REGION: County files lawsuit against Palomar College

Traffic study on proposed Fallbrook campus is inadequate, county says

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer | Tuesday, August 12, 2008 7:51 PM PDT ∞

The county has filed a lawsuit against Palomar College, alleging the college failed to conduct a proper traffic study on a proposed $100 million satellite campus near Fallbrook.

In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in Superior Court, the county is asking the court to invalidate an environmental study on the project and to compel the college to prepare a new study. The college's study was conducted by RBF Consulting, a San Diego-based engineering and planning firm.

Construction on the college's North Education Center could begin as soon as 2010, a Palomar official said. College officials have said the campus could open by 2011 near the northeast corner of Interstate 15 and Highway 76.

Bonnie Dowd, vice president of administrative services at Palomar College, said Tuesday that she had received a notice of the lawsuit, but not the full details.

"We are very surprised that the county did this," Dowd said.

She declined further comment.

The California Environmental Quality Act requires that developers and others building large projects plan how they will compensate for any environmental side effects. For example, a developer might have to pay to widen a road to offset the effects of more traffic.

Allowing the environmental study to go forward without being challenged would mean the college would not have to pay its share for road improvements near the project in the future, said C. Ellen Pilsecker, an attorney for the county.

The county has the authority to deny Palomar a building permit, but it would not be able to do so if it allows what it says is a faulty traffic analysis to stand, Pilsecker said.

"If we don't file a lawsuit, then the report is presumed to be adequate and correct," Pilsecker said.

In the lawsuit, the county alleges that the Palomar Community College District Board of Directors approved the project's environmental study without properly addressing how the added traffic of students coming and leaving the campus would affect nearby roads.

When the campus is built out in about 2030, it is expected to have room for as many as 8,500 students. But the college first plans a smaller facility with 150,000 square feet of building space, including administrative offices and classrooms for about 3,000 students.

The traffic analysis for the second phase of construction includes road improvements, such as traffic signals or road widening, that are planned, but do not yet exist. County officials say the traffic analysis must be based on roads as they exist now.

"Use of hypothetical improved (roads) does not comply with (state law), which requires that existing conditions be used," according to the lawsuit.

College officials said last month, when the environmental study was approved by the college district, that the document was complete and adequately spelled out the college's responsibilities.

"We've been working for quite some time to address these issues, and we will continue to work with the county and Caltrans," Dowd said at the time. "We believe that this analysis is ... in compliance with CEQA."

The new campus will be funded through Proposition M, a $694 million bond measure approved by voters in November 2006. The bond included $100 million for the campus.

Plans for the project include a mile-long street dubbed Horse Ranch Creek Road that will connect Highway 76 to the south with Pankey Road, the I-15 frontage street that intersects Stewart Canyon Road just east of the interstate.

More than one-third of the 82-acre site will be set aside as open space to avoid disturbing sensitive habitat and to make up for land lost to parking lots and classrooms, according to the environmental study.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.