REGIONAL: Guejito owners reject Horn's preservation overtures

By: DARRYN BENNETT - Staff Writer
Supervisor plans Washington trip to lobby for cash
This story has been corrected since its original posting. | Tuesday, March 25, 2008 2:31 PM PDT ∞

RANCHO GUEJITO -- The owners of a sprawling 23,000-acre ranch on the eastern outskirts of Escondido have rejected San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn's latest proposal to buy and preserve the ranch amid speculation that it might soon be developed.

Hank Rupp, a Temecula-based attorney who represents the owners of the ranch, criticized Horn's plans to lobby federal leaders in April for funds to buy Rancho Guejito, the largest piece of privately owned, undeveloped land in the county and the last intact Mexican land grant in the state. Horn hopes to raise nearly $200 million in state, federal and county funds for the purchase.

"It's absolutely outrageous," said Rupp. "At 100 times that price (the ranch) is not for sale."

The response came after Horn announced last week that he plans to keep pressuring the owners to sell the property so that it can be preserved.

"I want to keep the ball rolling and keep it a front-burner issue when I go to Washington," Horn said in an interview Monday.

Horn said he has no plans to use the county's eminent domain powers to acquire the property if the owners are unwilling to sell it, but he said he is willing to go to great lengths to keep the land pristine and undeveloped.

The supervisor's comments may have intensified a struggle that has been brewing between the private owner of the ranch and a growing group of people determined to preserve it. And there is plenty of distrust between disputing parties involved.

Rupp has accused the county of exaggerating environmental concerns to wrest control of the ranch away from its owner. He maintains that officials, such as Horn, want to devalue the property so the county can purchase it at a depressed price in the future.

Furthermore, Rupp said, the family that owns Guejito has kept it nearly pristine for more than 30 years and has no intention of selling or developing the land in the "immediate future."

But Horn and others have said recent activity at the ranch has aroused suspicions that the owners are planning to build large housing tracts or commercial projects on the historic property.

In 2005, neighbors noticed helicopters flying over the property and began worrying that it was being surveyed for construction.

A few months later Rupp approached Escondido city officials about annexing the land, a move that would nearly double the size of Escondido and subject the property to less-stringent zoning regulations than if it remained in the unincorporated part of county.

Also stoking concerns from preservationists was the most recent addition to the ranch, a 100-acre parcel named Rockwood Ranch purchased by the Rodney Co. -- which directly oversees Guejito -- for $3.37 million last year. The property connects the ranch to Highway 78 and could serve as the site of a future road.

In addition, Guejito's owners have hired a prominent public relations firm and a development consultant. Such moves could mean the owners are preparing to move forward with developing the property, or are attempting to drive up the value of the property before putting it on the market.

Horn has suggested that a 2005 agreement involving the 82,000-acre Hearst Ranch could serve as a model for preserving Rancho Guejito. The deal set aside nearly 130 square miles of pristine rangeland along the Big Sur coastline in Northern California.

The property had been appraised at $230 million. But after more than six years of negotiations, the state paid the Hearst family $80 million in cash and $15 million in tax credits, while the family donated the remaining $135 million.

But Rupp said the future of the ranch isn't up to Horn or environmentalists.

"This is private property we're talking about," he said. "Anyone who owns private property in the county should be outraged at the county's attempt to steal (Guejito) from a private owner."

He said the Rodney Co. will "take stock of the ranch's resources" to determine its value.

"Whatever action we need to take to protect it, we will," he said.

Environmentalists often call Rancho Guejito the "conservation jewel of San Diego County." The rugged expanse stretches from the San Pasqual Valley north to the 4,221-foot peak of Pine Mountain near the La Jolla Indian Reservation. Meadows and mesas dot the landscape. Herds of deer and packs of coyotes roam the working cattle ranch.

Historians say American Indian archaeological sites, an adobe from the 1800s and a once-busy winery are landmarks on the untamed ranch that is a "time capsule" from the 1800s.

Benjamin Coates, a wealthy businessman, bought the property in 1974 for $10 million. Since his death in 2004, his daughter Theodate, a New York artist Rupp represents, has been managing the estate.

-- Contact staff writer Darryn Bennett at (760) 740-5420 or dmbennett@nctimes.com.

Correction: Hearst Ranch acreage misreported

This story originally misreported the size of Hearst Ranch. Hearst Ranch is 82,000 acres.

We apologize.

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