and cars. The Grant Deed makes that crystal clear with plain English. There is a stipulation in the Grant Deed that requires that the fields remain open to the public at all times. As many of you know. Surf Cup Sports has fenced off most of the fields and often lock the gates in an effort to defend their parking fees and to prevent others from using this public land.
Few Evacuation Routes Could Spell Disaster
Despite the presence of many thousands of vehicles, their drivers, and passengers, during hundreds of weekday and weekend events throughout the year, there is no evacuation plan to handle such crowds in the event of a fire or flood (the aging Del Dios Dam is only a few miles upriver). Last June’s brush fire in nearby Del Mar Heights while a weekday tournament was underway and the ensuing gridlock on surface streets around the fields revealed this critically dangerous shortcoming. Concert stadiums, sports venues, and other lawfully operated venues are required by law to have such emergency plans along with fire department permits and safety limits on the number of attendees. How can it be that Surf Cup Sports has no such public safety plan and the City of San Diego, their landlord and the Authority Having Jurisdiction, has done nothing to require one in our extremely flammable rural environment?
Residents in the unincorporated community of Rancho Santa Fe and surrounding developments to the east have only two westward evacuation routes through dense Eucalyptus groves – Via de La Valle and Linea del Cielo. Via de La Valle is already frequently gridlocked during normal Surf Soccer operations. How will all these residents evacuate in the event of another major wildfire? As a former resident of the Palisades, I am very familiar with the three evacuation routes. One of them – Sunset Boulevard – is twice as wide as Via de La Valle yet fleeing residents still couldn’t get out and had to abandon their cars and run for their lives.
Why does Surf Cup Sports continue to get away with the contractually prohibited overdevelopment and overuse of the polo fields? Why doesn’t Surf Cup Sports have to follow normal safety protocols for large crowds? Why are San Diego City officials hiding behind “no comments” citing the ongoing lawsuit, while our lives and properties are at risk? In any kind of emergency (active-shooter, fire, floods) thousands of people will be trapped inside the fences that surround the fields with just two exit gates. Area residents will be unable to safely evacuate due to the over-burdened roads which were never designed for this sort of intensive commercial use. Why are City officials looking the other way? Who is responsible?
Surf Cup Hires Lobby Group Launched by Ex City Employees
Surf Cup Sports has hired Atlantis Group, a lobbying company in San Diego. Atlantis Group, run by former city employees, that claims to be the premier land use and strategic planning consulting firm in San Diego. They claim to specialize in forming partnerships with private and public agency clients ensuring success for their projects. Atlantis also claims to excel in: Land Use Planning & Government Relations; Transportation Planning & TDM; Policy & Permit Processing; Communication & Presentation Strategies; and Expert Witness services.
Is it right that former city employees are profiting from their relationships and insider knowledge to game the City while they guide a relentlessly profit-seeking enterprise to ignore the requirements of a Grant Deed put in place specifically to protect our region from expansive commercial development? Incidentally, Atlantis Group has also donated thousands of dollars to San Diego politicians – go figure. I suppose that we can assume that this is, at least partially, why Surf Cup continues to get away with overdevelopment of the fields and why they do not have to follow typical large gathering safety protocols.
I am extremely worried by all of this and I want you to be too. I and many others have been writing and speaking to San Diego city officials about this abuse for years with no response.
What can you do?
It’s important to note that this is a City-owned property that will empty out onto County-maintained roads and impact County residents. San Diego County claims no jurisdiction or ability to answer any questions regarding the property or the lack of a fire safety plan because, they point out, the City of San Diego has jurisdiction. Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer refuses to respond to public concerns. The City defers to the Real Estate Asset Department that manages City-owned property like 101 Ash Street (look up their track record – it doesn’t read well).
At the end of the day, everyone is passing the buck when it comes to identifying who is responsible for the safety of our families, homes, and animals – not to mention the safety of the families and children that Surf Cup Sports claims to care so much about while charging them $20 a car each entry most weekends and evenings of the year. By the way, there are often more than 4,000 cars on that property daily – do the math.
Please file a complaint with the City of San Diego Fire Department portal.
Please express your concern in letters to:
- fire@sandiegocounty.ca.gov
- joelacava@sandiego.gov
- realestate@sandiego.gov
- cbibler@sandiego.gov,
- terra.lawson-remer@sandiego.gov
- mayortoddgloria@sandiego.gov
- sdfd@sandiego.gov
The Carmel Valley Planning Board has a new committee on Fire Safety in the area. The chair of the board can be reached at:
We must stand up to profit seeking deniers of the rule of law moving into our rural community with impunity and without guardrails.
Bottom line: There has been no answer from the City of San Diego to the question “What is the fire evacuation plan?”
Polly Wheatley is a Rancho Santa Fe resident and board member, Friends of the San Dieguito River Valley.