HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY, VISTA!
The city of Vista was founded on October 9, 1882, with the establishment of a
post office, and was incorporated on January 28, 1963.
GOOD SHEPHERD CEMETERY
Good Shepherd Cemetery, proposed for an area off Buena Vista Drive at Keys Place, is working its
way through the County Planning & Development Services dept.
According to planner Sean Oberbauer, you can sign up to receive information about the progress
of the project by sending your email address to him at sean.oberbauer@sdcounty.ca.gov .
CURRENT BUILDING PROJECTS IN VISTA
John Conley, Vista’s Community Development director, presented an array of building projects
currently underway in Vista to a Vista Chamber of Commerce meeting recently. View his presentation, courtesy of the North County Daily Star, at: Building Projects Updates by Vista’s Director of Community Development.
Dear C4FA Supporters,
Welcome to our first email blast of 2023, and it’s starting off to be quite a year.
Some background – The Palomar Airport property contains three very old county closed “landfills” – a term we use lightly as the landfills are old-fashioned garbage dumps, opened before environmental safeguards were taken. For years, the County, its businesses and its residents apparently dumped everything under the sun at the Palomar Airport County dumps. In those days, there were no landfill linings, no health and safety or environmental precautions taken, and no record of what’s in the landfills.
According to the San Diego Water Board:
“Landfills by nature pose a significant risk to human health and the environment, especially the
older, unlined landfills.”
The rotting of landfill waste produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas, which is collected by a Landfill Gas (LFG) Collection system and burned off at its flare station. This collection and burn off system was installed many years ago. The flare station is in the Airport parking lot. You can drive by and see the flames from the burning methane gas.
Although the San Diego County of the Department of Public Works (DPW) has only mentioned one 2008 landfill fire in their meetings with C4FA, reliable sources have told us there have been multiple subsurface methane fires from these old garbage dumps on the Palomar Airport property over the years, some lasting for months on end. Confirmation is needed.
“Palomar Airport Landfill (Palomar) is an inactive municipal solid waste landfill. It is equipped with a landfill gas (LFG) collection system and a flare station. The facility operates under San Diego County Air Pollution Control District (SDAPCD) Permit to Operate (PTO) No. 910733.”
In October 2022, the Palomar Airport landfill gas (LFG)-fired flare automatically shut down due to high oxygen content above the limit. After trouble shooting, DPW discovered possible “subsurface oxidation” and “oxygen intrusion” events. What these terms mean is unclear to us, and we are continuing to push for clarity and transparency from DPW. It was reported that there was damage to some of the components of the methane gas collection system.
Since then, DPW has been performing excavation and repair work of the Landfill Gas Collection system, as well as investigating the system for oxygen intrusion, weather permitting.
At the time of discovery, DPW petitioned the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) Hearing Board for an emergency variance to operate the flare (burn off system) with elevated oxygen levels. The variance also gives DPW relief from several district rules that protect public health and safety. According to DPW:
As a result, County cannot operate the GCCS in such a way to meet permit conditions No. 8 at the
flare that operates for the entire site, and permit condition 7 and Rule 59(c)(3) in Unit 3, as our investigations and remedial actions are occurring throughout Unit 3. Surface emissions in excess of
500 ppm may occur due to the non-operation of the GCCS to a limited portion of Unit 3 and while
the GCCS is operational, the flare may exceed the 3.5 percent (%) oxygen limit. However, we believe
that operating the flare is necessary to control surface emissions and maintain compliance for perimeter migration probes while troubleshooting the source of the oxygen intrusion, which results in greater than 3.5% oxygen at the flare.”
There’s a whole lot of government technical speak here, and C4FA is in the process of continuing to push for transparency, with clear and specific explanations to the public from the County of what is happening at Palomar Airport and what exactly is being done about it.
More to come. Stay tuned.
Your Friends and Neighbors at Citizens for a Friendly Airport
NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT — New Housing Laws for Vista
Executive Summary for the PH1-PH22-0718 Housing Legislative Amendment — Part 3
Summary of Changes Related to Residential Density Bonus: the proposed revisions add and/or modify the purpose and intent of the regulations, definitions, eligibility to receive density bonus and concessions and/or waivers, amount of density bonus, number of incentives and concessions and/or waivers or reduction of development standards, supplemental density bonuses and concessions, application process, decisions, findings and conditions, and regulation, parking, interpretation, and enforcement.
1. Revisions are made to reflect the eligibility of Density Bonus for both rental and for-sale units in accordance with State Density Bonus Law. These include senior citizen housing developments, mobile home parks, 100 percent affordable projects, affordable housing for transitional foster youth, disabled veterans, or homeless persons, and student housing under specified circumstances.
2. A density bonus may increase a project’s density anywhere from 5 percent up to 80 percent of the allowable density dependent on the percentage and type of affordable units provided in a project.
3. The maximum density is based upon zoning and clarifies that the maximum permissible number of dwelling units that can be developed, not the number of lots, is used to calculate the percentage of eligible Density Bonus.
4. The maximum allowable Density Bonus is no longer limited to 35 percent.
5. A 100 percent affordable project is eligible for up to four incentives or concessions, and if within one-half mile of a major transit stop, can receive a building height increase of up to three additional stories, or 33 feet.
6. Incentives or concessions available to a Density Bonus project, can include a reduction in site development standards such as site coverage, building height, off-street parking, reduced lot dimensions, setbacks, or other standards which would reduce project costs.
7. Senior citizen housing projects with no affordable units do not qualify for incentives or concessions.
8. Any development standard may be waived or reduced that would physically prevent a project from being developed at the density permitted under State Density Bonus Law.
9. Revisions were made to clarify when parking reductions must be granted and what the minimum parking requirements are for eligible Density Bonus projects based upon unit type.
Francis Dumler
IMAGES OF SOUTH VISTA — more images of our community from Francis Dumler.
What is YOUR favorite image of South Vista? Send us your photos!
Menagerie Collection
