The Community Fights Back

The Stonegate/Merriam Mountain development proposes to place 2,700 homes with 10,000 to 13,000 residents on Merriam Mountain, one of the most severe fire-hazard areas in San Diego County. In its own 2004 planning scenarios, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection singled out Merriam Mountain as a likely site for a major wildfire catastrophe. They predicted that a wildfire on Merriam Mountain would be "intense, highly destructive, with an extreme rate of burning." The developer admitted that evacuation of the project in the event of wildfire would be impossible. Stonegate based its entire development on the "Shelter-in-Place" concept.

The community criticized this plan and a great amount of television and newspaper coverage resulted. Eventually, the County Fire Marshal and the District Fire Chief and Fire Marshal rejected "Shelter-in-Place" as "conceptually inappropriate" for the Stonegate project.

The County Fire Staff nevertheless approved Stonegate's Fire Protection Plan over the Christmas holidays and issued a letter of approval on January 2, 2007. In an unprecedented move, the County completely bypassed the elected Deer Springs Fire District, in whose jurisdiction the development is located.

Stonegate's Fire Protection Plan was unanimously rejected by the Deer Springs Fire Protection District Board on January 19, 2007. Stonegate's Fire Protection Plan implicitly includes "Shelter-in-Place." Evacuation is impossible and not even mentioned.

If a wildfire occurs in the Deer Springs Fire District, the County of San Diego is not involved in providing fire protection. The Deer Springs Fire District community pays a sizable special tax surcharge for its own fire protection. In the November 2006 general elections, the Deer Springs community voted overwhelmingly (by a 3-to-1 margin) to seat an entire new Board of Directors dedicated to protecting the District's residents against unsafe developments.

The community is outraged by the County's "approval" of Stonegate's Fire Protection Plan, which is no plan at all. The Deer Springs Fire Protection District will not allow the County to allow a dangerous, indefensible development within its District. Legal counsel and public outrage will cast a spotlight on the County's attempt to subvert the authority of the local Fire District.

Now, suddenly, a "Shelter-in-Place" option is appearing in the County's policy guidelines for Fire Protection Plans. This concept has never been used as a strategy in a planned community which has undergone an actual wildland fire. The arrogance and recklessness of County planners have reached a new threshold. Public safety and thousands of human lives are no longer important.