Residents urge delay as San Diego supervisors move two permanent‑road special‑tax measures to the ballot

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on June 24 voted unanimously to place special‑tax measures for two permanent road divisions on the November ballot despite extensive public opposition and requests for postponement.

Residents living in the affected districts — which include a Harris Annex in Rancho Santa Fe and PRD 13A in Fallbrook — urged the board to delay ballots and correct accounting and mapping errors before seeking voter approval. Several speakers, including members of a newly organized group called Citizens for Sustainable PRDs, said residents were blindsided in 2021 when they first learned of longstanding under‑collection of assessments and cited parcel allocation errors, utility parcels that use roads but pay nothing, and contested voting rolls.

Dr. Steven Shrewsbury, who identified himself as founder and president of Citizens for Sustainable PRDs, asked the board to postpone the vote until pending litigation and accounting questions were resolved, saying the county "now expects 2026 owners to pay to get us out" of deferred maintenance accumulated over decades.

Craig Sherman, legal counsel for the group, told the board the PRD structure has been mismanaged and warned that converting assessments into special taxes without fixing accounting and parcel maps risks additional legal and practical problems. Other residents described a lack of disclosure in home sales and cases where absentee owners would bear large tax increases while renters and nonpaying residents could be eligible to vote.

During board discussion, Supervisor Jim Desmond acknowledged the system's problems and told colleagues the county had spent more than $500,000 over the past three years addressing collapsed culverts and sinkholes in PRD areas. He moved to adopt staff recommendations to place the measures on the ballot and added direction for staff to return to the board with an item to begin dissolution procedures if a special tax measure fails; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously by roll call.

What happens next: The proposed special taxes will be mailed to registered voters in the affected PRDs as required by state law; county staff will return with election results and, if a measure fails, proposed steps for dissolution or alternative assessments. Residents and the citizen group said they will continue to press for corrected parcel mapping, clearer disclosures to new buyers, and equitable cost sharing with utilities and agencies that use the roads.

This article is based on public testimony and roll call recorded during the June 24 meeting; quotes are attributed to speakers who identified themselves on the record.