A gas station developer, Cajalco Square, LP, since 2017 & despite consistent community opposition, has been seeking to develop a 24 hour large gas & diesel fuel station, convenience store with alcohol & tobacco product sales, car wash, fast food operations, & other businesses on now & long vacant & undeveloped land at Cajalco & Wood Roads in rural Lake Mathews, CA. The present area is rural, undeveloped, peaceful, quiet, free of businesses, noise, traffic & most importantly crime; & about 1 mile from a large high school.

Local residents, the school district, & local community non-profit organizations including the Residents Association of Greater Lake Mathews ("RAGLM") & local homeowner associations are opposed to the project because

      1) it is incompatible with the County's long promise of maintenance & preservation of the area as rural & undeveloped;

      2) the businesses will be a magnet for transients & the homeless, crime, traffic, noise/light/air/groundwater pollution;

      3) it is adjacent to & abuts existing private homes;

      4) it will encourage further development & inroads into and encroach on our present rural enclave;

      5) it will encourage traffic on Cajalco Road between the 15 & 215 freeways, especially by non-resident serving commercial trucking and commuters;

      6) similar operations existing nearby at Cajalco and Brown, & at Van Buren & Wood have destroyed the previous tranquility and peacefulness of the surrounding neighborhoods.& created dangerous conditions at nearby schools; &

      7) there is no local need whatsoever for these businesses, all like services already available nearby. If allowed to go forward, similar developments will be encouraged along Cajalco Road, Wood Road, El Sobrante Road, Gavilan Hills Road, Lake Mathews Drive, Santa Rosa Mine Road & throughout Greater Lake Mathews.

On May 6, 2020, despite the unified & vocal opposition of the community, the Riverside County Planning Commission by a 4 to 1 vote approved the Project. Community appeal to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors was immediately filed and the appeal will be heard by the Board at its July 14, 2020 public hearing. Interested persons are asked to please sign & submit this petition, attend the July 14 appeal hearing, AND also submit written opposition letters to the Clerk off the Board of Supervisors, County of Riverside, 4080 Lemon St., 1st Floor, POB 1147, Riverside, CA 92502-1147 BEFORE July 14, 2020.  For more information, you may contact John L. Minnella, President: RAGLM, 714/543-9005 or drjminnella@yahoo.com.