Residents of a small community near Escondido, California (near San Diego) are fighting against the development and building of a small self-storage facility in their neighborhood. Local activists say that the self-storage business, known as Bear Valley Self Storage, would be just the beginning of a series of commercial developments in the region. The locality that they are most concerned about is a relatively undeveloped expanse near the intersection of San Pasqual Valley Road and Bear Valley Parkway.
Residents say that while they do not have anything against self storage per se, they fear that this development will be the first step in changing the whole region from a bucolic rural haven into a colorless commercial artery. They do not want to see the area lose its rural flavor. "We all know this is just getting the foot in the door to develop that whole area," commented resident Michael Pratt, at a meeting on Monday to discuss the proposed facility's environmental effects. "This will totally destroy the charm and character of the neighborhood," agreed resident Michael Khozin. "There is no place for commercial development in a residential area," said Mark Edmonds, a spokesman for the residential group.
Bear Valley Self Storage does not yet exist--it is the name for a business that is being planned and developed by PacVentures, a San Diego commercial real estate investment and development company. PacVentures' business is to buy property, develop it, and then sell it for a profit. Andrew Kaplan, a representative of PacVentures, says that PacVentures' market research shows a need for self storage in the region, although he admitted that there is plenty of self storage in nearby San Diego (Extra Space has several facilities there, for example). Kaplan argued that area residents did not want to drive several miles to San Diego for self storage.
The residential group, which calls itself Bear Valley Rural Neighbors and has about 700 members, has been fighting PacVentures to prevent the self storage facility from being built for several years now. They have twice before persuaded county officials to reject the project. However, PacVentures' representative, Bill Hofman, told officials at Monday's community meeting that the company has changed the design for the self storage facility to make it more compatible with the neighborhood. The design now includes more landscaping on the site's four acres, sound walls, and a small decrease in square footage. Hofman said that the facility was being modified to make it look more like a gated residential community.
Residents from Bear Valley Rural Neighbors were unconvinced, however. They complained about the possibility of noise, traffic, threats to the safety of pedestrians, lighting, signs, and the possible effect on local property values. They also expressed fears that allowing one corner of the intersection to be developed would start a domino effect and result in the development of the other three corners. County regulatory planning chief Brian Baca admitted to residents that further development was a distinct possibility, although it was by no means guaranteed. This kind of further development seemed to be the core of local concerns. Resident Verna Fisher, who also spoke at Monday's meeting, remarked, "If you hung out, you might realize this is the wrong place for this kind of development." Resident John Turner worried that 24-hour security lights at the self-storage facility would make it harder to see the stars at night. "Am I going to see a glowing mall down at the bottom
of the hill?" he asked.
Coincidentally, Bear Valley Rural Neighbors was originally formed in July 1999 to fight a plan to build a small shopping mall in the area. The group sued the city to stop it from running sewer lines out to the intersection for the shopping plaza. The group won the lawsuit, and the city was ordered to pay the group's legal fees. Later, it also defeated the North County Baptist Church of Escondido, stopping it from building a 13-acre complex nearby, and the Escondido Charter High School, preventing it from building a campus at the intersection.
No decision was reached Monday night about the ultimate fate of the plans to develop Bear Valley Self Storage. Monday's meeting was held merely to solicit comments from the community. PacVentures has convinced the county to allow an environmental study to be conducted, to find out whether the project would be compatible with the area around it. The environmental study, which is currently underway, will take 18 months, and the approval process will begin when the environmental study is finished.