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Description

Unrecorded map showing the original Master Plan for the area between La Costa / Solana Beach and the Rancho Santa Fe Covenant Lands, by Charles H. Cheney, one of the most important city planners of the 20th century.

Charles H. Cheney, was the father of the modern planned community and one of the most influential city planners of the 20th Century. His plan for Rancho Palos Verdes revolutionized the concept of the planned community and is considered to be the first modern planned community. Cheney was a founding member of the American City Planning Institute and helped to initiate city planning activities in the State of California by the mid-1910s.

Rancho Santa Fe was Cheney's second master planned community and expanded significantly upon the original concept for Palos Verdes Estates.

In 1926, the owners of the Ranch, the Santa Fe Company, hired Charles H. Cheney, a nationally renowned city planner and the author of the Palos Verdes Protective Covenant. Cheney modified the Palos Verdes document to reflect the larger estate-sized lots, the Hispanic design motif and the influence of citrus agriculture and horse keeping found in Rancho Santa Fe. Cheney's plan was put to the vote of the existing homeowners and adopted in 1928. Thereafter, Cheney produced this magnificent master plan map.

The map extends from the Ocean (with a Jetty, proposed "Hotel of Casa de Manana Type," Beach Club and Beach Hotel) to the "Cross Roads Plaza," providing a highly detailed look at the earliest efforts to plan the community and the area between the railroad's lands along the coast. Prepared in August 1929, only months after residents approved Cheney's 54 pages covenant, the map is the earliest surviving large format document preserving Cheney's vision. Above the compass rose and scale of miles, Cheney has added a vignette of Triton holding a sailing ship, while sitting atop a coat of arms, a nearly exact replica of a map first published circa 1630 by Willem Blaeu in Amsterdam on his map of Bermuda.

The present example, formerly owned by Charles H. Cheney, was unknown until it appeared at a New York Auction in December 2011, in a group of maps previously owned by Cheney. His plan for Rancho Palos Verdes revolutionized the concept of the planned community. Cheney's 8.5 x 4 foot map is titled "Master Plan Rancho Santa Fe - La Costa". "The map constitutes a visual birth certificate for Rancho Santa Fe," states Ruderman. Prepared in August 1929, only months after residents approved Cheney's 54 pages covenant, the map is the earliest surviving large format document preserving Cheney's vision.

The history of Rancho Santa Fe dates to 1833, when Juan Osuna, Alcalde (Mayor) of San Diego obtained a grant for 8,825 acres of land then known a Rancho San Diegito. In 1906, the Atcheson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad acquired the majority of the land, with a plan to develop a tree farm to supply the railroad with railroad ties. The company planted the land with Eucalyptus trees, but the venture ultimately failed. As an alternative use, the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company was formed to develop a planned community of gentlemen's ranches in the style of the Spanish and Rancho eras.

In 1921, L.G. Sinnard was hired to managed the project. Sinnard and his staff spent the next five years plotting estate subdivisions and laying out and constructing some fifty miles of winding rural roadways. Also beginning in 1921, all purchasers of Ranch property were required to agree to design controls in the form of deed restrictions. In 1922, the company hired the architectural firm of Requa and Jackson to design the downtown Civic Center. Under the direction of Architect Lilian Rice, the Civic Center was designed as a mixed use, public/commercial/residential area and developed architecturally in the Spanish Revival style.

In 1926, the company hired Charles H. Cheney, a nationally renowned city planner and the author of the Palos Verdes Protective Covenant. Cheney modified the Palos Verdes document to reflect the larger estate-sized lots, the Hispanic design motif and the influence of citrus agriculture and horse keeping found in Rancho Santa Fe. Cheney's plan was adopted in 1928, making it one of the first planned communities in California.