SANTEE COUNCIL REMOVES FANITA RANCH FROM NOVEMBER BALLOT; COLLINSWORTH CRIES FOUL

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

By Mike Allen

June 13, 2022 (Santee) -- After the Santee City Council voted last week to remove the Fanita Ranch project initiative from the November ballot, environmental activist Van Collinsworth called the move not only a slap in the face of local voters, but a clear message that the 3,000-unit development will never go to a vote.

The Council voted unanimously June 8 to take an earlier approved referendum on the project off the ballot because all pf the project’s legal approvals were already rescinded last month. The Council removed those approvals made in 2020 to comply with a judge’s recent ruling, which found the project’s environmental impact report deficient.

That report did not include impacts of a last-minute change by the Council to eliminate a key exit route in case of a wildfire evacuation, a lapse which the court found violated the California Environmental Quality Act requirements.

Given the absence of the plan’s amendments, a referendum on those ordinances “has no legal meaning,” and rejecting the General Plan Amendments would be meaningless because that amendment has already been repealed, according to City Attorney Shawn Hagerty.

This interpretation didn’t sit with either Collinsworth, the director of Preserve Wild Santee, or an allied environmental activist group, the Center for Biological Diversity, which both asserted that the referendum should take place as scheduled.

“I want the city to acknowledge that the people of Santee have earned the right to vote on this project,” Collinsworth said. “They (the City Council) are doing everything they possibly can from allowing the people of Santee to decide on this project.”

Attorney Peter Broderick of the Oakland-based Center for Biological Diversity wrote in a letter that the Council’s legal rationale to remove the referendum was flawed. “Finally, allowing the voting public to weigh in on the Fanita Ranch Project through an up and down vote is a key aspect of participatory decision making and serves the underlying democratic purpose of California’s constitutionally authorized voter referendum voting process,” Broderick wrote.

The Council also noted that in addition to not having an actual plan for voters to decide upon, the cost for the issue on the ballot was about $180,000, and deemed excessive.

Collinsworth, who led an effort to challenge Fanita Ranch soon after the Council voted 4-1 to approve it in September 2020, said the council adopted another measure, Ordinance 592, in December that provides a special status for Fanita Ranch that precludes a public vote from ever occurring.

“It’s a sham process,” Collinsworth said. “We know what the City Council will do. They are bought and paid for.”

Mayor John Minto said the ordinance Collinsworth refers to was intended to shorten the length of time for the development approval process for smaller housing projects. He said all development projects must comply with state regulations governing land use and cannot be excluded from the process.

As to charges that the council is in the pockets of Fanita Ranch developer HomeFed Corp., Minto said it is Collinsworth who is bought and paid for by large environmental organizations “to do everything he can to stop growth.”

Collinsworth said the best outcome for the Fanita Ranch property is to keep the 2,600 acres north of Santee Lakes vacant as a natural preserve, and a buffer to the Marine Corps Miramar base. Yes, this region desperately needs affordable housing, but Fanita Ranch is luxury housing, he said.

Asked what he would do should Fanita Ranch plan come back to the council, Minto was reluctant to say how he’d vote. He noted that because the project would need an amendment to the city’s General Plan, it would require a public vote. That was mandated in 2020 when Santee voters passed Measure N, which would put any project that needs an amendment to the existing General Plan on the public ballot for approval.

 


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.

Comments

Fanita Ranch

Van Collinsworth is fighting for the majority of Santee citizens who want to protect Santee residents from fires and urban sprawl that will deplete their quality of life. Given the loss of pristine open space and wildlife that will occur if this project is initiated and the threat of fire spread, indeed, everyone throughout San Diego County will stand to lose. News articles have made it clear that individual Santee City Council members financially gain from the project and the court has ruled against the project. It's not up to a handful of people to decide whether Santee turns into a sea of urban sprawl; it's up to the citizens who live there. Let them vote.

Mayor Minto is Lying

Under the guise of emergency need for more affordable housing, the "Essential Housing Ordinance the Santee City Council unanimously approved gives the City Director of Development the power to approve developments unilaterally using a magical voodoo mathematical formula that has no validity or reliability WITHOUT APPEAL. I assume this was tested to assure the Fanita Ranch project would pass before it was approved. There is a "Notice of Exemption" under the ordinance for Fanita Ranch dated 12/27/2021 posted on the cities' website. How Fanita Ranch could be consdidered either emergency or affordable is a joke. Looks to me like the City Council has enacted an ordinance that avoids public involvement in the development process period. They are afraid to put it to public vote because they know the people of Santee don't want it. Denial of the vote required by the legal referendum is anti-democratic. Mayor Minto is willing to do anything to push Fanita Ranch through including destroying democratic processes. Mayor Minto & his cohorts have turned the city government into an autocracy. Democracy is dying in Santee. The people of Santee deserve better.

Collinsworth

is a baby trying to impose his standard on the rest of us. his petition gathers were lying to the people who signed them. if he would have told how much he was/is costing the city (tax payers) NO ONE would sign his crap!!! GO AWAY Collinsworth we do not need people like you who get to live in santee and wants no one else to live here!!!!

Grammar

Overuse of exclamation points is a fallback for people who are not fully versed on a topic, but they want to spout an opinion anyway.