County, developer expect to sign restoration pact this month

| Saturday, October 7, 2000 10:00 PM PDT ∞

DAVE DOWNEY
Staff Writer

TEMECULA ---- The collection of old buildings near Highway 79 South and Redhawk Parkway conjures up images of the past, but when Darell Farnbach and Dick Diamond visit the site they cannot help but think of the future.

Thoughts of the two prominent members of the Vail Ranch Restoration Association turn to the day in the not-too-distant future when there may be a freeway sign pointing motorists in the direction of a new national historic site a few miles to the east.

"We think a sign out on the (Interstate) 15 that says historical district is going to be a huge magnet," said Dick Diamond, president of the nonprofit group.

"People come from all over the world looking for these historic places, staying in hotels and buying stuff," said David Stahovich, legislative aide to 1st District County Supervisor Bob Buster, who represents the Temecula area.

That's why the local association, Riverside County officials and Price Enterprises of San Diego are busy finalizing a plan to restore the insides of the buildings and preparing an application to have the 4.5-acre site designated as a national register historical district.

After spending $750,000 to restore the outside walls over the past couple years, representatives for the county and developer said they expect to finalize an agreement by month's end to strengthen the structures and refurbish them for use as shops, restaurants and museums.

The pact calls for Price Enterprises to spend up to $5 million on a project expected to take three years for design, county approvals and construction. The county plans to reimburse the developer $1.9 million of its up-front investment through sales-tax revenue generated around the site, and along Highway 79 South, after the historic shopping district is open.

If Temecula annexes the 703-acre Vail Ranch development, the county wants the city to agree to take over the obligation to reimburse Price Enterprises, something that has left a bad taste in the mouths of city officials. Temecula officials say it is unfair for city taxpayers to forfeit $1.9 million in potential sales-tax revenue. And the impasse over the issue ---- as well as the county's insistence that the city subsidize neighboring Redhawk's slope maintenance fees to the tune of $350,000, as an incentive to annex later ---- could unravel the Vail Ranch annexation.

City and county officials plan to meet on Tuesday afternoon to try to work out a compromise so that the 5,000 residents of Vail Ranch can still come into the city on their own, after Redhawk residents rejected annexation a year ago over increases suggested in slope maintenance charges.

Whether or not the annexation happens, the county plans to restore the historic buildings' inside walls and convert the 4.5-acre fenced dirt lot into a vibrant commercial center will go forward, Stahovich vowed.

"It's going to happen regardless," he said. "We have worked too hard, spent too many hours in negotiations and spent too much money to throw it all away."

The plan is to have the county own the site, and lease it back to the developer.

Some may take exception to converting the former headquarters of the dusty cattle ranch that once sprawled over 135 square miles and included pasture on Santa Rosa Island and in the Imperial Valley, into a place where people shop and buy things, Diamond said.

"There is nothing wrong with commercializing the place," he said.

Fahrnbach said that's the only way to avoid spending huge sums of taxpayers' money to preserve the area, something the association has been opposed to since it was formed several years ago to protect the old buildings from vandals and bulldozers.

Bill Stone, senior vice president of retail development for Price Enterprises, said the area would not be filled with national chain stores but rather with shops that would complement the historic flavor of the area.

"We are talking to tenants who have locations within the Gas Lamp District in San Diego and all up and down the coast," Stone said. "We're planning on bringing tenants to Temecula that aren't there now."

Stone said the dirt courtyard within the circle of buildings would be paved with granite stones, similar to those used in the Temecula Valley a century ago. "There are a lot of granite blocks that people don't know are already out there because they are buried," he said.

The courtyard would be a place for public gatherings and tours.

Stone said his firm is working on a variety of options for the 16,000 square feet of floor space within the caretaker's house, the ranch house, the bunk house, the machine shop and the 132-year-old Wolf Store.

"We're trying to make it an active history lesson," Stone said.

Plans for the bunkhouse include restoring one room to the way it was when ranch hands lived there, he said. Other rooms are being touted for gift shops and clothing shops, perhaps one selling Westernwear.

"We also think this would be a great location to do a winery information store, and then people could go on tours of the Wine Country from there," Stone said.

He said the Wolf Store would be a good location for a restaurant. Diamond and Fahrnback, on the other hand, are hoping to put a museum and office in the structure that served multiple purposes in its heyday: general store, stage stop, inn, saloon, post office and even court.

Stone said planners for Price are putting a blacksmithing operation and a restaurant inside the machine-shop building.

Meanwhile, there are plans to rebuild an old barn, the pieces of which are laying inside the machine shop. "Our idea is to turn that into a permanent farmers' market, one that if not open every day would open for business two or three days a week," Stone said.

Diamond and Fahrnbach are excited about the prospects for preserving the site that has so much history. It not only served as headquarters for the ranch until it was sold off for real estate development in 1964, the site was crossed by the Mormon Battalion in 1847 and was near an important graveyard for the Temecula Indians until they were forcibly moved from the area along Temecula Creek in 1875.

"This was the second Temecula," said Diamond. "The first was the Indian village overlooking the entrance to the Santa Margarita River canyon."

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

10/8/00