YUCK wrote on Jun 24, 2008 3:16 PM:If you drive by that corner, it looks terrible with all those RV's dumped there. C'mon Arie.......stick to milking cows.......better yet......store 'em at your house so you can look at this all day.

You Go Arie wrote on Jun 24, 2008 3:38 PM:Hope you are able to put a boot up the city of Vista's backside. To have them change the rules in order to limit your uses of this land is a cheap stunt that all of us can see through. Why don't they work to improve the North side of 78, where most of the neighborhoods look like something out of Mexico?

So Much wrote on Jun 24, 2008 3:56 PM:for the rights of land owners. If Vista wants something else there buy the land and do it. Governments need to quit holding people hostage with zoning to get their own way.

Alf wrote on Jun 24, 2008 4:44 PM:Small town politics are the pits. I have had my own "experience" with a politician in Encinitas and if I had some extra money to throw around, I'd give it to Arie DeJong's lawyer(s). Regards, Alf.

Property Rights wrote on Jun 24, 2008 5:39 PM:He owns the property, he should build what he wants especially if it benefits Vista's neighborhoods by keeping RVs and trailers off streets and driveways.

Floyd wrote on Jun 24, 2008 6:06 PM:If the problem is that he doesn't have the permit, then the city should give him the permit already. That would solve the problem.

Owner wrote on Jun 24, 2008 6:54 PM:Arie,
Put a Strip Mall there & paint it Florescent Pink!!That's nothing compared to Beuna Creek Rd!

former resident wrote on Jun 24, 2008 8:14 PM:I hope Mr. DeJong prevails. The City has no right to treat him this way.

Lisa wrote on Jun 24, 2008 8:52 PM:There's obviously a need for the storage. Typical dirty politics, changing the code after getting a "cool" reception of his idea.
Go Mr. DeJong I hope you win the lawsuit against you.

blm wrote on Jun 24, 2008 9:02 PM:It's his property. If the city has other plans for it, they need to buy it from him. It looks to me from the article that he went through channels, got permission, started a business, then the city had other ideas and changed the rules in their favor. It shouldn't work that way.

Violations Galore wrote on Jun 24, 2008 9:27 PM:I agree with neighborhoods 'trashed' in Vista. Why can't the city get high profile vehicles off narrow streets where kids are almost killed every day? Boats on lawns, old furniture strewn about, lawns never mowed, trip hazards for the elderly, trees never trimmed, dogs running loose, pot holes, rusty vehicles, piles of dirt, mosquito puddles, graffiti, half painted houses, broken windows....oh yes, garage sale signs on public property - left there forever....oh, well, so much for the environment, keeping the peace and 'pieces' and pride..that's our government at work. Let's change that at election time please!

Build a wall wrote on Jun 24, 2008 10:04 PM:so let the guy build a nice wall around his property so you can't see the RV's.

Its his property and as long as he isn't dumping trash and selling drugs , I say let him do as he pleases with HIS property,

Vista lets Day laborers hang out in the Vons shopping center looking for work and that is an eye sore to me.

So let the Tax paying land owner do as he pleases with his land. Its not like Vista is a pretty city anyway.

Maybe wrote on Jun 24, 2008 10:08 PM:The city of Vista should clean up other parts of the city before they pick on this guy. Look at all the houses that have junk all over the front yards, old rusty cars and Graffiti every where.

Vista has a lot of nerve!

You got to be kidding wrote on Jun 24, 2008 10:11 PM:The article states"The city determined this legal action is necessary in order to protect the community's interests;"

Thats a total joke. Maybe the city should focus on the Gangs, Graffiti and the illegal day laborers first. Thats more of what I expect a city to do to protect my interest!

Vista res wrote on Jun 24, 2008 10:30 PM:I agree with most of the people here - it's the guy's property he should be able to do what he wants with it. Maybe the City of Vista should put it's money where it's mouth is!

Beth-San Marcos wrote on Jun 24, 2008 10:49 PM:Whose property is it? The city's???? nope? Heck
anything DeJong does should be an improvement in Visra

Redevelopment is the agenda wrote on Jun 25, 2008 6:10 AM:It is typical small-towns at it again. They just want the property so that THEY (or their "friends") can abuse the law and REDEVELOP it. Arie DeJong is known for his fairness and generosity. He also will hold a line. I only hope that this city lawsuit will actualy end up with the result that CEQA and the original zoning will be forced to be followed. Mr. DeJong has a lot of followers, especially in San Marcos, right next door.

Knowing how to fight wrote on Jun 25, 2008 6:15 AM:Since when does ANY city get the right to change the code to prevent an allowable use from occurring ? It is when they want the property for redevelopment - to get all of those juicy tax dollars. It is not for the good of the people or the community at large - just their treasury. Arie, let them sue you, then they will be the aggressors and as we all know, you KNOW how to fight. Best of luck.

esteban wrote on Jun 25, 2008 6:30 AM:"that use is grandfathered in" I like it. Work the system, don't let the system work you!

Smells fishy wrote on Jun 25, 2008 6:49 AM:After Mr. DeJong's request, the city "tweaked" the code, and RV storage was no longer allowed there. Boy, does that ever smell fishy ! Can you imagine what would happen when EVERYONE who came before a city with a request for an alowable use, had the zoning "tweaked" to prevent that which had been allowed before the "tweaking" ? This just cannot happen. It should not be allowed to happen to anyone. Didn't we read a few months ago about this project, which would have beautified the area ? Protect your rights to your families land, Mr. DeJong.

A Vistan wrote on Jun 25, 2008 6:54 AM:What people don't realize is that there are two issues here. Mr DeJong has sued Vista for "changing the rules" and I think he has a pretty good argument to get the permit. However, opening and operating a business without getting a permit is a clear-cut violation of the law and there's no way he's going to win that argument in any court. Perhaps the strategy is to use Vista's lawsuit to get his initial lawsuit through the legal system faster and reach a settlement? Otherwise his actions don't make sense.

Vista Granny wrote on Jun 25, 2008 7:01 AM:If a "high profile" hotel is to be built there, then someone better put in some "high profile" restaurants, shopping and yes, bars. It's a goofy place for an hotel. RV storage can be shielded from public view - and I agree it's needed. I want a new mayor and city council - and have for a long time.

JSten wrote on Jun 25, 2008 7:12 AM:Backroom deals and manipulation of the code is an interesting application of due process. The City needs to be smacked down HARD!

Jaque wrote on Jun 25, 2008 7:14 AM:Does anybody know of someplace like this in Excondido where I can store my RV?

Jim-Poway wrote on Jun 25, 2008 7:48 AM:Go, Vista sue; Arie never wins in court.Look at what he did in Encinitas trash as well as almost every other North County City.James Mashburn a fine family owned company serving North County for over 40 years is out of business today because of Arie. Arie's RULE "NO RULES NO FOUL" He also has a hard time telling the truth. Convenient lapse of memory is one of his strong suits. Maybe his employee the former San Marcos City Manager, Rick Gettings can get him out of this mess like the one he is working on his property in Escondido for illegal grading. Stay tuned Arie's follys has no ending.

Needed storage wrote on Jun 25, 2008 7:49 AM:April 22, 2008 NCT" DeJong sues city over proposed RV lot" There is a lot more to the current article to be found in the April article. It looks as if Mr. DeJong wants to buid a quality project for the storage of RVs, which is sorely needed, especially since Vista has changed its parking ordinance on RVs.

Kathy wrote on Jun 25, 2008 8:06 AM:Since when does the City care about the community's best interest? I want to add on to my kitchen but the City wants Escondido Ave to go Commercial and won't allow improvements to houses. They need to start cleaning up Santa Fe. I have lived in Vista 45 years and the old Vista has turned in a dump!

ray wrote on Jun 25, 2008 8:13 AM:to you go arie: that is a chep shot!

Shakey Ground wrote on Jun 25, 2008 8:18 AM:the city of vista is on shakey ground if they are trying to claim the RV lot is an eye sore. A drive around the north end of vista where I live would reveal the thousands of serious code violations that go unsanctioned every day. Why are they picking on RV's? I WISH I had the RV lot next to my house instead of the slummy, not-up-to code trailer park just down the street. Some places don't even have electricity and/or regular running water. I can only imagine what the sewer system is like. Hey VISTA, come up here and CLEAN HOUSE PLEASE! I write and call the code enforcement people but they never do anything.

Stephan wrote on Jun 25, 2008 8:33 AM:It disgusts me what goes on these days to owners of private property. This is exactly what Prop. 98 was supposed to solve and like a bunch of dummies, we all voted that one down. If it was legal BEFORE the property owner started storing RVs there and the city made it not legal afterwards.... then shame on the city. Another case of the government taking away property owner rights. This guy pays the property tax on the property and it was properly zoned for the business that he started, then he should be left alone. You can drive around Vista and see much worse looking property than that corner with a few RVs parked on it. What about the neighborhoods with non-running cars parked in the front yard or the areas where all the fences have graffiti on them. Vista, you guys are going to lose this one, so leave the guy alone and clean up areas that really need cleaning up.

Bloggers said it wrote on Jun 25, 2008 8:50 AM:Hope Vista is reading theses blogs. Look to me like the Land owner has quite a lot of support.

Tell vista this is not communist China. We in America let our land owners OWN their land. I see vista has a redevelopment t plan here.

Pro Beauty wrote on Jun 25, 2008 9:11 AM:Thugs with no regard for aesthetics think that they can set up eye-sores with immunity. The resulting down-hill spiral leads to an uglier environment for us all. Vista is in a beautiful location with a world-class climate. We can all capitalize on it if we hold the uglies in check.

Terri wrote on Jun 25, 2008 9:33 AM:The biggest losers in, ANOTHER LAWSUIT, is the tax payers.....enough with the lawsuits....for stupid stuff....he put up a fence, hides most of it...and doesn't have chickens and cows running around....let alone 10 families living on the property, and laundry hanging all over it......

This would be wrote on Jun 25, 2008 9:39 AM:a non-issue if it weren't in the Shadowridge area--Vista lets all kinds of eyesores and violations go in the north/northwestern part of the city. I mean there are some slum properties there that make you wonder if you are still in the U.S. If it doesn't like the RV lot, Vista should step in and offer to purchase the land from Mr. DeJong, and then once Vista owns it it can do whatever it wants. Until then, Vista needs to quit with this sneaky business of changing the rules after the fact--that's Oceanside's forte.

Gene wrote on Jun 25, 2008 10:23 AM:Yes... He has support from people living in NORTH Vista, not South Vista. That's because NORTH Vista is a dive in itself and an RV park would probably loog "Good". If you take a look at that intersections and all the houses/development around, it's a pretty nice area (not a Dive). We don't need a seedy RV park in our neighborhood, or even close. I live in Shadowridge and we have a community RV lot for residents only. Maybe owners of RV's should figure out where they're going to park their RV's before they buy them...

This intersection is one of the first intersections in Vista...not a great place to have an RV park. There are plenty of industrial areas nearby where and RV park would probably be welcomed. Why would a Marriot want to be across the street from a RV Park? I wouldn't. Get rid of the RV park. There are only a handful of RV's parked on the lot and it already looks terrible. New Vista Eyesore.

-G

Ron wrote on Jun 25, 2008 10:44 AM:I must admit, I actually agree with "Vista Granny" @7:01 AM.
The "larger" plan is to build the hotel, in this "goofy" place. It would make sense to have restaurants, shopping and yes, bars. But, that's is not the city's perogative, unless they buy the property from Mr. DeJong, if he's willing to sell. Otherwise, figuire something else out.
And if they want to build the 93 room hotel... man o man... what will the neighbors say? LOL...
Have you seen that piece of land?

Theresa V. wrote on Jun 25, 2008 10:53 AM:I toured Vista within the last three days. I did not see any such arrogant display of wealth. Let me know where it is, maybe the'll toss over some pennies, nickles, dimes, etcetera, etcetera my way.

Taxpayer to the City of Vista wrote on Jun 25, 2008 10:57 AM:What goes around comes around. The VUSD was considering using this property for one of the two K-8 schools that was on the Proposition O projects list. It was dropped in February of 2004. The City of Vista supported the District’s Eminent Domain process for the Oceanside property for the high school campus at SH 76 and Melrose Drive even though Oceanside made it very clear that the property taxes from the proposed housing project was needed to maintain income for Oceanside. Better Oceanside loses tax revenues than Vista. By the way speaking of Prop O is this Leigh Rayner the same person that served on the VUSD Bond Oversight Committee and if so is there a conflict of interest question here? Just wondering.

Ex Vistan wrote on Jun 25, 2008 11:30 AM:To Yuck and Pro Beauty - I think all that area is an eye-sore. I rememner when that used to be open beautiful land and now it is just another ashphalt jungle.

Greg in Oceanside wrote on Jun 25, 2008 12:38 PM:Isn't DeJong from the same family who founded/owned Hollandia Dairy on Mission Road (that subsequently closed)?
Nonetheless, if he wants to operate a RV storage facility, I'm sure he has the resources to do it right, and not just use his undeveloped property like a junk yard.

esteban wrote on Jun 25, 2008 12:42 PM:I dont see whats wrong with an RV/Storage in that location.The location is in an industrial area. Everything east and west is industrial.

Redevelopment extension wrote on Jun 25, 2008 1:26 PM:Somehow, the plans for the RV lot have gotten thrown to the wayside and are not even mentioned in this latest article. Didn't DeJong plan to wall in the facility and have decorative gates ? If anyone is interested, drive over to San Marcos and on Mission Road, across from the new high school, sits Liberty Recycling and Storage as well as Diamond Environmental, which are both DeJong family enterprises, I think. Not too shabby at all. DeJong will do the job properly. Vista just changed the rules after the game started, that's all. Isn't all of that area in the extended Vista Redevelopment Area, and couldn't their prupose be motivated soley by profit - windfall profit ?

ex vista resident wrote on Jun 25, 2008 1:31 PM:to greg in oceanside

i guess i better check where my husband is going at night if hes not going to work at the dairy in san marcos. only ignorant people post things up without knowing the facts for themselves. the dairy is still open they only moved the happy cows.

To estaban wrote on Jun 25, 2008 1:55 PM:Everything to the north is residential - a fact you neglected to notice?

Beth to Jim wrote on Jun 25, 2008 2:37 PM:You got a point! Rick's a pretty good & knowledgeable employee. And Arie has done some awesome community work

Mike in Carlsbad wrote on Jun 25, 2008 4:20 PM:I think the developer did the right thing by going before the city in the first place to propose the idea, maybe work out some architectural details (trees/walls) to please the city. Instead the city tweaks the code to stop him altogether. That is what is wrong with the local city of Vista.

RV parks can be made very nice, I live next to on in Carlsbad, go drive down El Fuerte through Bressi Ranch, there are 2 of them, amid condos and high priced homes. I think all neighborhoods should have RV parks to keep RV's off the street, ESPECIALLY if RV used to be allowed to park on the street, that puts the owner in a difficult position if he no option but to sell if no parks like this exist.

Not to mention I saw off the 15 next to the dump there is a very nice RV park with solar lighting and everything I was tellng my significant other, wow, look San Diego actually did something great for its residents. Ironically today I see Vista is the complete opposite.

To Gene wrote on Jun 25, 2008 5:21 PM:There are many roads that lead into Vista so I don't see how this could be one of the first intersections in Vista. In case you haven't noticed Melrose hasn't been open from Palomar Airport Road for that long. Until Melrose was opened that intersection was one of the last intersections in Vista....unless you live in Home Depot.

Im Backing Aire However wrote on Jun 25, 2008 6:38 PM:When did people get the funny idea that just because it's your property, you can do whatever you want, That's a first.

Is everybody stupid wrote on Jun 25, 2008 8:54 PM:A simple solution would be to grow a hedge around the storage lot. If its not in view they won`t complain

effer wrote on Jun 25, 2008 9:34 PM:Once again I am pleased to know that all other issues in Vista have been solved and now the only thing that remains to be done is to hassle private property owners over what ever plans they have for their property.

I would rather wrote on Jun 25, 2008 9:39 PM:see the RV's there with a nice wall built around them than another business that will do poorly in this economy. There are plenty of hotels along Palomar Airport Road. Let Mr. DeJong do what he wants with his property that has been vacant for the 18 years I have been down here! I used to see kids there with shovels making "jumps" for their dirt bikes. That was also better than another business there. I think an RV lot is more useful to the citizens than a hotel.

Floyd wrote on Jun 25, 2008 10:41 PM:The basic idea is that the owner controls the property and can do whatever they wish as long as they don't harm other people. "I don't like the way it looks" is not harm. Vile, atrocious odors from the property would be harm if it caused sickness. No such harm has been alleged. The city should give him the permit, already!

esteban wrote on Jun 26, 2008 6:06 AM:To "to esteban" yes everything to the North is residential, But when those homes where built they knew the lots to the east and south where not going to be residential.

esteban wrote on Jun 26, 2008 6:13 AM:The city needs to give him the permit so he can build his storage lot the right way. Instead of his current temporary set up that he’s using to work the system that’s trying to screw him.

Pro Beauty wrote on Jun 26, 2008 8:33 AM:Vista needs a good hotel--one with more than one story makes sense. It's hard to put up a hedge OVER an RV lot.

Ohhhh, maybe the idea is to threaten an eyesore so the prospective hotel builders (or the city) will buy him out at premium prices.

James wrote on Jun 26, 2008 2:11 PM:City of Vista, beware of small warriors w/expertise using slingshots. San Marcos' "City Clowncil" (Mayor "Corky" Smith included), STUPIDLY tried to underhandedly change the zoning definition of San Elijo Hill's So. East corner sector from Resl. to Comml. In order to build (you guessed-it already), a Wal-Mart big-box store. Oh what'a "quick-sander" of'a blow that turned out to be. 1st, 3 of the Clowncilmen (& Corky 2) used the same political consultant 4 their re-election campaigns, whom @ the time was, the So. West Regional Dir. for...Wal-Mart. When this and other dubious acts of City Hall chacanery were found-out,the rezoning was easily petitioned on the '04 election ballot. Defeat 4 Wal-Mart & all 3 clowncil members + Mayor Corky was overwhelming & resolute. Vista Council members & Developement Dept.,...Take care not repeat, the final plight of (San Marcos') "Goliath".

chrgrbltz wrote on Jun 26, 2008 2:17 PM:Taxpayer to the City of Vista
[-] wrote on Jun 25, 2008 10:57 AM: - SIR, your indepth and concise insight is remarkable, I think your latter query is worth the NTC's response. Greatly appreciate your investigative prowess, keep-it-up, I look fwd. to seeing more from you,C-YA-Later, Surf's-Up.