Rancho Santa Fe Association Board Biz: Preserving the beauty of the Covenant; Broadband roundtable

By Ann Boon, President,

Rancho Santa Fe Association Board

“To preserve and enhance the historic, rural character and ambience of the Rancho Santa Fe Covenant community.”

That is the mission statement for the RSF Association’s Board of Directors. I’m not sure when it was written, but I think it captures so well all of our hopes for the Rancho Santa Fe Covenant. While always being respectful of our history and tradition, we try to bring amenities to our community that will make it vibrant and attractive for generations to come.

I have talked a lot recently about the amenities in the Covenant that we are considering adding or enhancing, such as cell service, high-speed internet coverage and health club. But the work of preserving our beautiful Covenant goes on every day in many important ways and I thought now would be a good time to talk about that.

Our Parks and Recreation department maintains nearly 60 miles of trails, arguably our most desirable asset. And their work goes way beyond trails. In addition to maintaining the landscaping along all the roadways, the crews maintain over 100 acres of open space as well. That includes the Osuna Ranch, the Arroyo property and the Ewing Preserve.

This summer, spurred on by the fires that broke out in May, the department has been working to clean up the river basin all the way from Zumaque to El Sicomoro, a distance of about three miles.

As a regular annual project, the department head Arnold Keene works closely with the RSF Fire Department to target dead and dying trees along our major thoroughfares. These trees not only pose potential hazards in terms of fuel for fires but also threaten to block evacuation routes in case of emergency if one were to fall across a roadway. Arnold works every year with the CSD to procure funding for this big tree-removal project. This year, over 35 large dead-or-dying trees have been identified for removal. You will soon see the crews working along Via de la Valle, Linea del Cielo and La Granada. Such a big project takes about eight weeks every year.

To protect our individual homes as well as the community, each one of us should be consulting with the Fire Department or a tree service to identify hazardous trees and other potential fuel for fire on our own property — and remove the hazards as soon as possible! Please call the Association office if you need any advice on how to proceed. 858-756-1174.

On Thursday, Sept. 11, the RSF Association board will be holding its annual retreat. During this all-day meeting, we will be discussing important items such as: the future of the Osuna property; the proposed Health Club project; membership and financial issues for the Golf Club and the Tennis Club; and alternative water sources for the golf course. One of the highlights of the day will be our Broadband roundtable discussion in which we will be examining the options for bringing high-speed internet service throughout the Covenant. We have invited several Covenant members who are experts in the telecommunications world, as well as representatives from major service providers. The agenda for this meeting is posted. All members are welcome to attend. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me at ann.boon@me.com.