Unincorporated Communities for Wildfire Safety
A community-funded, non-partisan committee supporting policies, candidates, measures and elected officials who are anti-sprawl, pro-wildfire safety, pro-rural communities and pro-open space and environment.
Why?
Unincorporated communities have no city council, no mayor that represents our community. We have the Board of Supervisors. Unfortunately, they represent 600,000 residents mostly in incorporated cities (like San Diego, Encinitas, etc.).
So we have to punch above our weight to get heard. And we have special districts: Fire Board, Water Board, Healthcare Districts and so forth. All of these matter to us way more than the heavily covered and divisive national, state contests.
Rancho Santa Fe Fire District Board of Directors (vote for all 3) on Nov. 5th
Vote for all 3 Candidates for Change
Andrew Krynen, VP Technology Services Company
Partial list of endorsements:
Nancy Goodrich, Assistant Chief of Police City of San Diego, (ret.)
Scott Sutherland, Chair Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council
JP Theberge, Vice Chair Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council
Melanie Fallon, Director of Planning, City of Los Angeles (ret.)
Doug Dill, Retired Technology Executive
Partial list of endorsements:
Nancy Goodrich: Assistant Chief of Police City of San Diego, (ret.)
Nick Dietrich: Nick’s Picks for Rancho Santa Fe voters
Scott Sutherland, Chair Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council
JP Theberge, Vice Chair Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council
Melanie Fallon, Director of Planning, City of Los Angeles (ret.)
Kevin Barnard, Retired Police Detective
Partial list of endorsements:
Nancy Goodrich, Assistant Chief of Police City of San Diego, (ret.)
Scott Sutherland, Chair Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council
JP Theberge, Vice Chair Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council
Melanie Fallon, Director of Planning, City of Los Angeles (ret.)
Titles are for informational purposes and do not imply endorsement by any organization mentioned.
Incumbents have been on the board for decades, representing one community and largely apathetic.
Voters often pay little attention to these lesser known races so board members will stay on for decades due to lack of term limits. The current incumbents, all from the same community, were all appointed (not elected) almost 3 decades ago. This has led to an insular, unresponsive, inaccessible board that lacks representation of the communities that make up the district. When one retires, they just appoint another one of their cronies.
While our fire personnel are great and care about the communities they serve, the Board of Directors have no involvement with the many communities that make up the district and do not respond to community requests or input.
It’s time for them to go. Vote for Krynen, Dill and Barnard.
Chronic absenteeism
One incumbent, Nancy Hillgren, has missed 13 of the monthly Board meetings since 2021 — a year’s worth of meetings skipped in her last term. She’s been on the board since 2003 and has clearly become complacent about her duty as a board member. The incumbents are so complacent, they don’t even bother to submit candidate statements to the registrar of voters.
Vote for Krynen, Dill and Barnard. They’ll show up and listen to all communities.
Board is more focused on developers’ interests than community concerns and safety.
Two of the incumbents are actual real estate developers, including the Chair. That would be fine if they weren’t so focused on putting developer interests in front of community safety, but they are.
The current board blesses dangerous fire trap projects, waiving fire code standards for developers, putting us all at risk.
Most recently, the current board is supporting a large-scale project (Harmony Grove Village South) that would put 452 homes in a box canyon surrounded by thousands of acres of flammable brush while also allowing the developer to sidestep State of California Fire Code standards requiring secondary egress.
That’s right, in an area that has seen devastating fires, on average, twice a decade since at least the 1980s, the Board has chosen to waive fire code standards to approve a project that has no secondary egress, essentially dooming the community to entrapment during the next wildfire.
If the project moves forward, the next wildfire will see a cumulative 3,500 vehicles clogging evacuation routes throughout the District: Del Dios Highway, County Club Drive, Harmony Grove Road and Elfin Forest Road will be at a standstill. For more information on Harmony Grove Village South, head to www.dontburnus.org
The board ignored two independent fire experts’ warnings.
In 2024, Dr. Cova PhD, an independent evacuation expert from the University of Utah, analyzed the area and concluded that it if the HGV South project were built, it would take 7 hours to evacuate the estimated 3,500 vehicles in the immediate area, which, conservatively, would be overrun by wildfire within an hour or less. The Board had an opportunity to raise concerns about this potential scenario, yet did nothing because they favor developers over the communities, especially when the community affected is not their own.
In 2018, Matt Rahn, PhD had reviewed the project and testified that it, if built, “catastrophic losses were not only probable but expected”
Both experts were ignored. The developers on the Board know best.
Lack of transparency on district funding and voter approved benefit fees.
Numerous communities in the district pay very large fire benefit fees, in addition to the usual property tax fees that go to fire service. These voter-approved fees are among the largest in the county. For example, Elfin Forest and Harmony Grove pay an annual fee averaging $721 per parcel. The rest of the district pays $86 per parcel. However, the District refuses to account for how that money is spent as it is commingled with general funds. Voter approved fees are supposed to be accounted for and segregated. Currently, they are not.
To add insult to injury, communities like Elfin Forest and Harmony Grove pay disproportionately higher fees and yet the board still has repeatedly ignored community petitions when it comes to wildfire safety concerns related to development.
It’s time for more transparency in accounting. Vote for Krynen, Dill and Barnard.
County Board of Supervisors - District 3
The Board of Supervisors (BOS) boils down to one thing that impacts the unincorporated communities the most: land use. Any policies that impact, fire safety, open space, development, zoning and evacuation are voted on by the BOS and require 3 votes out of 5 to approve. Those 3 votes can literally change communities forever. That is why the building / development industry is the largest donor to supervisors that they believe will support their agenda.
A strong NO! on Faulconer
There are numerous reasons not to vote for Kevin Faulconer, but the number one reason for us is that he is endorsed by the Building Industry Association and openly touts their objective of “taking back the unincorporated county.”
Supervisors race is all about backcountry development
Building is good, but building sprawl projects in very high fire risk areas is not. In fact, San Diego County’s general plan for housing has made it very clear that sprawl in high wildfire risk areas with little to no infrastructure is not in the county’s (or taxpayers’) best interests. That is why most of the unincorporated county land is zoned for rural density. However, a speculator can always buy one of these rural parcels for cheap and then attempt a “general plan amendment” to change it to a much higher density. Just the zoning change alone increases the value of the land ten-fold. And all that is required is 3 votes. Faulconer would be the third pro-sprawl vote on this board, which is why sprawl developers are throwing large sums of money at him. Their agenda is very clear as seen by the emails they send their members:
This means that the large, firetrap projects like Harmony Grove Village South will get a green light. The BIA has 2 supervisors on the board that are friendly to the “more sprawl development is better” cause. All they need is Faulconer to get their third vote which will radically change the semi-rural unincorporated areas for good.
In our neck of the woods, Harmony Grove Village South is a 452 unit development being proposed in the most fire-prone area of the County with only one egress route (asking for a waiver for secondary egress requirements). Evacuation experts have essentially said the project is a death trap that could turn us into the next Paradise or Santa Rosa. This project will be coming to a vote in January 2024 link for more info. And the Colorado-based developer, RCS Harmony Partners, is pouring large amounts of money into supporting Faulconer ($65,000 so far).
BIA Newsletter: “Help us take back the unincorporated County. How? Join us in paving a path to victory for our endorsed candidate.” Building Industry Association PAC newsletter 6/2023
Faulconer: “I’ve always been a huge supporter of the BIA [Building Industry Association], and I want you know that if I’m elected in November the county will once again be open for business,” Faulconer said. “My opponent has shut down residential development in the county. That’s going to change when we win back the county.” Building Industry Association PAC newsletter 7/2024
We endorse Terra Lawson-Remer for Board of Supervisor District 3
We strongly believe that Terra Lawson-Remer will support us in our battle to not become the next Paradise or Oahu where hundreds died trying to evacuate wildfires on limited roads.
Faulconer has publicly stated that the unincorporated county will be “back in business” when he gets elected.
During Lawson-Remer’s last term, she worked with our community and proposed and passed numerous policies which emphasize wildfire safety over development priorities. This included newly developed Fire Protection Plan Guidelines, VMT guidelines and a new Climate Action Plan which discourages intense development in very high fire severity zones like ours.
She is on record stating that she opposes sprawl and building in high wildfire risk areas. She also worked with our community in proposing more stringent regulations for Battery Energy Storage (BESS) facilities near residential areas.
Community endorsements
Titles are for informational purposes and do not imply endorsement by any organization mentioned.
Copyright 2024, Unincorporated Communities for Wildfire Safety
Paid for Unincorporated Communities for Wildfire Safety, FPPC # 1476216
Not Authorized by any candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate
