From Beaches to Birches

Your recent series on the future of the San Dieguito River Valley (Dec. 25-27) gave your readers an in-depth look at the very complex issues confronting this sensitive part of San Diego’s landscape. The evolving effort to establish a linear, natural park along the river valley is a laudable goal, which property owners, other environmentalists and all San Diegans should strive to achieve.

Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Times has failed to explore seriously the opportunities to accomplish the goal of creating the San Dieguito River Park in the foreseeable future. Your coverage on the complex issues involved, in particular the story on the San Dieguito Trust ownership in the valley, focused on past controversies, accusations and personalities rather than exploring the numerous opportunities for realistic solutions to the problems facing park plans. The promise of the park would have been better served by an examination of future alternatives for the valley.

The San Dieguito Trust owns 368 acres, just east of Interstate 5, at the entrance to the San Dieguito River Valley. The trust, composed of seven separate families plus Scripps College and the National Academy of Sciences, has owned this property for more than 30 years.

All of the San Dieguito Trust owners share a commitment to work cooperatively with the city and county of San Diego to help realize the goal of creating a linear park. Over the years, we have chosen not to develop our property in anticipation that someday we could achieve a reasonable economic return through a sensitive development plan.

Rather than posing a roadblock to park planning, as your article suggests, the San Dieguito Trust ownership offers perhaps the greatest opportunity to realize the creation of the river park. The city and county have limited financial resources and can never expect to acquire all of the land needed for a viable park with tax dollars alone. Only through cooperative efforts with landowners and other agencies can these limited resources be maximized.

It is disappointing that your article failed to examine the exciting alternative of public agency and landowner cooperation in greater depth. Only with a new commitment toward such cooperation can park planning proceed successfully. I can only hope that San Diego City Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, other interested groups and individuals can come to recognize this before it’s too late.

Name-calling and false accusations will get us nowhere. Cooperation alone can preserve the San Dieguito River Valley and give San Diego an impressive new park.

ROGER REVELLE

San Dieguito Trust