Rancho Santa Fe

A 40-year-old woman was charged Wednesday with two misdemeanor counts for allegedly poisoning a neighbor's dog. Barbara Mae Goldstein, a teacher and travel agent, was charged with using strychnine to kill a 6-year-old German shepherd owned by her neighbor, Benjamin Stillwell, a forensic pathologist. She is to be arraigned in Vista Municipal Court on Sept. 9. Goldstein is charged with killing the animal of another person and putting out a poisonous substance.

Dale Rorabaugh must have played King of the Hill when he was a kid and probably was shoved off the top a couple of times. But no more. Now he owns the top of the hill and is building his home there--a 32,500-square-foot mansion that just aches to be the set of the next James Bond movie, or perhaps a Star Trek episode.

The town of Rancho Santa Fe, just northeast of San Diego, is turning into a major eating destination. It is the site, to begin with, of the most famous small produce farm in the state, Chino Ranch--noted for supplying top-quality fruits and vegetables to Wolfgang Puck, Alice Waters and other restaurant stars. It is also the place where one of L.A.'s best French chefs, Claude Segal (ex-Ma Maison, Bistango, Four Oaks, and MaBe), has opened Tapenade, at the Rancho Valencia tennis resort.

The relatively good land deals that could be had in upscale Rancho Santa Fe last year are fast disappearing. That's the word from area real estate agents and brokers, who say the price of land in the Ranch has gone up dramatically in the last six months. The average lot there is selling for $411,000 and the average home is priced at $1.1 million, according to George Thomas, a broker with Willis Allen.

President Bush has chosen James D. Jameson of Rancho Santa Fe to be an assistant secretary of commerce for trade development and a board member of the Overseas Private Investment Corp. Jameson is president and owner of LIDCO Inc., based in Brawley. If confirmed by the Senate, he will succeed Timothy John McBride.

Rancho Santa Fe National Bank has begun negotiations toward a merger with La Mesa-based Grossmont Bank, officials said Monday. If completed, the proposed deal would create a bank with $412 million in assets and 11 branch offices in San Diego County. The preliminary negotiations are subject to the execution of a definitive agreement, as well as approval by both banks' shareholders, the California State Banking Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve Board.

A Rancho Santa Fe man was in critical condition Monday at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla after somebody tried to kill him, a sheriff's spokeswoman said. The Sheriff's Department received a call from the man's residence at 9:40 a.m. "We're calling it an attempted homicide," the spokeswoman said. The man is 77 years old and suffered "major trauma" injuries, hospital officials said.

Voters in Rancho Santa Fe will cast ballots on the issue of cityhood June 2, after the county Board of Supervisors' decision this week authorizing the election. In December, the Local Agency Formation Commission approved a proposal to incorporate the Ranch, an exclusive hamlet east of Del Mar noted for its pricey estates and quaint, eucalyptus-shrouded downtown.

In case anyone had any doubt, this wealthy community can easily afford to incorporate as a city. But more important to the leaders here, the community could legally and economically both have a city government and maintain the Rancho Santa Fe Assn. to handle the affluent village's internal affairs. William Zion, a Lafayette, Calif.-based consultant hired to consider the community's government options, delivered this news to the association's directors at a meeting Wednesday.

Paul Marks of Del Dios has heard the thunder. So have Bill Schlosser and the rest of his neighbors in the Rancho Santa Fe area. It's the kind of noise that yanks you right out of bed and sends you running for the door, a racket that regularly rattles more than one North County community. "It goes: Thumpa! Thumpa! Thumpa! Thumpa!" said Marks, an attorney who practices in Escondido. "It sounds just like that--only a lot louder. And it doesn't have to be real close, either.