Sweetwater Design Guidelines - Six Objectives

Current leaders appear to be in defiance of guidelines that dictate design objectives set in place in 1991. These guidelines were created to ensure that the community of Bonita-Sunnyside would retain its rural-residential tranquility and preserve natural features.

The Sweetwater Design Guidelines were created for the Sweetwater Community Planning Area and approved by the County of San Diego.

The guidelines were prepared by Gerald Gast and Daniel Hillmer, Urban Design and Architecture, with Kathryn Fulhorst, ASLA, Landscape Architect. The Project Team included these three members plus Danno Glanz.

The Sweetwater Community Planning Group (SCPG) at that time consisted of Maureen Hogan, Gretchen Burkey, Uwe Werner, Sandra Henry-Choppin, Antoinette "Toni" Ingrassia, Harriet Taylor, Georjean N. Jensen, John Hammond, Martha McDonald, Pat Mounts, Carolyn McGraw, John K. Riess, Muriel Watson, Robert R. Walters and Sheri Todus. The names Uwe Werner and Harriet Taylor may sound familiar to you as they currently are sitting members of the SCPG.

These objectives were created to let the Sweetwater Community, also known as Bonita-Sunnyside, retain its rural-residential character and "integrate new development with the valley landscape." There are six Design Objectives to the Sweetwater Community Design. You may be interested in objective numbers two and three.

Objective two addresses preservation of natural features and Open Space. Open Space in Sunnyside, in particular, is important because all other Open Space has been gobbled up, especially in the annexation by neighboring Chula Vista.

Objective three is the most interesting in this packet of six because the Sweetwater Valley Civic Association (SVCA) and County have recently been attempting to make changes on two of these scenic roads. The objective calls to "minimize road realignments and widenings, consistent with public safety considerations."

The current topics on the table are to widen both San Miguel Road and Proctor Valley Road, scenic roads in the currently "undeveloped" area of Sunnyside. I will be sharing the County Department of Public Works (DPW) plans for these two scenic roads in an article to follow in the next few weeks.

As far as public safety considerations, these proposed widenings cause a greater danger to citizens residing on these streets. There have been countless reports of near-miss accidents when residents attempt to ingress or egress their own driveways on both San Miguel Road and Proctor Valley Road. This has turned into an extremely hazardous situation since the County allowed over 10,000 pass-through vehicles through this area to avoid the SR-125 tollroad fee. When confronted with this issue, Supervisor Nora Vargas repeated several times at her latest County Update that this problem was her "top priority." No action has taken place so far.

NOTE: Another scenic road, Quarry Road, is back in the news this week. Ignoring the protests of the Bonita-Sunnyside community, the developers of the Secure Safe Self Storage facility have decided to take the project forward for a Planning Commission hearing. The residents were enraged to discover that one of the main uses would be storage for the Swap Meet, located in Spring Valley. The hearing is scheduled for December 6, 2024 at 9AM so be sure to mark your calendars. If you can make it to this meeting, it is extremely important for the community to be there. The Sweetwater Community Planning Group (SCPG) will meet on December 3rd and this topic will be on their agenda.

Source: Sweetwater Design Guidelines | Adopted by the Board of Supervisors on May 29, 1991 | Sweetwater Community Design Objectives, Page 4

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