La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid says his city already is the “Jewel of the Hills” and any additions will only enhance that title. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

East County long has been the bedroom community for San Diego. But its leaders believe it also can become San Diego’s dining room, play room and secondary work room.

One might be tempted to write off such optimism as the kind of wishful thinking or boosterism expected from local politicians and business promotion groups. But those with a more regional perspective like Marney Cox, chief economist for the San Diego Association of Governments, and Max Schetter, the recently retired vice president for corporate relations of the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce, also forecast a growing and diversifying East County.

“What has happened is that the law of supply and demand is asserting itself insofar as housing, commercial and industrial development is concerned,” says Schetter. “East County still has room to grow, while many other areas are getting pretty well developed.”

While the coastal areas between La Jolla and Oceanside are the hottest for business growth, “in the long run, you can only densify a certain amount there,” says Cox. “Sometime between 2010 and 2015, a lot of the land available in the North County area will be developed, so there will be a shift to the south. Santee (which has large land tracts available for development) can play a role, provided they want to land bank.”

Richard Bement, vice president of industrial properties for CB Richard Ellis, says although vast tracts of open space remain in the East County, “there is not that much industrial land left.” The cost of such land is lower than premium properties in Kearny Mesa, but it is on par with other areas including Otay Mesa and Escondido.

As for residential properties, Joe Garzanelli, broker owner of Century 21 All Service in El Cajon with 90 sales agents, says compared to other areas of the county, “for many years East County has afforded a little better pricing. You can get a bigger house on a bigger lot for less money.” For example, a three- to four-bedroom house today in East County “probably will sell in the high $300,000s to the low $400,000s, whereas if you were going toward the beach area you would probably pay 30 (percent) to 50 percent more for a similar home.”

“There is a low inventory of houses and a high appreciation, with houses selling quickly, especially on the lower end,” he says. “Those pushing $1 million may hang around a long time, but starter houses at $300,000 to the low $400,000s go quickly.”

Beside the availability of raw land for both residential and commercial development, two other important stimuli for East County’s projected growth are the success of the Barona, Sycuan and Viejas Indian casinos, which have brought visitors and jobs to the area, and determined, pro-business political leadership in the cities of El Cajon, La Mesa and Santee, as well as in the county’s unincorporated areas.

Santee Mayor Randy Voepel says regional headquarters of large companies like Hartford Insurance are beginning to locate in Santee’s industrial area. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Growth inhibitors also are in the mix, East County leaders are quick to acknowledge. Randy Voepel, mayor of Santee, says the area has to overcome a false “racist, redneck image.” La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid complains that the state budget crisis is denying his city needed financial resources. El Cajon Mayor Mark Lewis, himself a union man, must grapple with a state workers compensation rate that prompted one of his city’s large employers, Buck Knives, to announce plans to move to Idaho.

Overall, declares County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, whose district’s boundaries define the area, “East County is on the move. On average the housing is more affordable than anywhere in the region, Gillespie Field (in El Cajon, near the Santee boundary) has been a huge success, not just as an airport but for industrial development; we have some outstanding businesses in East County such as Taylor Guitars and various aerospace industries.

“What I have seen over the years is that we have developed more in the way of manufacturing jobs in order to let people in East County stay there and stay off the freeways,” Jacob says. “The Santee Trolley Center,” a cooperative project between the city of Santee and the county of San Diego on public land, “is tremendously exciting. La Mesa village has its own charm ... downtown El Cajon is a diamond in the rough, an area that has finally started to redevelop.”

Community Character

In the more outlying, unincorporated areas of her district, “one of the most charming towns is Julian” where, despite recent major fires, “businesses are strong and people keep coming back for apple pies,” Jacob says. In Spring Valley, she adds, “there is a fair amount of commercial and industrial development,” while Lakeside “has its own character, all the way from sand mining to coffee shops.”

All this development does not come at the expense of either the environment nor recreational amenities, Jacob says. “In East County we have preserved almost 70,000 acres covered by riding and hiking trails. My passion has been to improve ballfields and recreational facilities for kids. Partnering with schools and recreation districts, we have built over 100 ballfields, recreational facilities and playgrounds.

“In Lakeside there will be a first-class facility for kids with five ballfields, batting cages, a 5,000-square foot building and stadium seating,” Jacob says. “There’ll be nothing else like it in the San Diego region.”

Deanna Weeks and Jo Marie Diamond, respectively the president and vice president of the 20-year-old East County Economic Development Council, say that the “heart of industrial East County is Gillespie Field,” where their offices are located.

It was named for Marine Lt. Archibald H. Gillespie who carried dispatches in 1845 from the nation’s 11th president, James K. Polk, to American settlers in Mexican-owned California about the possibility of a Mexican-American War. Today, through the development council, Gillespie Field is home to the free data base, www.connectory.com, for California companies that are potential government subcontractors.

An example is American Metal Processing, a small business about five miles south of Gillespie Field in El Cajon. Through the Connectory’s search engine, American Metal Processing became known to the U.S. Air Force, and later was awarded a $90,000 research grant to solve an $800 million “corrosion problem with containers in Afghanistan,” say ECEDC officials. After AMPRO devised a way to “tweak existing coatings,” the company was awarded a $750,000 Phase Two grant.

“Our focus is retention and expansion,” says Weeks. “We are always happy to get new companies, but we like to help them grow.”

Deanna Weeks, president of the East County Economic Development Council, works out of an office at Gillespie Field. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

The Connectory began as a way to advertise the capabilities of companies in the East County, some of which had no presence on the Web. “We were asked by the county to expand it to the rest of the county, then to Imperial County, and then to the entire state of California,” Weeks says. “Now we’re working with the Department of Defense to expand it further.” The more attention the Connectory gets, the better it is for businesses in East County. We act as a go-between in any way we can.”

Although East County does not have any prime contractors, an umbrella organization for about 20 small companies called Defcomm — led by Greg Stein, a former aide to Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray — has been working closely to keep East County businesses before defense contracting decision makers. Significantly their local Republican congressman, Duncan Hunter, who serves as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, “is enthusiastically behind this effort,” the ECEDC reports.

A lower-tech company at Gillespie Field, but one in which East County residents take considerable pride is Taylor Guitars, which began in a garage in Lemon Grove. “It’s a large manufacturer of acoustical guitars,” says Tony Ambrose, the ECEDC chairman. “We have the honored position of having people like (British rock musician) Eric Clapton coming out and picking out a guitar.”

Another relatively low-tech, but internationally known company, Buck Knives, expects to relocate in a year to Idaho, leaving behind a 10-acre plant where developer Lee Boyd has proposed to build 97 homes. Pending zoning approvals, it remains on the industrial market.

C.J. Buck, president and CEO of the company his grandfather founded, says a move to Idaho will save the company nearly $2.5 million annually — $1 million in workers’ compensation costs, $1 million in salaries and $300,000 to $500,000 in energy costs. “We’re an international brand, so where we manufacture is not important,” Buck says. “We have competition in Oregon, upstate New York, Pennsylvania — all states that are dramatically less expensive to operate in than Southern California.”

The message is not lost on Jacob who pledges, “I will do my part in trying to change workers’ comp to bring to San Diego a more business-friendly climate.”

Terry Saverson of the East County Chamber of Commerce, which was formed in the merger of the La Mesa and El Cajon chambers, says the loss of 250 jobs at Buck Knives is keenly felt in an area where most private employers are small businesses.

Largest Employers

The East County Chamber lists the Grossmont Union High School District as the largest employer in the region with 2,800 employees, followed by the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians with 2,500; Grossmont-Cuyamaca College District, 2,400; Sharp Grossmont Hospital, 2,300; Cajon Valley Union School District, 2,200; Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians, 2,200; Barona Band of Kumeyaay Indians, 2,200 (not including new hotel staff); La Mesa Spring Valley School District, 1,500; UCSD Alvarado Hospital, 1,200; and GKN Chemtronics (at Gillespie Field), about 1,000.

“We recently created a political action committee because we felt, looking at what is happening in state government, we need to be able to step in and have some clout,” Saverson says. “Workers’ comp is a major project; it has been for some years.”

Besides working with legislators representing East County districts like state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth and Assembly members Jay La Suer and Shirley Horton (all Republicans), “we also have gone to Juan Vargas (an Assembly Democrat),” Saverson says. “The surveys are shocking, what workers’ comp has done to East County. We point to Buck Knives, and say we’re not going to take it anymore.”

Another government issue that La Mesa Mayor Madrid doesn’t want to take anymore is the state confiscating tax revenues previously reserved for localities. Along with other members of the League of Cities, Madrid now is circulating an initiative “to put in the state constitution a provision making sure that local government funds will be constitutionally protected.”

Mayoral Bragging Rights

El Cajon Mayor Mark Lewis must grapple with state issues that have prompted large employers like Buck Knives to relocate. Claire Carpenter, East County Community Development Corp. director says the group is working to recruit businesses to the area. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Notwithstanding such concerns about the state business climate, Mayors Lewis, Madrid and Voepel seem to good-naturedly one-up each other in their descriptions of how good their own cities are for business.

(Mayor Mary Sessom may have a favorite description for her city of Lemon Grove, but she did not respond to repeated messages left at her office by San Diego Metropolitan.)

Lewis, noting that many restaurants featuring patio dining are coming into El Cajon’s downtown redevelopment area, describes the area as “the Gaslamp Quarter of East County.” Voepel, proud that some regional headquarters like Hartford Insurance are beginning to locate in Santee’s industrial area, unblushingly calls his city the “La Jolla of East County.” Madrid, who boasts an Antique Village as part of his city’s business district and an increasing housing inventory by infilling throughout the city, emphasizes: “This is not a makeover for La Mesa. We will continue to be the ‘Jewel of the Hills.’ All we are doing is adding to what we already have.”

El Cajon, the area’s largest city, created the nonprofit El Cajon Community Development Corp. to spur the redevelopment of a 65-block area along Magnolia Avenue and Main Street. “We want to create nightlife, and the key to it was getting more restaurants,” said Lewis. “We have excellent weather, and you couldn’t ask for something better to do than eating on Main Street on a balmy night.”

He pointed out that the East County Performing Arts Center on Main Street recently hosted a concert by the late Jan and Dean, who won fame in 1959 for their song “Baby Talk,” and a performance by comedian Gallagher — “the guy who smashed watermelons.” Lewis says his vision is for people in El Cajon “to enjoy eating and drinking and to see exciting things happening, similar to what Gaslamp Quarter is doing. We want to create the same kind of atmosphere.”

“We set out to recruit businesses to the area,” says ECCDC Director Claire Carpenter. “In the last three years, we focused on restaurants.” The effort resulted in a number of family owned restaurants catering to a variety of ethnic taste buds. These include Black Bull Steak House; Gino’s Barbecue; Greek Town Buffet; K.C.’s Chinese; Las Delicias; Mangia Beni; 1953 Pizza Company; Nuna’s; Park Cafe; Por Favor and Sam’s Mediterranean.

“Many have outdoor seating,” Carpenter says. “We are very much interested in the outdoor environment and the experience that people have when they are interacting with the street. We have fabulous weather here most of the time. The decors provide another layer of street ambiance — umbrellas, canopies, plants, window dressing on the hardscape. It’s a pleasant place to be, with people watching each other and talking to each other.”

The restaurants have been drawing other businesses, as have a new Western art gallery and “an interesting general merchandise store.” The redevelopment group has design guidelines, “written in such a way as to embrace many architectural styles because El Cajon was built over many decades,” with constructions from the 1920s through the 1950s, Carpenter says.

There is a “caveat that all projects must be pedestrian oriented,” Carpenter says. The city wants such features as display windows and wainscot, and “no solid walls of stucco on the pedestrian pathways. The principle being that you want every building to have a top, middle and bottom. We like articulation between the stories and pedestrian signage as well as vehicular signage; projecting signs from arcades and awnings.”

The excitement has prompted a private developer group led by Allard Jansen & Associates to propose adding a four-story complex of restaurants, retail space and meeting and banquet space to the East County Performing Arts Center. The proposal, if accepted by the El Cajon City Council, would make Main Street the entrance to ECPAC. Currently the center is entered from a plaza it shares with El Cajon City Hall and the East County Courthouse. The privately financed expansion would cost $12 million, reports spokesman G. Cole Davis.

Housing is another portion of downtown El Cajon’s redevelopment. Recently 28 row homes were built near the intersection of Main and Magnolia, and they “sold at $400,000 per unit,” Carpenter says. “We have another 160 brand new construction units in varying stages of permitting, and there are numerous apartment rehabs and condo projects. A big trend out here is condo conversion.”

Santee also is talking about becoming a restaurant town, particularly in the Trolley Square area near where the red San Diego Trolley cars cross Mission Gorge Road.

“We are really cooking,” said Voepel, naming a popular Greek restaurant, Daphne’s, and adding, “Olive Garden loves us, and at Chili’s you can’t get a seat now that we’re developing a restaurant row. We want a high-end restaurant, because everything here will be top-of-the-line. We want to see a whole lot of Lexuses in the parking lots; and we will have wider parking lots because I like SUV’s.

“Four years ago when I first got elected mayor, I told everyone Santee would become the La Jolla of the East County, and they laughed at me,” Voepel said. “We now have Santee Trolley Square, which cost $55 million to build and is generating tremendous taxes. It has created 1,100 jobs, including at Target, TJ Maxx and Barnes & Noble.

“Next to the trolley center we are building a $2 million high-tech campus that will attract 4,200 jobs,” Voepel says. “Hartford Insurance came to Santee (from Mission Valley) with 650 jobs — with 22 percent of their employees living in Santee. We had to beat five other cities to get them.

“They liked the amenities of Santee, but they had one concern: One of the moles and blemishes that Santee has is our past reputation of being a redneck, racist community,” Voepel says.

“In fact, we are a cosmopolitan city with a low crime rate. Hate crimes are substantially below San Diego or other metropolitan areas. The residual stereotype is from our old cowboy days and has no merit. It has no basis in Santee and we’re fighting that. Some of the gays in the company were afraid that we might be a gay-bashing town. But everyone is treated equally and we are very protective of all our citizens.”

Hartford is the first tenant on the 106-acre corporate campus. “We are working on one Fortune 500 company right now, trying to establish a corporate campus,” the mayor says.

The third leg of Santee’s ambitious development program is building “some of the most affordable housing in Southern California,” Voepel says. “We’re building on infill properties, and Fanita Ranch will come back (from previous attempts at development) with 1,500 to 1,800 units.” To facilitate the growth, Voepel wants to see State Route 52 extended from its junction with State Route 125 to a new junction with State Route 67. “When completed,” he says, “it will take 31 percent of the traffic off Mission Gorge.”

In La Mesa, Madrid predicts between 2,000 and 2,400 dwelling units will be constructed, including “230 single-family upscale homes” in the $700,000 range, in the Eastridge area, “where we have 119 acres of open space that is solid rock and where there will have to be a year of blasting to create the pads.”

Elsewhere, near Fletcher Parkway and Jackson Drive, close to where the San Diego Trolley makes its stop, 510 apartment units will be built by a private developer in conjunction with a public parking garage for 500 cars that will be constructed by the city.

“I have taken the leadership in making La Mesa the poster child of using transit,” he says. “Right now we have about 1,200 units in La Mesa that are in the transit area.”

Real estate has been changing hands quickly in La Mesa, altering the age demographic of the area, Madrid says. “At one time, senior citizens represented 33 percent of our population. Some years ago, we had to consolidate our Little League. Now it’s just the reverse. We are booming. And we have had to expand the Little League.”

At El Cajon and La Mesa boulevards, he says, “we will be building 69 upscale condos, and next to them at a place called ‘Direct Auto,’ another 55 to 80 apartments. Across the street, land is being cleared where we are looking at 49 to 50 condos. Behind that, another 35 condos are being built. In some of these areas, we are promoting mixed use, with some commercial uses on the bottom floor.”

Recreation Opportunities

Eric Lund, director of the East County Convention & Visitors Bureau, hopes that all the activity will spur the development in East County of more hotels. “We don’t have any major full scale hotels except the one at Barona, so I expect to see more being developed along the I-8 corridor,” he says. “There is a tremendous amount of traffic on the I-8 and a large demand for meeting space and hotel rooms, but we have no supply.”

Besides visiting the casinos, tourists in East County are attracted to golf courses at Singing Hills Country Club (now owned by Sycuan), Steele Canyon, Cottonwood, Rancho San Diego, Carlton Oaks and Mission Trails, Lund says.

“There also are a lot of boutique businesses that are unique, like Summers Past Farms, an herbal gardeners’ shopping location off the I-8, where they have a soap store and soap-making classes. There also are lots of museums in the East County, including the Heritage of the Americas Museum, next to Cuyamaca College, which is like a natural history museum and a museum of man wrapped into one. There’s a garden next to the museum that shows people how to grow gardens with little water. In downtown El Cajon, there’s the Olaf Wieghorst Museum (dedicated to his Western art), and in Julian the Pioneer Museum and the Gold Mine Museum.”

Schetter, a retired San Diego Chamber of Commerce executive and horse lover, notes, however, that last October’s fires burned a large portion of the Cleveland National Forest, forcing temporary closure of certain attractions.

Saverson, of the East County Chamber, nevertheless remains upbeat. The area still continues to boast many of “those California activities — hiking, skiing, biking, horseback riding, even gliding, that you think of when you think of California,” she says. “There are a lot of people who come to East County for their vacations.”