Poway: It's All About the Ransom

As reported by Steve Dryer in the San Diego Union Tribune:
"The StoneRidge Country Club will be closed and surrounded by a fence if Poway voters do not approve Measure A on November 7th," a spokeswoman for the property owner Michael Schlesinger said Monday.

If a similar limited residential redevelopment plan had been suggested for the Escondido Country Club back in 2013, I am certain the locals would have embraced it, but we suffered from weak zoning protections and the Flipper From Beverly Hills used that technicality to multiply the property's value exponentially. Now he wants 390 houses on the property and no golf course or any recreational element at all. So the community is still battling to protect the identity of their neighborhood.

I am not suggesting Poway residents shouldn't pass Measure A, I am simply suggesting they look closely at what is being offered before impulsively approving it.

Unlike ECC, the StoneRidge property has some zoning restrictions to give it basic cover, so the odds of it turning into a massive housing complex, like the one being proposed for ECC, are slim. But the property owner will stop at nothing to get 'his way.' Thus he has submitted his development plan as an initiative measure, allowing for 180 residential units and expeditiously by-passing the usual building permit process.

Now he demands, "Pass it or else!"

Or else, he suggests, that he may just leave it to his kids to develop years down the road. The same kind of bully tactics he used when he tried to derail the Escondido Citizens Property Rights Initiative, which declared the golf course to be protected 'Open Space' forever. He threatened to fence the property off and let it rot for three hundred years if the city council allowed the initiative to go to the voters, or worse yet, adopt it as law (which they did ).

But a builder friendly judge vacated the 'Open Space' declaration, so the owner went on the offensive. Mr. Schlesinger's  subsequent 'hold the golf course prisoner' approach has worked to his advantage in Escondido, so what is stopping him from going down the same road in Poway? If Poway voters should reject Measure A, he can continue the scorched earth process of turning StoneRidge's beautiful landscape into an eyesore. It is an economical choke hold that lowers property values, creates economic uncertainty and eventually drains the resistance out of the community. 

Now he wants 180 units, but if he loses, he may come back next time looking for hundreds more!

If Powegians are interested in seeing how this strategy works, just take a drive 12 miles up Interstate 15 to the abandoned Escondido Country Club property. The 110 acre golf course has been surrounded by a Rent-A-Fence and allowed to turn fallow and many of the landmark trees are dead or dying. The owner has neglected everything about the property for nearly five years and the result has been deteriorating home ownership and property appreciation rates, and an ecological and visual disaster similar to a wildfire. What was for decades one of the most desirable communities in Escondido has quickly gone the other way.

​So beware Poway residents, this may not turn out as simple as one man would like you to believe. His ransom demands for StoneRidge may seem reasonable and affordable, but read the fine print in the measure. You may find the Measure A initiative is not about Poway or the future health of the StoneRidge neighborhood,  it's all about the ransom.
To read the entire UT article, click below: 
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/pomerado-news/news/local-news/poway/sd-stoneridge-will-close-measure-a-fails-20170913-story.html