Church Gets Last Chance to Fit In on Palomar

SAN DIEGO —  Despite opposition from the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society and most of the residents on Palomar Mountain, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa has been granted another four months to redesign a church camp it wants to build on Palomar Mountain.

Church officials told members of the county Planning and Environmental Review Board last Thursday that they have reduced the size of their proposed resort atop the San Diego County landmark in response to complaints from Palomar residents that it is not in keeping with their rustic way of living.

But residents and environmentalists testified that the plan, after four years of negotiations, is still outsized and unwanted.

The Costa Mesa church originally proposed a recreational resort that would accommodate more than 1,000 visitors at a time. Retreats would last from several days to several weeks, with the facility operating about half of the year.

Church officials have lowered the limit to 350 occupants at a time, but the 300 permanent residents of Palomar Mountain and representatives of Caltech’s Palomar Observatory still oppose the development.

A volunteer fireman testified that the area’s small department could not serve the 350-person development, and a water district official said church plans to drill wells would threaten residents’ water supplies.

County engineers testified that the 550-acre church property is marred by geologic faults that would make it difficult to develop a large project, but church spokesmen asked for and were granted one last chance to develop a plan that would “fit in with the rural setting on the mountain.”