Update

September 14, 2007:

(1) On August 31, 2007, the EIR (Environmenetal Impact Report) for the Stonegate/Merriam Mountains development was released. The public is given 45 days for comment. The EIR can be viewed online at http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/ceqa_public_review.html or, if you have trouble, http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov-dplu-docs-PR-10-15-07-DEIR-3.3pdf.

The Deer Springs Fire Protection District has scheduled a special meeting on September 19, 2007 at 10 am to discuss the EIR. The EIR stated that the Fire Protection Plan (FPP) incorporates input from the Fire Authority(ies) Having Jurisdiction (FAHJ). It further states that the "recommendations" therein become "requirements" with the FAHJ's approval of the FPP. Nowhere does the EIR state that the FAHJ (the Deer Springs Fire Protection District) rejected Stongate's FPP by a unanimous vote in January 2007.

(2) On March 19, 2007, the San Diego County Department of Planning and Land Use (DPLU) officially adopted the disastrous Shelter-in-Place policy, despite vehement and voluminous public protest against it.

Not only is San Diego County going ahead with its deadly SIP policy (a policy that is accepted nowhere else in the entire United States) but the County is explicitly applying the policy not only to new development but also to institutions such as schools.

SIP is an experiment with human beings. It has never been tried in a planned community in an actual wildland fire. There is no data. There is no experience.

SIP makes no accommodations for those people who are especially "at-risk," such as infants, young children, the elderly, and those with respiratory, pulmonary and cardiac conditions. When subjected to smoke inhalation alone, many of these people will die.

SIP makes no provisions for the panic which will be unavoidable. If the roads are open and a wildfire is approaching, people will instinctively try to flee. If the roads are inadequate, they will become quickly clogged, dooming the residents once again. People will die trying to escape instead of waiting to die in their homes.

(3) An "independent" polling company has been conducting an extensive telephone survey of the residents of the Deer Springs Fire District, attempting to solicit support for the Stonegate project in the face of escalating community opposition. False information about the safety of Stonegate is being given. The polling group is out of Laguna Beach (where Stonegate Development is based).

(4) Many hundreds of e-mails opposing ''Shelter-in-Place" have been received by the County Department of Planning and the County Supervisors. The County had apparently intended to slip this policy change through. They had not notified the public Sponsor Groups, Planning Groups or Fire Districts. It was only by chance that the proposed policy draft was noticed on the County's website. The LLCFIRE.com website was the result. Hundreds of e-mails in opposition to "Shelter-in-Place" have been received from all over San Diego County, including Alpine, Bonsall, Campo, Cardiff, Carlsbad, El Cajon, Elfin Forest, Encinitas, Escondido, Fallbrook, Hidden Meadows, Jamul, Julian, La Jolla, Lake San Marcos, La Mesa, Oceanside, Pauma Valley, Pine Valley, Poway, Ramona, San Diego, San Marcos, Valley Center and Vista. A copy of each letter went to the County Supervisors, their legal advisors, and the Planning Department.

(5) A March 11, 2007 article appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune entitled "Project fuels fire-safety debate":
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20070311-9999-lz1mc11shelte.html

(6) A February 25, 2007 commentary appeared in the North County Times entitled "Evacuation must be part of plans":
http://nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/25/opinion/commentary/16_15_472_24_07.txt

(7) A February 16, 2007 article appeared in the North County Times entitled "County discussing fire shelter in place":
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/16/news/top_stories/22_29_412_15_07.txt

(8) At a videotaped public meeting on February 14, 2007, the Deer Springs CDF Fire Chief was asked how much experience he had, in his 28 years of firefighting, in protecting the residents of a shelter-in-place community during an actual wildland fire. The Chief said: "Zero."

He agreed that up to 80% of deaths in fire are caused by smoke inhalation but when asked about the problem of smoke affecting the residents of the Stonegate project, he said that hot air rises and he "guesses that the smoke will rise too."