A housing development in unincorporated San Diego County with hundreds of new homes is moving forward despite concerns raised by people who already live in the area.<\/p>\n
North County neighbors, who have been trying to stop the project for years, told NBC 7 they’re worried there aren’t enough evacuation routes.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Harmony Grove Village South will add hundreds of homes with only one way out. NBC 7’s Kelvin Henry heard from people who are concerned and also the group behind the project.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a fight that we\u2019ve been at for something like, really, about 15 years now,\u201d said Jonathan Dummer, who whose home is adjacent to the proposed development area.<\/p>\n
The project will add 453 homes to the neighborhood, which shares a border with San Marcos and Escondido.<\/p>\n
Environmental groups and the community have criticized the project because, they say, there\u2019s no fire evacuation route in an area that burned in October 1996.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at all of the other developments, the developments in Rancho Santa Fe half the size \u2014 like Rancho Cielo or The Bridges \u2014 they have multiple exits,” Drummer said. “I mean, we don\u2019t have a second one …”<\/p>\n
Dummer said he doesn\u2019t oppose the development and that he just wants residents to be able to safely evacuate. He understands the safety risk, he said, because he\u2019s lived it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve all had a friend who died in the Harmony Grove fire, and we know what it\u2019s like to evacuate when there\u2019s only a few houses,” Dummer said. “We are only 27 houses on that road. And when we have fires like the Coco\u2019s Fire, it is extremely hard to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n
J.P. Theberge would also like to see more exit routes added.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce this project is built, there\u2019ll be 3,500 vehicles, all entering a two-lane road, and, taking into account the traffic flow, it will take seven hours to evacuate 1.5 miles,\u201d Theberge said.<\/p>\n
David Kovach, the managing partner for Harmony Grove Village South, told the planning commission that the development will provide much-needed middle-income homes.<\/p>\n
In a statement to NBC 7, Kovach said the fire concerns were \u201cscare tactics\u201d and that fire, law enforcement and evacuation experts have approved their plans.<\/p>\n
Kovach’s presentation did not reassure concerned neighbors, however.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is, if a fire comes through there and folks lose their lives, or are injured, I\u2019m not going to be blaming God,” Dummer said. “It\u2019s the decision-makers, the folks in here today and the board of supervisors who are going to decide whether or not we lose people on that road.”<\/p>\n
The project is scheduled to go to the board of supervisors on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A housing development in unincorporated San Diego County with hundreds of new homes is moving forward despite concerns…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,10087,8738,3549,48789,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-167785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-escondido","12":"tag-north-county","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-marcos","15":"tag-sandiego","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115075197426307693","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}