Palomar Mountain News

Glad you asked. April of 2024, I received a phone call from a property owner with land on East Grade that is off-grid. He had a letter from SDG&E asking for permission to enter his property for a survey. The owner was pretty happy because it sounded like East Grade Road was going to have the option for power. There are so few homes on East Grade and that didn’t seem right to me. I called the number on the letter and danced around with a Q&A. It didn’t take long to learn they wanted access to survey for 200 foot towers needing to be clear-cut 100 feet on each side of the 500 kV transmission lines. After a few phone calls, we launched a task force and worked to determine the route and their intentions. We launched SavePalomarMountain to block the power project coming up from Henshaw, along East Grade and down through the State Park.

Eventually, we were pretty confident that SDG&E had selected a different route along Hwy 79 and through Temecula. (So sad for them!!!) However, SDG&E has told us at our PMPO meeting in May that since Temecula has such a strong push-back with so many more people, they might need to use an alternate route. After our fire July 31st, I reached out to our Save Palomar Mountain task force and we decided we should gear up and get back in the fight. Couldn’t have been too soon.

Please visit the SDGE/Sempra Utilities Golden Pacific Powerlink webpage updated yesterday and see their new maps. Two and a half years ago we created this map shown above with the properties that had letters and colored those parcels in orange. That was SDG&E’s first route! Now you can see that SDG&E has identified ‘South Palomar Mountain’ as an alternative route with a blue line. I carefully added the blue yarn line approximately over our map to show the difference. (South Mountain??!? This cuts right through the HEART of beautiful Palomar! Fired up yet?)

How can YOU help stop SDG&E clear-cutting a 200 foot swath, butchering Palomar Mountain?

Jim Hamerly, our SMP Chairman just learned that this new blue line goes right through his living room!!! He has been working with neighbors of the 15 regions surrounding Palomar Mountain. We really need to pack it out. Can YOU attend and speak at the August 18th Board of Supervisors Meeting at 9 am at the County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway, Room 310, San Diego, CA 92101.  There is an additional session on the 19th, should you not be available on the 18th. You can register to speak here: https://publiccomment.sandiegocounty.gov/#events

If you are speaking, ensure that you check in at the kiosk or with the Deputy Clerk in the Board Chamber when you arrive. Speakers are called in the order requests are received.

Fill up your car with neighbors and friends, carpool, pack it out!

Meanwhile, please subscribe at our brand new Facebook page: Save Palomar Mountain – Stop the Powerlink – soon to be on Instagram, too.

It is interactive and we invite you to post links you might come across, please like and comment on the page. Then please SHARE on other pages – especially Pauma Valley, Valley Center, Fallbrook, and beyond. The lines are to only provide power to Orange County and LA. Those local areas have a rude awakening this morning as these towers could drop down just west of the round-about, between the Pauma Fire Station and Lazy H, run up the hill there, and take off on the ridge above the Pauma Valley Country Club, through Fallbrook, Pendleton and up the coast to Orange County.

You’re invited to check out the screen shot below of our new page. See that blue button on the right? Please click to invite your friends. I didn’t prejudge anyone. It’s real easy to click ‘Select All’. We’ve learned we only get about 5% to follow. This is a brand new page, we are such a small community and need to grow the followers FAST.

We welcome your posts and links you come across. Then, at the bottom of each, it would be so helpful to add something like this: What are your thoughts about SDG&E clear-cutting Palomar Mountain? Please comment at SavePalomarMountain.org.

Thanks so much!

Bonnie Phelps