Ramona Community Planning Group Hears General Plan Overview

Ramona Community Planning Group received an update from the Department of Planning and Land Use about the county’s General Plan that was passed on Aug. 3 by the Board of Supervisors. The Ramona group met on Aug. 4.

“We’re in a new era of planning,” said Devon Muto, chief of advance planning. “Our [General] Plan was developed over 30 years ago.”

When work on the new plan began, it was referred to as the 2020 Plan.

Planning group member Chris Anderson has been working with the county on developing the new General Plan for the past 15 years as RCPG’s representative. All efforts were made to maintain Ramona’s rural character, Muto said. Planning group member Kevin Wallace asked about changes in zoning, in particular with agricultural designations for the Ramona area.

Muto said the zoning has been “mostly unaffected,” adding that property owners in the agricultural area would have been notified by letter one year ago if there were to be any zoning changes.

“The Board [of Supervisors] said any disagreement we’re hearing about from individual properties, we want to look at that property in more detail,” Muto said.

Complaints or problems with the General Plan are placed into three categories: minors, moderates and majors, Muto added.

“We try to put as many of those requests into the minors and moderates categories,” Muto explained. “It’s not our objective to keep them in the majors category.”

Muto said a public workshop will be held Nov. 9 with the Board of Supervisors. Property owners will have an opportunity to ask questions at that time and register a complaint, if warranted.

The planning group also heard details about the temporary closure of hiking trails at Cedar Creek Falls from Joan Freiddlander, a ranger with United States Forest Service. A recent death in the Cedar Creek area has generated renewed interest in safety issues.

“The number of fatalities goes back a long time,” Freiddlander said. “We undertook efforts to make that trail a little gentler, a little easier."

There are plans to add a kiosk and information booth at the trailhead, along with a host who will be on duty to interact with visitors to the popular hiking trail. Arrangements are also in the works for making water available to hikers.

“It’s a very popular destination in San Diego County in the last couple of years,” Freiddlande said. “The use has really increased.”

The trail is expected to reopen in November. Meanwhile, the trail will be patrolled by law enforcement to ensure the closure remains in place.

“Sheriff’s [deputies] have been out there since the closure, working every day,” Freiddlander said. “We’re out there, too. We go out in response when we’re hearing there are problems. This is going to be a 100 percent closure …. We have two law enforcement [officers] going in there on a regular basis.”

In other business, RCPG secretary Kristi Mansolf said upgrades to 13th Street have been approved by the county, and a bridge will soon be connecting Main Street traffic to Olive Street, going from the downtown area to the industrial section of town.

RCPG Chairman Jim Piva announced that the speed limit on Haverford Road has been posted at 45 miles per hour. This came about after residents complained to the planning group earlier this year regarding drivers going too fast in their neighborhood.

Piva also shared information on parking restrictions being installed on Seventh Street on the north side from Main Street. The county will survey businesses in that area that may be affected, he said. The restrictions will go into effect after the survey is completed and the project is approved by .

Mansolf announced that a “tabletop exercise” for disaster preparedness is scheduled for Ramona within the next several weeks. Participating agencies will be testing the effectiveness of evacuation plans in the event of a major disaster.

Mansolf said scenarios will be set up on tabletops to emulate what could happen in an emergency. “We need it to be realistic to Ramona,” she said.

Piva added, “We’re looking to find out the weak spots in our plan before we have a real disaster.

Agencies participating include the county, water district, fire department, animal services and sheriff’s department. Mansolf and RCPG Vice Chairman Bob Hailey will represent the planning group. Attendance at the exercise will be by invitation only, Mansolf said.

A workshop on flooding issues is in the planning stages to identify and prioritize areas in Ramona that undergo flooding during heavy rains. It is expected to be scheduled in October at .

The next meeting of Ramona Community Planning Group is set at 7 p.m. on Sept. 1 in the community room at the library, 1275 Main St.