County’s Planning Group to hear controversial proposal on April 18
Story and photos by Karen Pearlman
Photo,left: Valle de Oro Community Planning Group members during packed hearing on Cottonwood Sand Mine
March 20, 2025 (Rancho San Diego) – More than 100 residents who would be most affected by the proposed Cottonwood Sand Mine gathered in force Tuesday, March 18 at the Rancho San Diego Library to let the Valle de Oro Community Planning Group know they don’t want it in their neighborhood.
After listening to more than two dozen people share their concerns, the community planning group voted 11-0 to recommend opposing the project that would see 214 acres of the former 280-acre Cottonwood Golf Course along Willow Glen Drive in Rancho San Diego turned into a digging site for sand mining for at least 10 years.
The group also voted 10-1, with one abstention, to not agree with a design exception review to waive the undergrounding overhead utilities along Willow Glen Road.
Next step: County Planning Commission hearing April 18
Oday Yousif, chairman of the Valle de Oro planning group, said he would be submitting a formal recommendation on behalf of the organization and those it serves, to not approve the sand mine Major Use Permit application to the San Diego County Planning Department by the March 23 due date before the item is heard at the April 18 meeting.
That recommendation, along with a recommendation from the county’s Planning Department Services, will be presented to the county’s five-member Planning Commission. The County Planning Commission will then decide on whether to approve or not approve the sand mine operation permit application.
The County Planning Commission meets monthly to consider land use projects affecting unincorporated areas of the county. Its next me
eting is March 21, but the meeting for the sand mine item has been set for 9 a.m., Friday, April 18 at the County Operations Center Hearing Room on Overland Drive.
Photo, right: Valle do Oro Community Planning Group Chair Oday Yousif, left, looks on as County Land Use Planner Chris Jacobs gives presesntation.
Residents share concerns during crowded meeting
Residents at the meeting expressed concerns ranging from environmental, health and safety issues related to the silica dust being kicked up during the process, as well as traffic impacts, especially for emergency safety needs. Among those there to listen was applicant representative Brice Bossler and County Land Use Planner Chris Jacobs.
San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District Director Theresa McKenna said that in 2022, then-Fire Chief Criss Brainard provided comments the county on the district’s concerns about the project related to emergency response time delays.
“Increased heavy truck traffic and slowing during construction all have the potential of increasing emergency response times,” McKenna said. “In our letter to the County, the Fire District requested health and safety concerns be mitigated for the benefit of the community, since even short delays can mean the difference between life and death.”
Detractors say that the project is inconsistent with both the County General Plan and Community Specific Plan. The Rancho Specific Plan identifies the golf course serving as a buffer area and providing a larger setback to sensitive habitat areas.
They also say that a final Environmental Impact Report has not been shown, so they are working off information culled from the Draft EIR, first circulated in 2021.
The site is in the middle of the Rancho San Diego region, and shares borders with homes, and is near schools and businesses.
Dr. Bob Foster (photo, left), a retired physician, said he is “extremely concerned about the negative health effects of this sand mine idea.”
“I’m adamantly opposed to it,” Foster said. “I think it's a horrendous plan that this is come up with and I want to be clear that we’ve got to do everything we can to stop this from ever becoming a reality. It’s a danger to those kids who have to walk to school every day across the clouds of smoke and sand that are going to be expelled from the sand mine operation. It’s just appalling to me that this plan has actually gotten to this level.”
The site also runs along the Sweetwater River watershed --a nearly 230-square mile region that goes from the Cuyamaca Mountains out to San Diego Bay. Groundwater from its lower basin is also linked to the watershed. The site is upstream from a federal wildlife preserve.
Sweetwater Authority, which oversees the water in the region, has expressed concern in the past about the project’s impact on water levels and quality.
Josan Feathers (photo, right), a registered Civil Engineer and member of the Valle de Oro Cottonwood Subcommittee, posed 
some rhetorical questions to those in attendance.
“Would you trust an applicant or engineers who missed the need for an additional 3.5 million tons of backfill? Would you trust the same applicant to excavate 79 acres downstream of the 30-year-old Steele Canyon Bridge (in Jamul) and about 100 acres upstream up to 40 feet below the ground surface?”
Feathers said that the development proposes to backfill the river “with excavated materials they can’t sell.”
“This project can potentially taint and pollute the drinking water that flows into the Sweetwater Reservoir which serves almost 200,000 South Bay residences, potentially endangering and impacting them, as well as the wildlife in the area,” she said.
The developer’s view
The developer of the land at the golf course, New West Investment, has said previously that the project is needed to supply sand for local building and infrastructure projects, and its presence will mean avoiding the cost of importing sand.
Areas included within the project boundary that are not disturbed by mining would be subject to habitat improvement through removal of invasive species in the river channel (if necessary) or would be left in their current condition including the existing Sweetwater River channel. (See map of project site, left)
The project would also make certain improvements to Willow Glen Drive prior to beginning mining operations.
New West Investment and Los Angeles-based investor Michael Schlesinger purchased Cottonwood in 2015, four years after the golf course filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Representatives for the project were asked to weigh in the following day, and provided only a brief statement.
“The Cottonwood Proposal would ultimately transform a defunct golf course property into 200 acres of permanent, preserved open space for the community to enjoy,” the statement reads.
“In the near-term, it would provide critically needed sand supplies for housing and infrastructure projects through a phased approach that reduces community concerns around views. Creating a local sand supply at Cottonwood is a win for the San Diego region because it would reduce the increased costs and environmental damage caused by trucking sand in from outside the region and Mexico.”
Schlesinger has been planning to mine the site of the former Cottonwood Golf Course since 2018. He bought the property in 2015.
He had also purchased the Escondido Country Club in 2012, then shut down the golf course and worked to build nearly 400 homes on the site. Involved in several legal battles related to that, the homes were eventually built and are now known as the master planned Canopy Grove.
What happens if it’s approved?
While the new EIR has not been released, as originally filed, the proposal explains the plan to mine 4.7 million cubic yards with nearly 3.8 million cubic yards (or 5.7 million tons) of washed concrete sand (construction aggregate) produced over 10 years. It will be done in phases with reclamation planned after each phase for a total of 12 years of activity.
The extraction process would occur in three phases over the span of 10 years and the cleanup, equipment removal and final reclamation would occur in the fourth phase over two years.
Sand excavation and processing would occur between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with trucking operations for material sales and backfill import from 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Stop Cottonwood group mobilizes opposition
Elizabeth Urquhart, who has spearheaded the Stop Cottonwood Sand Mine efforts, spoke passionately at the meeting and presented evidence she said “shows the continued sand mine Major Use Permit application is unsuitable for approval” based on myriad factors, “including impacts on the surrounding environment neighborhood character and public facilities.”
The stopcottonwoodsandmine.com site has been active since the beginning of the issue, and through its work, a large number of Rancho San Diego’s nearly 21,000 residents have signed petitions and have packed public meetings through the years to oppose the project.
After the meeting, Rancho San Diego resident Anne-Marie Jacques said residents “feel like the developers don’t give a crap that this project just doesn’t make sense in this community, and they’re hoping we just give up.”
“Communities like RSD don’t need a sand mine because it wouldn’t add anything of substance or value to us,” she said. “They’re only looking out for their bank accounts not the people who live, work and go to school in the area.”
“As a local public agency, we must comply with state regulations and this project needs to move forward now to take advantage of financial incentives,” said Helix Water District Board Member Mark Gracyk.
In its previous location, Urban Timber transformed a blighted piece of land on Bay Boulevard in Chula Vista into a hub for an artistic and sustainable-minded community where trees came to be upcycled and people came to turn imagination into reality. Through partnerships with the city, word of mouth, and a network of tree-lovers, the business amassed a beautiful collection of logs that would have otherwise gone to the woodchipper but instead were turned into custom furniture, shelving, siding, benches, sculptures, and even a one-of-a-kind Fender guitar called the “Timbercaster.”
For now clients can visit Urban Timber by invitation; eventually the wood catalogue will be organized in a more shop-ready format, or possibly showcased locally in partnership with Campo businesses, so customers can see what’s available. With kilns and mills on site, logs can be dried, cut, and fashioned for various purposes. Lumber and cut pieces are also still for sale at Urban Timber’s separate woodshop location on Industrial Boulevard in Chula Vista, where the business will continue to maintain a presence as it transitions to home-based in Campo.
Walt Meyer is a San Diego-based author who has worked at multiple national parks. 
