Proposal for security-training center in Homeland advances
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10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, January 9, 2008
HOMELAND - After addressing noise, traffic and several safety concerns about his proposal to build a state-of-the-art security-training facility in Homeland's rural foothills, first-time developer John Choate received a green light from the Riverside County Planning Commission to continue with the project.
More than a dozen residents of the undulating countryside around Choate's proposed development site spoke at a public hearing Wednesday morning, a few opposing but most supporting the facility because of its potential to advance national and homeland security.
In addition to neighbors' qualms about how gunshots might disturb the area's quietude, Choate listened to a host of requests from planning commissioners and conceded several changes to his plan. Those changes included adding three strands of barbed wire atop an 8-foot-tall perimeter fence, planting more trees and shrubbery around the property, and limiting incidences of outdoor gun-shooting to five times a year for no longer than one hour at a time.
Choate, a former Navy SEAL and military trainer, said if his proposal gains the approval of the county's Board of Supervisors in late January he hopes to have the 3½-mile urban-style driving track built sometime this spring.
Choate called the driving track the centerpiece of the development he would call The Ranch as the property has always been called by his family. The family inherited the property from his late grandfather, who purchased it in 1900. The driving track would be the first part of the multiphase project to be built because Choate said he anticipates the track would generate the greatest return on the $18 million to $20 million investment.
"It is the bread and butter (of the project). There is nothing like it within 1,500 miles," Choate said, referring to the fact that unlike most law enforcement driving training track, his will incorporate urban features such as cul-de-sacs, uneven surfaces and speed bumps.
However, the handful of residents opposing Choate's project seemed less concerned about the driving track than the shooting that would occur daily at The Ranch, even though 99 percent of the live fire would happen indoors.
Kim Preston, who has lived with her family and raised horses in these foothills for 20 years, said she dreads the loud echoes of gunshots ricocheting off a "mountain of solid rock" as she described it, across the valley.
Noise studies completed by Urban Crossroads Inc. and paid for by Choate concluded that the sound of such gunshots would not exceed 51 decibels at the perimeter of the property. The county's noise ordinance sets 55 decibels as the daytime limit.
The tactical training center Choate proposes to build on 40 acres of his family's almost 200-acre parcel includes a gymnasium, a covered pool, two classrooms, nine indoor firing ranges, several mock streets to simulate a town, and a driving track.
Several neighbors spoke on behalf of Choate's project, such as Richard Hewitt who has lived on nine acres on the west side of the Choate property for 20 years.
"What are the alternatives to the training center?" Hewitt said to the Planning Commission and an audience of at least 50 people from the podium. "You can leave it the way it is as virgin land. But that is probably not realistic and at my age I no longer believe in the tooth fairy ... It's prime development land. The other alternative is 150 homes and all the issues those homes would bring with probably 500 more people, at least 300 more cars, more illegal ATV running, more crime and more strain on our resources of water and electricity."
Hewitt also praised the project for its contribution to the advancement of national security, a sentiment echoed by Eric Measley, a resident and a retiree of the Air Force.
"This is the type of training our law enforcement needs. Terrorists are highly dedicated to creating havoc and destruction all over the world," Measley said. "I have more concerns on New Year's Eve than about a firing range where there's controlled fire. This place is designed and used by people who know what they're doing."
Reach Julissa McKinnon at 951-375-3730 or jmckinnon@PE.com
Concerns flare over Romoland training-center development
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10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, January 2, 2008
A proposal to build a tactical training center with shooting ranges on the northeastern edge of Romoland is raising the hackles of some residents of these rocky foothills.
Developer John Choate's plans to build a training complex raise questions and anxieties for neighbors, who say they have become reluctantly accustomed to new housing tracts over the years.
The public will have the chance to comment on the proposed project at a county Planning Commission hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Center for Archaeology and Paleontology, 2345 Searl Parkway in Hemet.
Choate, a former Navy SEAL and military trainer, contends his center would be used primarily by federal, law enforcement and military personnel involved with national and homeland security.
Private groups, however, might be allowed to train there, according to planning documents Choate has filed with the Riverside County Planning Department.
Any nongovernmental group wishing to use the facility would first have to be vetted and approved by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, said Choate, a first-time developer. The centerpiece of the $18 million to $20 million facility would be a driving track that incorporates cul-de-sacs, traffic circles and 15 mock city blocks.
The prospect of private groups firing weapons and driving fast on the property next door troubles a few residents such as Alex Hernandez.
"When they have rifle ranges that have long-range rifles, and when they have racetracks with skid areas, these are all concerns. We have children in our community," Hernandez said, referring to young residents as well as Harvest Valley School, which sits less than three miles from Choate's property line.
In San Diego County, residents of the small town of Portrero are opposing a proposal by Blackwater USA, a private security company , to build a training camp. Choate says his company, Procinctu Group, has no ties to Blackwater.
Choate's proposal puts some residents on edge, but others welcome the prospect of an increased law enforcement presence in their neighborhood of horse pastures, ranch-style homes and dirt roads.
John Stage, a cement-truck driver who has lived on Gunther Road for eight years, hopes the new complex will increase the chances of natural gas and sewer lines eventually coming to an area that has long relied on propane and septic tanks. He and others say the sight of more police cars could deter the illegal dumping that plagues Briggs Road.
However, Choate's training center, which he hopes to call The Ranch, is far from a go. The Riverside County Board of Supervisors would first have to approve lifting the county General Plan's zoning requirements, which designate the 194-acre property as either rural mountainous or residential agriculture -- "residential designations more or less" said Riverside County Principal Planner Adam Rush. To do so, the Board of Supervisors would have to deem the project "a public benefit" by issuing Choate a public-use permit.
The Riverside County Sheriff's Department trains its deputies at a training track in San Bernardino County, said sheriff's spokesman Deputy Javier Rodriguez.
Navy personnel from Coronado are being sent to Texas for their training, and Choate wants to provide that training closer to home.
Other features of the proposed facility would include a gymnasium, a covered pool, administrative buildings and nine indoor firing ranges.
Choate said the frequency of outdoor shooting would be at most once every two months and such exercises would occur on the northeastern corner of the parcel, about 1,000 feet from the nearest property line.
He said outdoor fire is part of specific training in which would-be bodyguards are taught how to shield and shift the person they are guarding from a stopped and ambushed vehicle into another vehicle, all while under fire.
Whenever this exercise is under way, staff members would be posted at the corners of the property that intersect with Briggs Road, to explain the reason for the gunshots to any concerned passers-by, Choate said.
The sound of gunshots would not be anything new for the dwellers of these rural foothills where game-hunting is commonplace.
A letter from Roland Skumawitz, former superintendent of the Romoland School District, to the county Planning Department contends that Choate's development could obstruct access to the proposed school site. The site lies within 1,160 feet of the tactical training center and a 1,500-foot buffer zone is required by law, Skumawitz said.
Choate said it is unreasonable to ask any developer to change plans already in the pipeline to accommodate a project still in its infancy.
Other neighbors say they are worried about the tactical training center worsening traffic and adding to the overall congestion of a rural area that little by little is losing its quiet character.
"There's a lot more traffic than there used to be and now we have a lot more accidents," said Sue Hamilton, a retiree who has lived on these mountainous outskirts of Romoland and Homeland for 20 years. "We have horses and livestock and we don't need anything to upset them either gunshots blasting or whatever else they'll be doing there."
Choate said it is unrealistic to expect that an almost 200-acre of prime real estate would remain open and unused.
"We've been offered a fair amount of money from developers," Choate said. "It's either an open driving track and shooting ranges or we take a windfall and sell out to one of these developers and have 150 houses go up."
Reach Julissa McKinnon at 951-375-3730 or jmckinnon@PE.com
1 comment:
And they approved this development?
A place to train mercenary/murderers to kill more civilians..infants...children?. Nice choice folks! Keep that tax money coming in. You can count all your gold and silver as the riddled and mangled bodies of the children dance in your jaded, conscienceless minds as you try to sleep at night.
Night night, you immoral slugs.
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