Torrey Highlands Shows Its Spirit
by Scott Peters
November 2003
I want to thank those in the Torrey Highlands community who showed up at our first Torrey Highlands night.
The meeting's attendance was so much greater than we expected that we had to move the meeting outside from the classroom onto the quad.
I appreciated everyone's understanding of the situation. The tremendous turn out illustrates the enthusiasm, spirit, and identity the
residents of this new community are bringing to the I-15 corridor. As this new area looks forward, I thought that it might be useful to
review some of the history behind the planning of the area, as well as some of the recent actions that have been taken to enhance the quality of life in the area.
In 1979 the voters of San Diego approved a growth management plan that designated the area between Rancho Penasquitos and Carmel Valley
as the North City Future Urbanizing Area (NCFUA). The area was broken into five different sub-areas, with Torrey Highlands designated as
"Sub-Area Four." The Sub-Area Plan for Torrey Highlands was approved by voters in 1996 as Proposition H. It designated 1,520 total acres as the plan area,
with 1,134 acres for development. The proposition set a maximum number of 2,600 dwelling units at build out and permanently preserved 250 acres of open space.
Parks, roads, schools and other public facilities are paid for by contributions from special assessment districts, impact fees, developer contributions and the City's General Fund,
with developers having the largest financial responsibility. The two factors that affect the timing of construction of facilities are population and traffic count thresholds.
Unfortunately, the phasing timelines for many of these facilities were based on arcane City formulas and not on the real needs of families.
Since taking office in December of 2000, I have tried to bring a pragmatic approach to how we bring these facilities on-line to accommodate the needs of families in the area. The neighborhood park in Torrey Del Mar
had originally been planned to open in 2012 and is now slated for opening in 2005. We have also accelerated the construction of the 30-acre community park at the end of Carmel Valley Road,
which we expect to open in November of 2004. This park will provide new field space to families in Torrey Highlands and Rancho Penasquitos, and as a coach for my own kid's teams,
I understand the importance of getting them in as soon as possible. We were also able to construct and open the interchange at Camino Del Sur / SR56 three years ahead of schedule,
which gave residents direct access to the freeway and took much of the traffic off Black Mountain Road in PQ. And we still have kept the SR56 freeway on track to open in July of 2004.
As of January 2003 approximately 50 percent of the residential building permits in Torrey Highlands have been issued and approximately one-third of residences are occupied.
The people I met last week at Torrey Highlands Night were full of energy and enthusiasm about where they live. Their spirit is turning what was once just a sub-area on a ballot initiative into a "community" in the best sense of the word.
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