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VISTA: Homeowners wary of redevelopment plans
City officials say nothing to worry about
By GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | ∞
Michael Booth stands next to his granite-walled home, which was built in 1935, in Vista on Tuesday. VISTA ---- Michael Booth stood in front of his home last week, a resortlike, rock-walled, wisteria and bougainvillea covered house on 2.7 acres of land teeming with fruit and a small winery, and grimaced.
Booth and a seemingly growing number of Vista residents said last week they were worried that the city wants to declare their homes "urban blight" and take them in the name of progress.
Those fears have emerged since the city announced a plan several months ago to expand its downtown redevelopment area into other parts of Vista.
Redevelopment is a controversial economic tool that cities have used since the 1940s to claim special tax advantages and reshape aging, unattractive neighborhoods.
In redevelopment areas, cities have the power to buy private property from unwilling sellers by paying what a court determines is fair market value in a process called the right of eminent domain. Vista officials have repeatedly said they won't use eminent domain on private homes.
But that hasn't soothed residents.
"I went around to 60 of my neighbors," said Booth, "and I had 60 people with the same attitude. The city has sole power over eminent domain and the public has no control."
The proposal
The city's plan would more than double the size of Vista's 2,016-acre redevelopment area, created in 1987 to give an economic boost and aesthetic face-lift to the city's downtown core. City officials used redevelopment to create the downtown Vista Village shopping center, a sprawling mix of restaurants, retail shops and a movie theater, on property that used to be an abandoned strip mall.
The expansion proposal would draw in the city's Townsite neighborhood; a large area between South Santa Fe Avenue and Highway 78; a big stretch of Sycamore Avenue in south Vista; and other parcels just north of Highway 78. The City Council vote is set to vote on the plan in June.
More than 50 percent of the expanded redevelopment area would be in residential neighborhoods.
"Why do they want to come into these ... neighborhoods?" asked Betty Gilroy, an artist whose family has lived in the same home in the hills off South Santa Fe Drive since 1990. "What are their intentions?"
Gilroy and others said they believe the city's aim is clear: Vista wants their property.
"My home is in the redevelopment area," said George Wolfe. "I think the city is going to do a land grab."
Good intentions
Bill Rawlings, Vista's redevelopment director, said the city's desire to expand residential zones into residential areas was to help those areas, not to take people's homes. He said the city simply wants to build new infrastructure ----- sidewalks, streetlights, curbs and gutters ---- for the people living in those neighborhoods.
Rawlings said that people have no reason to fear being forced to sell their homes, because Vista's plan specifically bars the city from using eminent domain in residentially zoned areas.
Rawlings said that the city had two main reasons to propose the expansion.
The first, he said, was because the original 1987 redevelopment corridors in urban areas have been too small or narrow to attract strong interest from developers. Widening those areas, Rawlings said, could change that.
The second reason was to improve life in the residential areas, he said.
"It's not redevelopment for the purpose of putting in additional commercial or any development of any kind, but just to do infrastructure."
Suspicions linger
Booth, who was elected by homeowners to a city advisory committee on redevelopment, said he is not persuaded the city's goals are noble.
He said City Council members could still use eminent domain to take people's homes by changing residential zoning.
Widening rural roads, putting in lights and gutters would make it easier to do that, he added.
"If the government wants your house, there are very easy ways for them to take your house," Booth said.
Rawlings said changing zoning was unlikely, because it required a lengthy, public process.
Gilroy and some of her neighbors said last week that they also don't think city officials have provided enough information about the proposed expansion.
Kay Buist, a retired schoolteacher, said she and many of her friends found out their neighborhood would be in the expansion zones by reading a city flier in December. The city began to publicly discuss expanding the redevelopment area months earlier, in July.
Gilroy said the city lost her trust in part because it failed to send out its redevelopment fliers in Spanish. Vista's hardscrabble Townsite area, a redevelopment target, has many Spanish-speaking residents and 43 percent of the city's total population is Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey.
Preserving the past
Buist said she is also worried about how the change could affect the hilly Lado de Loma Drive neighborhood where she and her husband have rented a home for several years.
She said the city could allow developers to build "hundreds" of condominiums or apartments and ruin the charm of the area, where eclectic homes line narrow, winding streets.
Buist said she and her friends are also offended that the proposal calls their neighborhood blighted.
"(That's saying) I live in the projects now," Buist said. "That's how I feel."
Rawlings said he hoped residents' suspicions would not stop the city from pushing redevelopment into those areas.
"The only result of that will be that we won't be able to improve the infrastructure, and continue to have little kids walking to schools in the street."
Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 901-4076 or gconaughton@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.
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Walt wrote on Mar 30, 2008 6:33 AM:Listen for the buzz words; "Smart Growth" and "Transit Oriented Development" Folks! Also known as dense crowded housing and more congestion.
Resident wrote on Mar 30, 2008 7:23 AM:The People's Republic of Vista would like to take your home away. The city wants to tax the property value down to make it cheaper for them to take it by eminent domain. Then they can use taxpayer money to give to their construction buddies who will develop your old piece of property. It's more of a developer-contractor country club than a city governed by the will of it's citizens.
livin' in the projects of Vista wrote on Mar 30, 2008 10:52 AM:Come on Mr. Rawlings.
Where's the information?
If your plan is so good for us then tell us what it is! Not just your vague description.
Have a public meeting for ALL citizens who are affected by the redevelopment amendment #4. You have not had any public meeting of this nature since you proposed the amendment in Nov. 2007.
Redevelopment, eminent domain, zone changes, the CDC all are powerful beyond what the average homeowner can tend with. Let's be fair, talk to us, tell us what you plan to do. Be specific.
The Vista City Council (CDC) votes on the amendment #4 in June. That does not give us much time to find out what is really planned. Why would you postpone the Project Area Committee confirmation knowing how the affected citizens want more information and we want it now!!!
Once the CDC votes on this amendment then we citizens don't have any chance of challenging the revelopment. The CDC should vote NO on the Amendment #4 and just go forward with their original redev plan in the commercial areas. The proof is in the pudding, show us the Santa Fe redev first.
The City Council has that power to change zoning and it is easier than you state.
Eminent domain is on the June ballot this year. Proposition 98 hinders city governments from using eminent domain. Vote yes on Proposition 98. Vote NO on 99, if 99 passes it will prohibit Proposition 98.
Join a yahoo group web site set up by Vista citizens for Vista citizens who want information on this redevelopment plan. Anyone can join. ...
Vis wrote on Mar 30, 2008 11:27 AM:The children in our neighborhood, which is part of the "blighted" area, take the bus! They do not walk to school in the streets! What a misrepresentative graphic! This article is so typical of the information given to residents,i.e.
Rawlings said no reason to fear people losing homes to redevelopment. Then says widening redevelopment corridor may attract strong interest from developers, and later says even if citizens don't want redevelopment in their neighborhood he hopes the city will PUSH it through! Wow!
livin' in the Vista projects wrote on Mar 30, 2008 12:50 PM:NC Times,
Please post my comment written today March 30 and take out the web site address I added. I didn't realize you do not post comments that have web addresses in them. Thanks.
concerned vista resident wrote on Mar 30, 2008 1:15 PM:thank you North County Times for your article on page A-1 in Vista edition, Sunday March 30, 2008 RE: Homeowners wary, hopefully this will bring this serious problem to the attention of the citizens of Vista who remain largely unaware of the impending situation! And absolutely Resident is right. Most folks don't even know this is going on, it appears obvious that the citizenry is receiving only reluctant and guarded communication from city officials.
concerned USA resident wrote on Mar 30, 2008 2:32 PM:If you think that's bad, youtube NAU, and find out what's going on behind the American peoples back. It's very disturbing as well.
living in Vista wrote on Mar 30, 2008 2:44 PM:Were's the plan? All Mr. Rawlnings has to do is tell us specifically what they plan to do in this proposed redevelopment! Most folks affected don't even know about it.
If I were to get hired to paint a large scale wall mural that would be prominantly displayed for many to see and cost a large sum of money, the person who hired me would want a design, plan or sketch to show the details of the mural before I would proceed with the actual work. You mean to tell me that the City of Vista is going to vote on a large scale redevelopment with private residential properties included without a specific plan for the public to see? Come on!! What kind of busniness is that? This isn't just the commercial district anymore, we're talking homeowners, renters, small business owners, self employed people who work out of their homes, lower and middle income people who can't afford one more cent on their taxes or the thought of the City looming over their shoulders for years to come.
If the city is so concerned about the blighted neighborhoods in the central part of the city then fix the potholes for crying out loud! Take care of the business we already pay you for.
Petition like San Marcos! wrote on Mar 30, 2008 9:09 PM:You need to protect your neighborhoods with an initiative like citizens in San Marcos have qualified for the Nov. ballot. It requires voter approval of general plan changes. They will steal your property if you don't protect yourselves! Don't trust the city policy, because all it takes is three council votes to change it and take your land by eminent domain!
drmcb wrote on Mar 30, 2008 10:11 PM:The redevelopment agency is required to consult with the Project Area Committee(PAC) regarding all matters that affect residents of the project area. We are the eyes and ears of the residents of Vista on redevelopment. However, we urgently need volunteers to help inform the voting public.
The PAC also needs to hear from residents or businesses if City agencies are coercive, if they are targeting properties, threatening the use of eminent domain, or otherwise abuse their power. Please contact your PAC.
The threat of eminent domain is real. As Supreme Court Justice Sandra O'Connor said in 2005, "all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded". Only the voters have the power to protect our community from eminent domain abuses.
Please volunteer to help your PAC.
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