Rancho Bernardo planners angry over Palomar College’s EIR forum sites

The Rancho Bernardo Planning Board is forwarding its concerns to Palomar College over its satellite campus coming to the community, but members admitted there is little they can do to change the project.

“Hopefully they will listen to us and make changes,” board Chairman Mike Lutz said during the Sept. 17 meeting.

Several residents expressed dismay and frustration over Palomar officials’ lack of effort to keep Rancho Bernardans informed of its plans to open the campus by fall 2017 and said the two public meetings during the draft environmental impact report creation phase should have been scheduled for Rancho Bernardo venues, not Poway and Rancho Penasquitos.

“We made it very clear that this is an angry community and they should have had the meetings here,” said Bettyann Pernice, a planning board member present when Palomar officials presented their plan to the board’s development review committee on Sept. 9.

“Last time we made posters and there was a tremendous group (of Westwood residents) there,” Westwood resident Nancy Steele said, referencing Palomar’s community meeting in 2010 when purchasing the 27-acre site at 11111 Rancho Bernardo Road. “I’m really very upset.”

“It’s going to change Rancho Bernardo,” Greens East resident Sharon Reynolds said, mentioning potential parking issues in Westwood, adjacent roads getting more congested than they already are during rush hours and increased pollution due to traffic. “I’m not against the school, but the site of the school. … Our condition of living will be lowered. … This has just not been thought out.”

Reynolds added that not only will Rancho Bernardans feel the negative effects, but so will 4S Ranch and Poway residents, when more than 3,000 students try to access the campus via surface streets such as Pomerado and Rancho Bernardo roads.

“We should pool our resources and say this is not acceptable,” said Montelena resident Nikkii Klein. “We should immediately get a strong petition … and go to City Hall. … I’ll be damned if I’ll sit here and do nothing.”

“As I understand it … we have very little or no control,” Pernice said. “We can just complain with you.”

“I don’t know what we can do … but we’ll try to do as much as we can to mitigate as much impact as we can,” Lutz said.

Toward that effort, the board unanimously approved a letter stating its concerns over the campus that eventually could serve 3,470 full time equivalent students and be supported by 38 full-time equivalent faculty and 37 staff/administrators. Operating hours will be 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Fridays. The partially developed site has a 574-space parking structure and 218 surface parking spaces plus one 110,000 square foot building.

In its three-page letter, the planning board wrote the draft EIR — to be published this fall — should provide a detailed description of all project aspects, including construction and long-term operation. These include grading, construction hours, building design, lighting and signage.

“Although the NOP (notice of preparation) does not imply that there are any plans for the future expansion of the proposed facility, if there is the potential for expansion at this site to accommodate additional full time equivalent students at some point in the future, that information should be addressed in the draft EIR in accordance with CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act),” the board wrote.

Members included concerns over visibility from residential areas, nightglow impacting Palomar Observatory and noise during construction and long-term operation. They wrote a traffic study should address existing and projected future traffic volumes on Rancho Bernardo Road, Via del Campo, Matinal Road, Via Tazon, West Bernardo Drive, Interstate 15 ramps and Bernardo Center Drive. They also want potential alternative travel routes analyzed that could impact Westwood.

They questioned the number of parking spaces and potential parking fees, which might cause some to park in Westwood to avoid the fee. “Adequate mitigation should be provided to ensure that the Westwood community is not adversely affected by parking issues related to the current proposal,” the board wrote.

Also mentioned was potential effect the campus could have on current response times at Rancho Bernardo’s fire station and requested a transit route between the campus and Rancho Bernardo Transit Center to reduce vehicle trips and lower greenhouse gas emissions.