Message from Gateway:

Dear Los Ranchitos HOA Board and Residents,

I am writing to inform you that Panera Bread has made the decision to terminate the Gateway Panera project and will not be moving forward with a Panera Bread development at this location.

I want to sincerely apologize for this outcome. I know that many of you were looking forward to having this amenity in the community, and we share in your disappointment. Please understand that this decision was made entirely by Panera Bread corporate and was not due to any issues with the development team or the HOA Board. Both our team and the Board have worked diligently throughout this process to bring this project to fruition.

Despite the setback, I want to assure you that we remain committed to finding the next best fit for this site. We are actively working to identify a quality tenant that will serve the community well and meet the standards we’ve all been working toward.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this transition. We will keep you updated as we move forward with our search for the right tenant for this location.

Best regards,

Ali (Gateway to Temecula)

Take Action Now: Speak Out Against the Road Widening Project

Please take a minute to support your community by contacting the City and GPAC regarding the planned widening of the Ynez-De Portola corridor. The message is simple: remove the widening from the General Plan.

 Comments can be sent using the “contact us” portion of the webpage, Contact — Temecula General Plan Update. 

All comments sent through this page go directly to city’s in-house General Plan consultant who is compiling all comments.

This may be our only and final opportunity to make our voices heard. Let City officials know—loud and clear—that our community does not support the proposed road widening and this project should not be in the updated general plan.

We must raise our concerns about traffic and safety. Adding four lanes to a residential street lined with driveways is a dangerous plan—not a safer one. No redesign can change that. Our neighborhood is beautiful, and we take pride in preserving its character and safety.

👉 Attend the upcoming public meetings/workshops. Your presence and voice matter.

The widening project is already budgeted and included in the City’s Capital Improvement Plan for the next 2–5 years. If we don’t speak up now, it will move forward.

Let’s show up and speak or just show support , before it’s too late.

Can’t make it to the meetings? You can still let the City know how you feel about the planned widening of Ynez-De Portola corridor:

Details of the next major events are included below:

Planning Commission meeting 10/15/25

On October 15, 2025, at 6:00 p.m., the Planning Commission will vote on an amendment to the FY2026–2030 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to include the widening of La Paz Road from Ynez Road to Temecula Parkway. The current 2026–2030 CIP already includes the widening of Ynez Road from Santiago Road to La Paz Road.

For more than three years, HOA members have attended City Council meetings to voice opposition to the widening projects. Yet instead of slowing down, the City appears to be accelerating the schedule. The City classifies Ynez Road as an arterial road and claims that widening it will alleviate congestion during commute hours. However, the likely outcome is that navigation apps like Google Maps and Waze will reroute even more traffic through this corridor, leaving congestion largely unchanged—while permanently altering the character of our community.

If you cannot attend the meeting, please consider sending an email to PlanningCommission@temecula.gov and ask the commission to remove the widening of Ynez-De Portola-La Paz from the list of city projects. Email must be received before 6:00pm when the meeting starts.

CIP 2026-2030 Amendment

CIP 2026-2030

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General Plan Advisory Committee 11/03/25 – We need as many LRHOA residents as possible to attend this meeting and the following meetings!

On November 13, 2025, at 6:00 p.m., the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) will be discussing traffic and transportation.

This meeting provides an important opportunity for Los Ranchitos residents to address the City—through the GPAC—and request the removal of the proposed Ynez–De Portola corridor widening from the General Plan. If this project remains in the plan, by 2030 both Ynez Road (from Santiago Road to La Paz Road) and La Paz Road (from Ynez Road to Temecula Parkway) will be expanded to four lanes with sidewalks, streetlights, and higher speed limits. These changes will likely make our community less safe while increasing costs for LRHOA residents through higher taxes to maintain the new infrastructure.

GPAC meeting 01/08/26 – Economics

GPAC meeting 02/12/26 – Land Use

Please make every effort to attend these meetings—whether to speak out against the widening or simply show your support for preserving our community.

GPAC info:

Community Events

Committee

Related posts:

Ynez-De Portola Rd widening update 05/20/23

Ynez-De Portola Trail – City Project (Jan 2023)

Ynez Rd Improvements – Preview (03/06/2020)

June 1, 2026
LRHOA Property Owner,

Recently, the City of Temecula Code Enforcement sent Weed Abatement notices to Temecula property owners as part of their fire safety efforts. This included many property owners in Los Ranchitos resulting in confusion for many.

The LRHOA Board would like to clarify that the 8-mile trail system that winds through our community, created in 1966, is the shining asset of our community enhancing all of our property values. It is comprised of legal easements at the edge of many individual property owners’ lots. These easements create an amazing trail system for pedestrians and equestrians to enjoy. If you live along this trail your property line may actually extend beyond your existing fence and include the full or half trail width. Several of these trail easements also run along some of the streets of the community and are within the street setback. Please see http://www.lrhoa.com for trail maps and more detailed homeowners benefits and responsibilities.

The easement is not the responsibility of the LRHOA. Ownership of the trail adjacent land rests with the individual residential property owners, and with that ownership comes the responsibility for maintenance and repair.

While the LRHOA is not required to provide trail services on the common trail system, the Board has chosen to fund basic grooming as a courtesy and value enhancement to the community as a whole. Our contractor provides only limited grooming intended to maintain a consistent surface on the native soil and terrain. This service does not extend to property related maintenance obligations.

All homeowners whose property borders the trail remain responsible for:
• Fence maintenance and repair of a height/strength required to contain your animals.
• Weed abatement.
• Soil erosion control.
• Removal of fallen or nuisance trees within the trail right of way to a height of 9.5′.
• Any other maintenance beyond the basic grooming performed by LRHOA such as removal of any hazardous obstacles regardless of origination (trash, debris, nails, sporting equipment, etc.)

This will ensure the pleasurable passage of equestrians and pedestrians and help to minimize fire hazards.

To avoid future uncertainty, we recommend that the affected property owners obtain a legal survey to clearly establish property boundaries and confirm the extent of their maintenance responsibilities.
If you have specific questions, you may contact Ralston Management or ask to speak with one of your board of directors.

Luci Ralston, CMCA, AMS
Ralston Management
43521 Ridge Park Drive, Suite 102
Temecula, CA 92590
Ph: (951) 296-9030
luci@ralstonM.com

Regards,
LRHOA Board of Directors

Related links:

Fire Prevention

City of Temecula- Mobile app

City of Temecula Public meeting (January 9, 2024)

Meeting Recording

Community Meeting ( November 13, 2023 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm)

Temecula Valley Hospital is hosting an informational meeting to be held in the City Conference Center.  Directly in front of the front doors of City Hall.

Event date and time:  11/13/23 6:00 – 7:00 pm

Location: 41000 Main St, Temecula CA 92590

LRHOA Board of Directors encourages all to attend this informational meeting.  There will be a Q&A session.  You are encouraged to provide questions in advance to TVHquestions@gmail.com.

The LRHOA Board is not in favor of this facility in our neighborhood feeling that it will negatively impact all of our community members as well as Temecula as a whole by increasing traffic, crime and vagrancy.

Meeting recording

A couple of months ago, the City seemed interested in a “half-widening” of the Ynez-De Portola corridor ( see article on the Multi-use trail). However, their 05/25/23 budget agenda and 06/07/23 Planning Commission meeting agenda show the City Council is going back to the full widening idea of the above-mentioned corridor.

Many members of our community attended the Planning Commission meeting on 06/07/23 or sent their disagreement to the City by email. We need to continue these efforts until this project ( Ynez-De Portola Rd widening) is removed from City’s budget / general plan. Below are the next meetings we need your presence and emails for:

City Council meeting 06/13/23 ( click for details & call to action and recording

Public Traffic/Safety Commission meeting 07/27/23 (click for details and call to action)

To see Board’s call to action for 06/07/23 Planning Commission Meeting click here

Back in 2020 most of the LRHOA members responded to  the Board’s call to action and as a result, the City decided to …. postpone the project. The fact that the project was postponed became clear only after 3 years (once we saw the widening in the budget meeting agenda for 05/25/23).

In 2020, we thought the City Council members  seriously considered our community’s call to preserve our way of life and keep our community safe… Well, the fact that the widening of Ynez & De Portola Rd is an item on their latest budget workshop (scheduled for 06/07/23 @ 06:00pm) , shows that our community does not matter and making commuters happy is more important. It is interesting how on the same agenda they are discussing widening of roads with multiple residential driveways and making it a true arterial (even though it is running parallel with Temecula Parkway) and  reducing traffic accident fatalities on public roads ( Local Roadway Safety Plan). While they widen some roads, they are also considering traffic calming improvements for other roads. This makes perfect sense ( NOT): first you create a problem , then you try to resolve it.

The section of Ynez Rd & De Portola Rd between Santiago Rd and Margarita Rd is planned to become an arterial even though it has residential driveways . Currently , with 2 lanes & 1 turn lane , this corridor has a posted speed limit of 45mph ( same as Pechanga Pkwy, a 4 lane + median road). There are no other roads in Temecula with residential driveways and 45mph speed limit. Speed and traffic have been the biggest concern for our community but all our efforts to reduce the speed limit have been ignored by the City.

Maps below show other roads with speed limits between 25 and 45MPH along with number of lanes and driveways. You’ll notice, only the corridor the City plans on widening has a speed limit of 45MPH and numerous driveways.

The agenda mentions phase 1 of the widening ( Santiago Rd to La Paz Rd). The plans for this were designed back in 2020 . If you want to see how this section will look once completed, take a look at the maps showing current properties with proposed widening, in the 2020 article called “City is moving forward with Ynez Rd widening“.

It looks like it’s that time again when we need to remind our elected officials we do not want this project…because it makes no sense! Safety has been a concern of ours and widening the road will only make things worse.

Click photo below to open agenda for the  budget workshop scheduled for  05/25/23 @ 09:00 am

City of Temecula plans to construct a “multi-use trail” along Ynez Rd , De Portola Rd and Jedediah Smith Rd. It looks like this project is still in its incipient phase  : City is contacting all utility agencies and assessing the cost.

It seems like the new “multi-use trail” will be constructed on ONE side of Ynez ( most probably South side) , De Portola ( most probably South side), Jedediah Smith Rd ( not clear which side).  What does this mean for LRHOA residents? Well, it depends where your property is located: If your property is on the North side of Ynez or De Portola, you might not be impacted. If your property is on the South side of Ynez Rd or De Portola Rd… well, it would be the same as an actual widening of the road ( see the 2020 attempt to widen the same section of road).

Some will say this is better because it is “just” half of the initially planned road  widening…. If you happen to live along the above-mentioned roads…. you might not take so well the “good news” because for you this will be no different than an actual ( full) road widening.

Below is a map showing extent of the planned project along with a letter sent to local utility agencies. While the project just started, we might want to consider our position ( as a community) …. the sooner we let the City know our position the better.

DePortolaTrail_Project_Utility_Letter_01-2023

Roundabouts improve traffic safety and lower carbon emissions
An Indiana city thinks it’s found a solution to a number of traffic woes. Kris Van Cleave takes a look at how Carmel, Indiana, is implementing hundreds of roundabouts.

Please clear the brush on your property! Fire season is here.

Temecula weed abatement ordinance: https://temeculaca.gov/1545/Weed-Abatement

CalFire brochure: https://www.temeculaca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/5362/CalFire-Ready-Brochure?bidId=

Riverside County Hazard Reduction Office enforces the abatement of hazardous vegetation, abandoned or neglected orchards, groves and vineyards within the territory of Riverside County which pose a danger to the health, safety and welfare of residents and first responders.

Hazard abatement activities are conducted with the additional goal of protecting rare and sensitive plants,animals and the environment.

All property owners are responsible for maintaining their property throughout the calendar year. County Ordinances 695, and 772 outline requirements and penalties in the Hazard Reduction Process.

Riverside Fire Hazard Abatement Program

Removal of noxious weeds and hazardous conditions will help prevent wild fires.

1. Grass, noxious weeds, trash, rubbish and other flammable material need to be cut and
removed from vacant lots, yards, courtyards, parkways, and other locations. These types of
vegetation, when dry, become a fire hazard and must be maintained throughout the year.

2. Trees and branches – Remove any portion of a tree that extends within 10 feet of the outlet of
any roof, chimney, or stovepipe as stated in Public Resources Code 4291.

3. Native brush and chaparral near any improved property (structures) need to be cleared or
thinned and all ground litter removed from vacant lots, yards, courtyards, parkways, and other
locations.

4. All cleared, thinned, or cut materials must be removed from the property to an approved
county landfill site or green waste facility for proper disposal.

5. Methods of cleaning properties by the County include disking, hand labor, and mowing.

6. Open burning is prohibited by regulations of the South Coast Air Quality Management
District.

Fire preparedness

ON November 9th, 2021 a town hall meeting was held at the Temecula Library. Organizer: TV Hospital

Purpose: present their plans for expansion. Presentation is included below.