By Teri Figueroa / The San Diego Union-Tribune / January 18, 2025
The images of the fires in Los Angeles stopped some Harmony Grove residents cold.
Debbie O’Neill knows the stress of evacuating as fire bears down. A decade ago, she and her husband fled after they saw the flames from the Cocos fire crest a nearby hill and hurtle down toward their Harmony Grove home. And that was before more than a 700-home development went up in the semi-rural area.
There’s the potential for 453 more residences in the area. O’Neill and neighbors are fighting it, arguing that they — and the new residents — will be vulnerable if there is a fire due to inadequate evacuation routes.
“We don’t want to die in here,” O’Neill said Tuesday. “And if we do, I want to make damn sure that everybody knows that the county Board of Supervisors knew that this was not a safe development.”
The battle may be personal for Harmony Grove residents — and this one has been going on for years — but the underlying concerns are a familiar hand-wringer for residents in a housing-hungry county with a history of deadly, destructive fires.
This is the second go-round for this project after a defeat a few years ago. It’s on track to go before the county planning commission for review later this year.
The two-lane road in and out of Harmony Grove Village South, the proposed development. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
It’s likely the fight will be closely watched, as several other backcountry developments have failed to gain approval over fire danger in recent years.
In 2021, a judge halted the development of more than 1,100 homes in Otay Mesa, citing fire among the reasons. Earlier this year, the state bought the 1,300 acres for $60 million as part of a settlement to keep it as wildlands.
In 2022, a San Diego judge blocked the 3,000-home Fanita Ranch development in Santee, noting fire evacuation concerns. The judge blocked the project again last year.
And a development in Rancho Peñasquitos was able to move forward after a settlement last year that included adding a new fire evacuation route.
A big concern for residents in Harmony Grove: there is only one paved road in and out of the proposed development. They pointed to devastation from the recent Los Angeles fires — and noted images of cars abandoned when traffic clogged the streets and people were forced to flee on foot.
For the balance of this article, please go here.
