The cows will no longer come home: Konyn Dairy closes
VALLEY ROADRUNNER - December 31, 2008

The Konyn Dairy, which to many symbolizes Valley Center’s rural heart, has closed.

The cows have come home for the last time.
The family has confirmed that the dairy, an ornament to this community’s agriculture for over 75 years, is no more.
Editor’s note: We plan to run a follow up article on this closing, a very significant business event in VC’s history, next week. We hope to interview members of the Konyn family by then.

The dairy has been a part of VC’s daily life since it opened on a rainy, cold day on April 14, 1971 by a Dutch family that had been in the business for generations.
It had been under another operator before that, for a total of 75 years.

According to historian Bob Lerner, “it has always been used for dry farming and/or agricultural uses, starting in the 1870’s.

“Various owners have raised cattle and other animals, generally growing their own oat and hay on the site. The Konyn property was originally homesteaded by the Walsh family, then the Heddens and the Dinwiddie families,” said Lerner.

It is not known exactly how many cows were there, although some estimates say 600. There were 14 employees last year.

As John Konyn, the son of the founder of the same name told The Roadrunner last year, the costs of operating a dairy are much higher than they were nearly 40 years ago.
“The quality and standards of the milk is constantly improving, but so is cost,” he said.

In the end, watching the price of feed go up, the number of people drink milk go down, and profits reflecting those facts, the family made the very hard decision to take advantage of a federal program, called the CWT Herd Reduction (buyout) program.

Its purpose is to take entire herds off production. Dairy producers may join this program once a year. The Konyn family made the decision to take advantage of the program before the end of the year.

Many other dairies in the U.S. are making the same, tough decision.

The closing will have a big impact on how we look at and think of our community, since it is one of the first things that people see as they enter Valley Center after driving up the grade.

What will replace it?

No parcel of land that big—it’s about 78 acres—can remain undeveloped forever. But what?

Will it remain fallow until the real estate market reignites? Or will a commercial developer take a chance sooner than later?

Surely the land that the now empty cow stalls occupy will become the focus of a great controversy—no matter who ultimately owns it.

Planning Group Chairman Oliver Smith told The Roadrunner, “I am personally saddened at the passing on of a very visible icon that has long been key to what is Valley Center. At the same time, I have to admit that the potential opportunities presented for Valley Center are intriguing to say the least. The planning group is currently developing a vision for the future of our unique dual village areas. This undoubtedly will add a new facet to what can be seen as a diamond in the rough that we can help shape and polish.

“Over the past several years, a coalition of Southern Village businesses has been proposing some very interesting alternatives that now can be more realistically explored.

“Again the community has the opportunity to be part of this exploration and influence change towards a better Valley Center.”

Planning Group member Andy Washburn, who has been involved in planning for the Southern Village, commented, “A development on the dairy’s current site presents both an opportunity and a challenge for our community. The opportunity: We can have an impact on the type of commercial/residential development that is built. Do we want something like Grand Avenue? Vista Village? Bonsall? Olivenhain? Rancho Santa Fe? Fallbrook? Ramona? Julian? Old Town in Temecula? Hwy 79 in Temecula? Rancho Peñasquitos? San Elijo Hills? Murrieta? Solvang? Tehachapi? Davis? The challenge: How do we reach a community consensus in time to have an impact on the development?”

Now, noted Washburn, “ Newcomers won’t ask ‘What’s that smell?’ and our community will have lost yet another connection to our past…I wish there were a way to set aside some of our founding institutions, preserving them for generations to come. I know, it’s too late. I think it was Don Seitz who said ‘We stopped being rural when I had to look both ways before pulling out onto Valley Center Road.’ ”

Craig Adams, chairman of the planning group in the 1990s, said, “I saw this coming years ago. I’m sorry to see it go, but like almost every other small dairy in the county and state, it is not sustainable on such a small piece of land, and regulations have made it even harder. Like everything else in VC, there will be a big fight by some to ‘keep out’ commercial development, but I am positive that a quality retail/commercial project will eventually come out of it.”
The property almost certainly will not be a factor in the current discussions over a Southern Village expansion treatment plant expansion, which includes the Bell Alti properties and Orchard Run as eventual participants.
“The Konyn Dairy was contacted but has not been apart of the discussions,” Gary Arant, general manager of the VC Municipal Water District, told The Roadrunner.

“It could have an effect on a treatment plant expansion in the future depending on who buys the property. It could come along in a third or fourth phase. But I don’t think the timing is such is that it would affect it now,” he said.
Because of its use as a dairy, any developer will have to do extensive soil testing before he does anything with it.
A lot of dairies have turned into shopping centers after being paved over. Earlier this year it was announced that 38 acres of the old Hollandia Dairy in San Marcos would be made into a park that would include an amphitheater, skateboard park, and ballfields.

The 78-acre land of the Konyn dairy is zoned estate under the existing community plan. That allows one unit per two acres. However 30% is in the hundred year flood plain of Moosa Creek.

The General Plan Update will probably give it a much higher density, including commercial development, as the Southern Village is developed.

Patsy Fritz, a local resident who led a fight to put in a sewer at the area that includes the dairy, told the paper, “City folks have always loved to visit Valley Center for the ‘country ambience.’ This was always personified by the Konyn Dairy at the entrance to our town. We’ll miss those cows and the long years of Konyn Dairy hospitality to school children and their many civic efforts.”