After hearing community concerns about noise, potential health risks, traffic and other issues, the Valle de Oro Community Planning Group on Tuesday unanimously opposed plans to convert the closed Cottonwood Golf Course into a sand mine.
The group’s strong opposition to the proposal in itself does not the stop the project, which is scheduled to go before the county Planning Commission on April 18 for a major use permit. The applicant can appeal if the request is denied, and the Planning Group can appeal if approved.
The proposed sand mine has been in the works for a decade, and residents of the unincorporated East County community of Rancho San Diego have opposed it for just as long.
The mine would have a main entrance at 3121 Willow Glen Drive and cover about 214 acres of a 280-acre site that had been the Cottonwood Golf Club.
The proposal calls for extracting 6.4 million tons of material to produce 5.7 million tons of mineral resources in three phases over 10 years. Restoration of the land would be conducted in a fourth phase.
Excavation and processing at the site would occur 7 a.m.-5 p.m. and trucking operations would be 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on weekdays.
“The proposed sand mine would introduce significant industrial operations to this peaceful residential community, which is in direct conflict with the existing neighborhood character,” said Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine member Elizabeth Urquhart, one of more than a dozen speakers at the meeting held in an overflowing room in the Rancho San Diego Library.
The golf course filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in federal bankruptcy court in 2011, and the property was purchased in February 2015 by Los Angeles business entrepreneur Michael Schlesinger, who also bought failing golf courses in Escondido and Poway to redevelop.
Asked for a response to the community complaints, the public relations firm Intesa Communications Group issued a statement on behalf of Schlesinger.
““The Cottonwood Proposal would ultimately transform a defunct golf course property into 200 acres of permanent, preserved open space for the community to enjoy,” wrote Kenneth Moore of Intesa Communications Group in an email.
“In the near-term, it would provide critically needed sand supplies for housing and infrastructure projects through a phased approach that reduces community concerns around views. Creating a local sand supply at Cottonwood is a win for the San Diego region because it would reduce the increased costs and environmental damage caused by trucking sand in from outside the region and Mexico.”
No speakers at Tuesday’s meeting supported the project, and comments from speakers included concerns about health from dust in the air, noise from trucks and impacts on roads that could hinder emergency responses. The crowd applauded at a suggestion that the land instead be turned into a county park.
Planning Group members unanimously agreed to send the county a letter drafted by Chair Oday Yousif in opposition to the project.
“We urge Planning and Development Services and the San Diego County Planning Commission and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to uphold the community’s integrity, public health, safety and environmental sustainability by rejecting this inappropriate and potentially damaging project,” he said, reading part of the letter aloud.
A county report on the draft environmental impact report on the project identified significant environmental impacts to aesthetics, biological resources, cultural resources, noise, paleontological resources and tribal cultural resources, but said mitigation measures could reduce most impacts to less than significant.
The final EIR has not yet been published, but is expected to be available before the Planning Commission meeting in April.
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