UNION-TRIBUNE
May 25, 2008
To you and me, it's a line on a county map.
To Raquel and Hans Britsch, it's a slice through the heart.
“It just doesn't seem American,” Raquel said, walking in high heels through a field of golden barrel cactus.
“You buy property, you have your business, you have your home, and so someone can make money, they plow right through.”
Now in their early 40s, Raquel and Hans met their freshmen year at Santa Clara University. Children of immigrant parents – hers Mexican; his Swiss – they married and settled in Temecula.
They worked hard: She, practicing law; he, in the family business, Vista-based Western Cactus. Fifteen years ago, they bought 32 acres of nursery land on the west side of West Lilac Road in northwest Valley Center.
The land grew – and grew on them. “When I was pregnant, I would walk around it,” Raquel said. “Each of our children, when they were born, we would come here and take pictures.”
Five years ago, they started planning to build a house amid the commercial cactus fields and greenhouses. The 5,500-square-foot house would make a statement. High ceilings, massive beams, stone tile, Catholic crosses fashioned in woodwork. Raquel planned a book honoring the artisans and workers who would turn the vision of an early California mission into a reality.
In a month or two, the Britsches will be moving in with their three boys.
Some 10 days ago, they were stunned to learn from a newspaper report that their Edenic garden had a snake running through it.
A line on a county map they had never seen – or even heard about – was drawn through the heart of their farm, through the field of golden barrel cactus, within 100 feet of their dream home.
In April 2006, Accretive Capital Partners, a company headed by Randy Goodson and Simon Malk, approached the Britsches and offered to buy their land or enter into a joint venture.
Like many landowners in the unincorporated area, Hans was aware that General Plan 2020, the county's long-delayed zoning revision, could downzone his land, reducing its value.
In his offer, Jon Rilling, Accretive's vice president, wrote that his company either had bought or “tied up” 155 acres to the west of the Britsches. He said, “My company has significant experience dealing with the county and I believe we can prevent the impacts of GP 2020 and develop a plan for your land that will maximize its value.”
Raquel and Hans weren't interested, but a representative of Agland Properties, an Accretive subsidiary, would in the next two years periodically make a richer offer for the land.
At no time was there any mention of a road that could trigger the building of 3,000 houses in the valley below, the Britsches said.
“We try to do our homework,” lawyer Raquel said. “We try to be aware of everything. We're pretty connected. And this got by us. How did we have no clue?”
Good question.
On Aug. 2, 2006, during a public review of General Plan 2020's traffic circulation, county Supervisor Bill Horn said that “3A,” the 2-mile western leg of a much longer line on a map connecting the center of Valley Center to Interstate 15, was suddenly “critical.”
Horn directed county staff to “develop a cost estimate for the road and meet with any willing property owners to develop a Specific Planning Area . . . with land use designations necessary to pay for the construction of the road.”
In English, the road segment connecting West Lilac Road to Old Highway 395 would be paid for by developers who would make up the difference by building a sea of houses on upzoned farm land near Interstate 15.
Horn's novel approach, which lamentably failed to draw news coverage, did not highlight the following salient facts:
For at least five months, Accretive/Agland had been buying or tying up large parcels in the proposed planning area.
Accretive Investments had donated $25,000 to a political group backing incumbent Horn in the tense final days of the June 2006 election.
Horn's ranch is very near the proposed 3A, raising the specter of a conflict of interest.
Two weeks ago, the Valley Center Planning Group, which had just learned of Horn's strategy to build the road, “vehemently” opposed the road and Horn's traffic-generating housing gambit.
In his defense, Horn says the complete east-west road has been kicking around for 15 years. Although 3A is only one short leg, he believes he should be praised for coming up with a way of paying for “smart growth” without using public money.
To ease the community's angst, he reminds us that more public hearings will be held before General Plan 2020 is adopted, possibly as early as 2010.
For two years, no one – not their land-use attorney, not the county, not the reporters, not the “experienced” developers – ever informed the Britsches of the possible taking of the heart of their property through eminent domain.
Now that the alarm has been sounded, they are gearing up for legal battle.
Looking out from their cavernous great room, Raquel said Hans' parents left an ancestral home in Switzerland where generations of Britsches are buried.
“It has on one of the beams, 'We fought – and survived – Napoleon,' ” she said.
After a pause, Hans deadpanned, “We're hoping Napoleon doesn't come through here.”
Some day this family may be able to carve a new inscription on one of the massive beams:
“We fought – and survived – Horn.”
 Logan Jenkins: (760) 737-7555; logan.jenkins@uniontrib.com.
|
