By C. WAYNE DAUBER

We are pleased and very optimistic about the results of the  Association of Resident Owners (ARO) functions being absorbed into and combined with the Hidden Meadows Community Foundation (HMCF). Keeping the various local organizations sorted out has always been a problem, even for those of us who have lived in the Meadows for a long time.

The HMCF has always done a lot for the community but I think most of us have lived here for a while before even becoming aware of its existence. I should point out that the HMCF serves the entire Hidden Meadows community and depends on the community’s generosity for volunteers and financial resources. I was a member of the Foundation for a time and am impressed by what it has been able to contribute to the community.

There will still be some confusion because the Meadows also contains a number of homeowners associations, the largest and oldest of which is the Meadows Homes Association (MHA). This is a fee based organization which affects all of the properties in the Covenant area, which includes most of area where the earlier homes were built in the community. If you have been writing a check for $330 per year to the Meadows Homes Association you live in this area. The MHA owns and maintains the Hidden Meadows Community Center, also known as the Pavilion, which includes the pool, tennis courts, and of course the Pavilion building, where the MHA office is located. They also maintain other common areas including some of the streets in the western part of the covenant area which are not part of the county road system. These are sometimes referred to as private roads.

There are also home owners associations for the Rim Rock area, the various sections of homes built as development about a decade ago, the condos above the number one hole on the golf course, and the ones behind the deli. They each serve their own areas.

There is one other organization which serves the entire Hidden Meadows area, along with Rim Rock, Lawrence Welk Village and a little beyond, the Jesmond Dene area, and a little more along the east side of I-15 down to the Escondido city line. That organization is the Hidden Meadows Community Sponsor Group (HM CSG). The HM CSG is authorized to have nine volunteer members who are appointed by the San Diego County Supervisors. The members must live or own property within the Group’s area of responsibility and be a registered voter in the county. As I write this the Group is one member short but expects to have the vacant seat filled by the end of January.

The Group’s purpose is to advise the County decision makers on; approval or denial of discretionary projects, preparation, amendment, and implementation of Community and Sub-regional Plans, and Planning and land use matters important to the community. The Group meets in the Pavilion at 7 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of every month except for November and December because of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Those two meetings are generally combined into one held on the first Thursday in December. All meetings are open to the public and the schedule and agenda should be published at least 72 hours before the meeting. In this case that means posted outside the Pavilion or visible through a window, and is also usually displayed in the bulletin board in front of Coldwell Real Estate by the Deli. Also your Sponsor Group will try to publish the meeting date, time, and location on the Nextdoor Hidden Meadows site at least five days before meetings and advise of any changes to that information by the same means.

Most of the Sponsor Group business has been related to development on private properties within the area. This may be in the form of requests to add to buildings on a property, or to divide a property into two or more units, or to change some feature of a property which may have some environmental or other effects.

In most cases the Group receives application and planning information from the County, the project is placed on the agenda for the next meeting, the applicant is contacted and invited to the meeting where the project will be discussed, questions hopefully resolved, and recommendations formulated for submission to the County. This may be approval or disapproval with or without conditions, or a request for changes or more information before a final recommendation.

Sometimes an applicant will appear before the Group to obtain a sense of the Group’s opinion and suggestions or recommendations to resolve potential problems before submission to the County. This can sometimes be helpful.

Among recent projects your Hidden Meadows Community Sponsor Group has considered have been several property subdivisions into two or more units, some approved, some not or pending. An expansion of a recently completed recreational facility on the Lawrence Welk property.

The Newman Sierra project proposed for the area north of Deer Springs and west of I-15 was briefed to the Group and the County requested the Group provide comments although the project is outside of the Group’s area of responsibility. The Group’s response was to oppose the project on the basis of traffic impact on Deer Springs Road and the I-15 Deer Springs interchange and the Mountain Meadow/Deer Springs Centre City Parkway/Champagne Boulevard intersection and on Centre City Parkway and communities to the south and Champagne Boulevard and communities to the north.

Part of our objection was related to that interchange which CALTRANS has to be modified to handle anticipated changes to traffic volumn and the Deer Springs Road configuration. No information on modification design or project timing is available. The Group feels that new housing units, if built, should not be occupied until road construction related to the interchange project is essentially complete. The Group also objected to the destruction of the closest pristine area north of San Diego and Escondido along the I-15 corridor and to the visual pollution resulting from building 2000 plus housing units and a commercial area within the project. The Group also expressed concern about noise and probable particulate pollution from a rock crushing facility which would operate during the construction phases and could adversely affect the Lawrence Welk/Champagne Village area which would be directly downwind of the facility much of the time. Many of those residents are elderly and might be particularly sensitive to the pollution.

I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion about the many alphabet groups in the Meadows and has provided some information and insight regarding the HM CSG, perhaps the least recognized of all the groups in the Meadows.

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C Wayne Dauber is chairman of the Hidden Meadows Community Sponsor Group. He can be reached at hmdaub@cox.net.