Rancho Santa Fe Association Board Biz: Enjoy your vacation — we’ve got you covered!

Once again, Rancho Santa Fe will be celebrating the Fourth of July in old-fashioned style, with our annual parade and lots of fun for the whole family — clowns, face painting, fire trucks and vintage cars, honor guard, horses, live music and food. Meet up in the Village from 1-5 p.m. Lineup to be in the parade starts at noon!

After the Fourth, many of you will head off to family vacations for a little summer R & R. Activity in the Village— and especially in the Association office — will remain bustling throughout the summer months. Your new board convened as of July 1, and we are all working hard on our many projects.

BROADBAND: The members of the Technology Infrastructure Committee will be attending the Fiber to the Home Council convention in Anaheim on June 30. There we will hear the latest news in fiber technology and services. We will hear presentations from several major providers as well. Look for an in-depth report on what we learned in the near future.

WATER: Meetings and brainstorming sessions continue almost daily throughout the county and the Covenant. Association Manager Bill Overton is working with Director Mike Bardin at the Santa Fe Irrigation District. Along with the CSD, the two boards are pushing for long-term solutions to our water situation. We are even getting our state legislators involved. Brian Jones, California State Assembly member, will be attending our RSFA board meeting on Aug. 6. He will be filling us in on pending legislation that may impact us and will be listening to our concerns. Water issues will no doubt top the list. You are all invited to attend. Look for announcements with more details on that meeting soon.

On July 8, the Association will be hosting an informational meeting at the Garden Club starting at 6 p.m. Several speakers will be making presentations on water conservation and landscaping and will be available to answer your questions.

VILLAGE MASTER PLAN: I am happy to report that the wheels have begun to turn on this project as well. Over the past few months, the board has heard concerns from many of you regarding the loss of “community” in our Village. You have asked us to find ways to bring back retail shops, to ensure there is a market and to provide parking to support the merchants.

Board members agree that we must develop a plan that will encourage the commercial and residential elements necessary for a vibrant Village. To date, we have met with professional urban planners, developers of planned communities, Village property owners and members of the Village merchants’ group. I believe that the process we will need to follow, in order to truly achieve the renaissance that we all desire, will require engaging the services of outside professionals as well as organizing our teams of volunteers.

Things are still very much in the embryonic and visionary stage. At this point, we are forming a Village Master Plan Task Force, made up primarily of unpaid professionals who live in the Covenant. They will be charged with laying out the goals and the plan for board approval. Going forward, their main responsibilities would include researching and pursuing the necessary legal moves that may be needed to implement the plan, e.g., zoning changes, public-private partnerships, etc.

Collaborating with this task force will be the “Revitalization” Team and probably a Parking Team. In the short term, the Revitalization Team will be the lead group in gathering community input on what we all want to see in our Village. Over the longer term, we are hoping that the Revitalization team would organize events to keep the community focused on and energized about the Village while the Master Plan Task Force tackles the longer-term, more complex legal issues.

Over the next few weeks, the Task Force will be developing the goals and a plan to bring to the board for discussion. We will be looking for your input at every step along the way. Please stay engaged with us. We all must work together to develop a vision for the long-term vitality of our Village. Together we can make it happen.

ann.boon@me.com