Solana Beach Is Turning 40. The Fights That Made It a City Are Now Places You Can Walk.

At 7 a.m. on July 1, 1986, five newly elected council members stood on the bluff above Fletcher Cove. County Supervisor Susan Golding swore them in. The oath had been set for that evening. Then word reached them that a large number of building permits were being rushed through the County Planning Department before the handover, so they moved the ceremony to sunrise. Their first act was an emergency moratorium that froze all new construction for 45 days. It was one of 21 ordinances and resolutions they adopted before recessing at 7:22 a.m.

Forty years later, the City is marking its ruby anniversary with a council proclamation, concerts and a fall calendar of community events. The ground the city was formed to defend is now open to the public from sunrise to sunset.

What the County Was About to Approve

Residents had been talking about cityhood for decades. In 1959 the Solana Beach Chamber of Commerce asked San Diego State College to forecast the community's future. The study warned that County services were unlikely to keep pace with growth and told residents, "This is the time for decision." A 1971 Town Council survey found 65% of residents favored some kind of home rule. That same era brought the County's approval of a "China Wall" of condominium buildings that essentially closed public access to the bluff tops.

According to the Solana Beach Civic & Historical Society, two disputes in the early 1980s turned that sentiment into votes. In 1981-82, Inn Suites International proposed a large hotel and conference complex on a triangular parcel along Highway 101 near North Rios Avenue, overlooking the lagoon and the ocean. County planners supported it. Once grading started, the California Coastal Commission issued a stop-work order. The scarred slope and idle machinery became a rallying image for residents.

The second fight was in Holmwood Canyon, a rural enclave that once held farms and an apricot orchard. It had been proposed for a San Elijo Lagoon reserve. In 1981 the County Board of Supervisors dropped the canyon from its acquisition list after spending its budget on other projects, and a proposal for up to 44 homes followed soon after.

Proposition N reached the ballot in 1986 after three failed incorporation attempts. It passed with almost 65% of the vote. Former councilmember Richard Hendlin, one of the five sworn in that morning, described the urgency to The Coast News this summer:

"To prevent the county from having one more day of being able to make land use decisions, we changed things at the end, and the first act we did was to put a 45-day moratorium on any building permits that were pending in front of the county."

Holmwood Canyon, Now a Trail With a Bench at the End

Friends of Holmwood Canyon formed in 1982 to oppose the 44-home plan. It eventually had 600 members, who tracked the permit process and showed up at public meetings. The Solana Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Women's Civic Club joined the effort. Jack Peek, the group's president, and his wife Carol kept the coalition together through a fight that lasted years. In 1983 the state designated the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve, and the Holmwood Canyon landowners eventually said they were willing to sell their 16-acre parcel. Carol Peek also designed the city seal that hung on the podium at Fletcher Cove that July morning.

The canyon is now a work area inside the reserve. Nature Collective lists the route as the Rios Trail via the Gemma Parks Loop Trail and Holmwood Canyon Trail. It is rated easy, runs 1.2 miles round trip, is open sunrise to sunset, and allows leashed dogs. You start at the Rios Ave Trailhead, where parking is on neighborhood streets. A spur off the loop ends at a shaded bench in the canyon. The bench sits in the canyon where 44 homes were once proposed.

The Triangle Above the Lagoon

The other battleground sits along Highway 101 near North Rios Avenue, above the lagoon and the ocean. The Society's history places the Inn Suites parcel at the spot where billboards once lined the highway. It illustrates the site with a 1964 northbound view of Highway 101 taken "from what is now Harbaugh Seaside Trails." Over the following decades, the Society and many of its members donated to keep that open space free of commercial development. The Harbaugh Family Trust made the capstone gift.

Harbaugh Seaside Trails opened with a ribbon cutting at sunset on February 22, 2020. Then-Mayor Jewel Edson joined Nature Collective and The Harbaugh Foundation for the ceremony. The trails are named for the late George and Betty Harbaugh, San Diego philanthropists. Nature Collective describes the property as a 3-acre coastal overlook at the gateway between Cardiff-by-the-Sea and Solana Beach. A flat, wavy half-mile path leads to the Myron + Joan Overlook deck at the north end. There are no restrooms. The nearest parking is at Seaside State Beach: walk south to the Solana Vista Drive crosswalk, cross Highway 101, and head north on the Rail Trail.

The shade on the walk in has its own civic history. In 1973 the Solana Beach Women's Civic Club leased the western railroad right-of-way and planted 450 Torrey and Aleppo pines. With help from the Boy Scouts, members watered them by hand until they raised money for irrigation. The 1990s "big dig," which lowered the tracks under Lomas Santa Fe Drive, put temporary rail lines through that pine-shaded path. An "Adopt a Tree" program relocated 361 trees to gardens and businesses around town, and eight more were boxed in 1997. The Society paid to replant those eight in 2002, creating the Torrey Grove near the city's northern border. In February 2020, the grove and the Coastal Rail Trail were linked to Harbaugh Seaside Trails.

Nature Collective lists both trails as open. Its trail pages show no visible update date, so check current status before you head out.

The Same Ground Is Shaping the Next Rail Trail Segment

That stretch of Highway 101 is still under discussion. The Coastal Rail Trail currently ends at Ocean Street. According to The Coast News, the proposed final Solana Beach segment is designed to stay within the Highway 101 right-of-way so it avoids the Harbaugh conservation easement, and walkers and cyclists could turn off onto the Harbaugh trail system. The design went to the City Council on June 24 and could go out to bid within about six months. Until a crossing farther north is built, signs send pedestrians to the Solana Vista Drive crossing. This is still a proposal and has not been built. Forty years on, the land saved in the 1980s now determines where the city's newest path can go.

What's Left on the Anniversary Calendar

The 40th year started with the July 1 proclamation and a one-night concert at Fletcher Cove on July 2. Hundreds of people came down to the sand for '80s hits from BetaMaxx and Atomic Groove. "There are 24 of us who have been serving this community over these 40 years," Mayor Lesa Heebner said at the council meeting. The rest of the year returns to the two places where the city's founding story is centered: Fletcher Cove, where the oath was taken, and La Colonia de Eden Gardens, the original neighborhood the new city brought in at incorporation. The Society dates La Colonia to 1919/20, when it was built for Mexican workers who tended the citrus groves in Rancho Santa Fe.

1. Sunday, October 18, Día de los Muertos, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., La Colonia Park, 715 Valley Avenue. The City and the La Colonia Community Foundation chose the 40th anniversary as this year's theme. The featured display is photos from across the city's history, along with a cake cutting and a limited-edition mug giveaway. Danza Azteca San Luis Rey blesses more than 40 altars at 10 a.m. Performers include the MiraCosta Ballet Folklórico Club, Los Gringos Muertos Band, Smooth Groove Band, Ilusión Norteña, JoJo Productions and Mariachi Del Mar, and the Viejitos Car Club hosts a classic car show. Parking is limited, so bring chairs or a blanket.
2. Saturday, November 14, World Kindness Day activities. The City is pairing the date with a clothing swap and a Fixit Clinic at the Fletcher Cove Community Center.
3. Sunday, December 6, Fletcher Cove Holiday Tree Lighting. Mayor Heebner and the City Council switch on the lights, and Santa arrives with a fire-truck escort.
4. Sunday, December 13, La Colonia Park Holiday Tree Lighting. The evening includes Mexican hot cocoa and Santa's arrival.

A March schedule printed November 13 for World Kindness Day and December 12 for the La Colonia tree lighting. The City's current listings give the dates above.

For the full story before any of these walks, the Society published Peter House's expanded history, Making Great Better: 100 Years of Creating a California Coastal City, as a free illustrated PDF for the anniversary. It has also posted the minutes of that first 7 a.m. council meeting alongside its history of the city.

Polly Rogers & Associates has watched Solana Beach's open space, trails and village corridors take shape over more than four decades. If you'd like to talk about how that history shows up in your own part of the city, we'd be glad to arrange a Complimentary Market Consultation.