Chronicles
From the MyRSF.net archives of the Email Chronicles
ADU Densification Impact & Surf Cup
Author: Phil Trubey
Date: July 28, 2025
Hello, Phil Trubey here, sending an occasional email about RSF.
We Have Met The Enemy And They Are Us
I find it interesting that people get worked up over various projects that might add a few more houses to Rancho, when we are in the midst of significantly increasing our building density over time.
I'm talking about CA bill AB 670 enacted in 2020, aka "The ADU law" which allows home owners to build ADUs even against HOA & County rules/regulations.
While some people build ADUs for in-laws and guests, a lot of them are being built to rent out, either by the current home owner or as a future selling point for new ones.
And yes, long term rentals are allowed, again by CA law.
Over time, I wouldn't be surprised to see hundreds of new ADUs added to Rancho's approximately two thousand homesites. It'll take many years to occur, but the Art Jury is seeing more and more ADU submissions every meeting. And now companies exist who cookie cutter ADUs making it even easier to get them built.
The Art Jury mitigates the effects as much as they can by asking applicants to situate the buildings in better locations and requiring landscape screening.
But at the end of the day, it is us Members who are increasing our own density.
Speaking of the Art Jury, let me soapbox a bit.
It seems to be a common pastime in Rancho to complain about the Art Jury. Everyone likes the Art Jury in theory, but chaff against it when it comes to their own personal projects (this should almost be enshrined as a natural human law).
One of the criticisms leveled against the Art Jury is that many of their rules are based on Art Jurors' judgement. In other words, they are subjective and open to interpretation. Ignoring the fact that our Covenant actually mandates these subjective criteria, this is contrasted with County Permits which are seen as based on hard and fast objective rules.
But are County rules actually objective?
Recently the RSFA has had to obtain permits for the soccer field restroom and for the recreation campus parking lot.
The soccer field restroom got delayed during construction when an inspector came up with new grading requirements not spelled out in the initial permit.
And while we know the County will require us to install EV chargers for the parking lot renovation, we've had no luck so far figuring out how many charging stalls we will need to provide. County regs are a mess of State and Federal mandates in this area. I've personally tried to figure it out using AI to no avail.
Finally, I've personally run into County electrical code requirements that experienced electricians often get wrong and in the end boil down to whatever the inspector says, ie. it ends up being arbitrary.
My overall point is that pining for a nirvana of completely objective Art Jury regulations is pointless. The RSFA permit process is spelled out in the Covenant and for better or worse, it is what it is.
Here's a fun one. You know Grant Deed restrictions that limit what you can do with your property? Turns out they can sometimes be overturned by the grantor, their heirs or successors if the current property owner agrees.
I bring this up because the 80 acres of land along Via De La Valle that Surf Cup leases from the City of San Diego has a deed restriction limiting their use of the land. The RSFA recently donated PAC money to a different HOA who is arguing in litigation that San Diego isn't enforcing the deed restrictions.
Well, San Diego found that the deed restriction grantor's corporate successor is willing to lift the restrictions which will render the lawsuit moot. Maybe. It hinges on a legal technicality, meaning more litigation is likely.
The Coast News has a good article about this here.
I was always curious about what people in this community thought about Surf Cup and their operations. While I know that a vocal group opposes their actions based on traffic tie up concerns, I also wondered if there may be a silent majority? minority? who appreciates that world class youth soccer tournaments are available so close to home.
So, on the heels of my successful first poll (which I talk about below), let's have another poll! Again, this one isn't to influence RFSA actions. In fact, I'm not even asking about RSFA policy at all. I'd just like to know your personal thoughts about Surf Cup and their operations.
Are you in favor of them continuing current operations, or do you think they should have their operations curtailed to fit within the existing grant deed restrictions of 25 days a year of operations?
If you scroll down on that poll page above, you'll see the results of the last poll I ran about RFSA's entrance rocks and signage.
Whenever I run these polls (I ran a bunch in the past, alas the results are not recoverable, and anyway, they are outdated by now), I am always surprised by the results.
In this case, Rancho is pretty conservative showing a 2-1 bias to doing nothing and keeping the rocks as is.
Also interesting are the comments. There's a lot of good information and ideas there, along with some comments that are pretty funny.
Finally, these polls are never definitive. I typically only get 100-150 people responding vs about 1,200 who vote in our Board elections vs 4,000 Members. But I think they are fun and do provide some information. And the comments are sometimes funny 😄.