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By Miriam Raftery
December 11, 2015 (Julian) – The County Planning commission today granted a continuance for a hearing on 24 homes proposed on the 1,000-acre Hoskings Ranch at Highway 78 and Pine Hills Road in Julian. A request for continuance until February 5 at 9 a.m. was requested by both the developer and an attorney representing residents opposed to the project.
Over 250 people signed up for the Hoskings Ranch Subdivision Action and Resource group on Facebook within two hours of its being formed. About 50 concerned residents met December 8th at Julian’s town hall.
The biggest issue is “the precarious position of water in the mountains – wells have dropped, some have gone dry,” says Kiki Skagen Munshi, a Julian resident.
A letter written by Woody Barnes, 80, was read aloud. His family once owned Manzanita Ranch in Wynola and much of the land in the Julian area. He warned that Julian, Kentwood, Whispering Pines, Wynola Estates and probably Pine Hills are all at risk and taking water out of the ground faster than it can recharge. Others present said their wells hae gone dry and had to be redrilled in Wynola Estates; development on the Hoskings property would only exacerbate the water shortage problem.
Zoning for the property allows structures “incidental to agriculture,” but some neighbors are wary of million dollar estates changing the character of rural Julian.
For more information and the latest developments, you can view te County report at http://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/pds/PC/151211-Supporting-Documents.html and visit the “Hoskings Ranch Subdivision Action and Resource group on Facebook at the link above.
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