Disagreement threatens Vail Ranch annexation

| Thursday, September 28, 2000 10:00 PM PDT ∞

DAVE DOWNEY
Staff Writer

RIVERSIDE ---- Temecula's annexation of Vail Ranch is in trouble.

For the second time in two months Thursday, the Local Agency Formation Commission put off a decision on the proposed 703-acre annexation to Temecula because city and Riverside County officials cannot agree on two critical points. Both sides say the rift is so wide the entire proposal could unravel.

The first major sticking point is the county's insistence that Temecula refrain from raising slope maintenance assessment fees in neighboring Redhawk. The county wants to encourage residents there to annex as well.

But the biggest obstacle may be the county's request that the city give up $1.9 million in future sales tax revenue ---- as the county intends to do if Vail Ranch remains under county control ---- to give a developer incentive to restore one of the region's most important historic sites, then turn it into a county historical park and shopping district.

The Local Agency Formation Commission, an agency that decides whether cities can expand and whether new ones can incorporate, postponed a decision for one month. The commission is being asked by the city to approve the annexation of 1,600 homes, 126 acres of commercial property and the former headquarters of the historic Vail Ranch ---- the community's namesake ---- that once sprawled throughout the Temecula Valley.

Mayor Jeff Stone said Temecula City Council members ---- who recently discussed the county's proposal in a closed session ---- were adamantly opposed to both annexation conditions

County Supervisor Bob Buster, who represents the First District that takes in Temecula, Murrieta and Lake Elsinore, said he planned to sit down with council members individually over the next week or so to explain the plan in hopes of persuading them to change their minds.

Because Vail Ranch and Redhawk are closely tied together geographically and economically, county officials long have desired that both annex at the same time. But last November, while voters in Vail Ranch voted overwhelmingly in favor of annexation and assessment changes that would come with it, Redhawk residents voted down the taxes because they would have ended up paying $121 more a year.

Eight days after the election, Vail Ranch residents petitioned the city to come in alone. The city filed an application on their behalf with the agency formation commission earlier this year.

David Stahovich, a Buster legislative aide, said the county supports the annexation but wants to find a way to make annexation attractive to Redhawk as well. To that end, Buster has requested that Temecula, for the next five years, refrain from increasing rates for maintaining landscaped slopes in the 1,450-home golf course development next door to Vail Ranch.

But city officials are opposed because that would result in the city forfeiting $350,000 needed to fund maintenance.

"We're not going to subsidize the slopes," Stone said in an interview Thursday afternoon. "If we did that, we would have to do that for every other area of the city."

But Buster said the idea is fair.

"They (Redhawk residents) already spend their sales tax dollars in the city and they are not getting services for it," Buster said.

Deputy City Manager Gary Thornhill said the city also objects to the county's call for the city to begin using its sheriff's deputies, which it contracts with the county for, to patrol Redhawk, again to encourage Redhawk homeowners to seek annexation. Thornhill said that would result in the city spending $750,000 a year for the extra police protection, based on its one-officer-per-1,000-residents standard. Buster's office disputes that amount, saying it would be lower.

But the biggest sticking point remains the $1.9 million in sales tax revenue that the county wants the city to agree to give up.

"That's too big of a hit for us," Thornhill said. "We can't afford to give away retail sales tax."

Stone, in a letter to Buster, said it would be unacceptable for the city to promote the development of a commercial project.

Buster said the proposal to commit half of sales-tax revenue generated by retail businesses in the 47 acres around the historic ranch ---- until the total reaches $1.9 million ---- is reasonable.

"The developer is fronting the money," he said.

Buster said Excel Legacy Corp., the developer, has tentatively agreed to front $5 million to restore the insides of buildings at the historic ranch headquarters ---- visible from Highway 79 South and Redhawk Parkway ---- and turn them into restaurants, museums, ice cream parlors and coffee shops with gazebos and picnic areas.

"They're even talking about turning the old bunkhouse into a day-care center," Stahovich said.

"This is the most historically significant site in Southwest County, possibly in all of Riverside County," he said. "The goal is to try to turn this site into something more than a bunch of old buildings sitting on a dirt lot."

Stahovich said the county spent nearly $200,000 restoring the exteriors of the buildings, which include the 132-year-old Wolf Store ---- a former stage stop, store, inn, cantina and post office.

As part of the proposed interior restoration, Excel Legacy is seeking to have the 4.5-acre site designated a National Historic Register District. Buster said the proposed agreement with the developer is expected to be finalized in three to four weeks. Whether the annexation takes place or not, the county would own the site, an idea supported by the Vail Ranch Restoration Association.

Contact Dave Downey at (909) 676-4315, Ext. 2621, or downey@nctimes.com.

9/29/00