Service area
Where we fund: Elfin Forest and rural Harmony Grove.
One valley. The red line on the County map is the line we use.
The Elfin Forest Community Foundation funds work in one valley. The red line on the map is that valley: Elfin Forest and the rural part of Harmony Grove, in unincorporated San Diego County. Escondido is the city to the northeast. Rancho Santa Fe is the community to the south. We are neither of those places, and we are not an HOA.
The boundary
The line is Figure 1 of the Elfin Forest and Harmony Grove portion of the San Dieguito Community Plan. The County of San Diego adopted that plan on August 3, 2011. The planning area is about 6,793 acres. It follows the rural ground along Elfin Forest Road, Harmony Grove Road, and Escondido Creek. It does not follow the city limits of Escondido or San Marcos.
Rural Harmony Grove inside the line is included. A parcel on Harmony Grove Road with a house, a barn, and room for a horse is the kind of place this Foundation was built for. So is a trail easement beside Elfin Forest Road, or oak and chaparral along Escondido Creek.
What is outside the line
We do not fund work in planned communities built after November 2005 where any lot is under two acres. Harmony Grove Village and Harmony Grove Village South are that kind of community. They are newer specific plans, with lots well under two acres, near Country Club Drive and Harmony Grove Road. They sit next to the rural valley. They are not the rural valley. A project there does not qualify.
The cities next door are outside too. Escondido, San Marcos, and Rancho Santa Fe are neighbors. A grant has to land inside the red line.
Is your project inside?
Look at the map. If the parcel is inside the red line, and it is not Harmony Grove Village, Harmony Grove Village South, or another post-2005 small-lot planned community, it is in the service area. Trails, fire safety, native habitat, and a community gathering on that ground can qualify. A project that serves one household, or that sits outside the line, does not.
If the parcel is on the line, or you cannot tell from this map, ask. Send the address. We would rather answer than guess.
Funded inside the line
The checks already go to places neighbors use.
- A wood rail and other trail work for the Community Trails Committee, along the paths people walk and ride.
- Food and drink at the Winter Wonderland tree lighting, the Town Council gathering in the valley.
- The first matching grant for the Escondido Creek Conservancy: field trips and restoration at the Keithley and Quarry preserves, on this creek.
- Native plants after the 2014 Coco’s Fire, on Harmony Grove Spiritualist Association grounds, on a slope people drive past.