• Area annexed into Mission Trails
B1
open space in 1997. And since 2017, the city has been slowly annexing parts of East Elliott into Mission Trails Regional Park as it continues to acquire properties in the neighborhood.
A small portion of East Elliott is also the Sycamore Canyon landfill. City officials had planned to expand Sycamore Canyon when the Miramar landfill ran out of space but say that’s no longer an option.
That’s partly because East Elliott is part of a wildlife corridor called the Multiple Species Conservation Program that the city helped create in 1997. A federally licensed habitat conservation area, the MSCP allows species to live and migrate safely.
The lawsuit says all zoning changes, land designations and community blueprints for East Elliott that the city has approved since the 1960s are nullified by the city’s agreements with the federal government made back then.
It also says the city should again consider developing housing on at least 680 acres of East Elliott, contending that would maximize the value of the land. The suit says the location is highly appealing, noting its accessibility to La Jolla on state Route 52.
The lawsuit suggests this case, if the city loses in court, could be a huge burden on city taxpayers.
“The very open space and landfill designation the city itself created made it effectively impossible for the plaintiffs and other landowners to do anything with their land,” says the lawsuit, describing the city’s actions as inverse condemnation. “Given today’s land values, the city inversely condemning 680 residential acres could bankrupt the city.”
A spokesperson for City Attorney Mara Elliott declined this week to comment on the suit, which was filed in late June.
The suit was filed on behalf of Bob and Donna Allan, who are among hundreds of people who bought land in East Elliott intending to build custom homes or sell to a large housing developer. The Allans own 48 acres.
The city has been slowly and steadily using grant funds to buy up East Elliott from private owners at roughly $37,000 an acre. City officials say they now own well over 30 percent of the site.
Among the housing proposals for East Elliott was Puerto Vista Parks, which was proposed in the 1970s and was expected to have 45,000 residents by the mid-1980s. It was stalled by the lack of infrastructure.
In 1988, a smaller development of 8,149 homes for 22,000 residents was proposed. Partly because of complaints from residents in San Carlos, that proposal was never formally presented to the City Council.