RCPG Applauded For Sol Orchard Resistance; Local Interest Group May Sue

During an appeal to the County Board of Supervisors Feb. 6, Sol Orchard critics rallied together with the general consensus that green energy was good for Ramona, just not at 1650 Warnock Dr.

At the Feb. 6 Board of Supervisors meeting in downtown San Diego, Donna Myers, who was representing Citizens for a Rural Ramona, was one of many speakers to say she supports solar farms, but an ordinance needs to be put in place for them.

"I would support the project if it was in a county buffer zone, adjacent to the Ramona landfill," Myers stated.

Jim Piva, chair of the Ramona Community Planning Group (RCPG), also spoke out against the photovoltaic farm with two other RCPG members. The week before, Piva had attended the County Board of Supervisors meeting to show the planning group's support of the Cumming Ranch Project. But on Feb. 6, Piva said Sol Orchard was not endorsed by the RCPG.

"The Ramona Community Planning Group supports green energy projects," Piva said at the Feb. 6 meeting. "But they don't necessarity fit with Ramona's rural character."

Planning Group Secretary Kristi Mansolf added that if the county did approve the project, they local planning group was asking for conditions and screenings to set a model for future solar farms.

The County Supervisors voted 4-1 for major-use permit for Sol Orchard.

At the Feb. 7 RCPG meeting, group member Matt Deskovick expressed frustration over the issue.

"I'm upset with members saying 'we don't like it, but...'" Deskovick said. "We look like idiots. Stand your ground and say no."

But Ramona resident Kathy DaSilva applauded the planning group's effort to appeal the project planned for a pig farm off Warnock Drive, noting that none of the supervisors "know what fallow ground is,"—their defense for approving Sol Orchard on the pig farm land.

"The Ramona Community Planning Group was awesome [on Feb. 6]," DaSilva said. "You guys were super."

At the monthly group meeting, member Myers hinted that Citizens for a Rural Ramona would be taking legal action.

NBC San Diego reported Monday that the interest group claims the Board of Supervisor's approval of Sol Orchard in Ramona is illegal.

“It's unsightly, it's an industrial application in an agricultural zone, so that means if anything goes wrong it, it's an industrial mess that has to cleaned up, if you can clean it up at all,” Citizens for a Rural Ramona advocate Ken Brennecke told NBC.

The news outlet reported that Citizens for a Rural Ramona met Monday night to discuss the possible suit.

Piva told Myers at the Feb. 7 meeting that as a group, the Ramona Community Planning Group could not take any further action on the item and if Myers wanted community support, group members would have to join the effort as individuals.