The community is a sprawling community with shopping centers, golf courses, and office parks typical of San Diego development located about 20 miles (32 km) north-northeast of downtown San Diego, immediately east of 4S Ranch, north of Carmel Mountain Ranch, northwest of the city of Poway, and south of the city of Escondido.
Climate
Rancho Bernardo has a Mediterranean climate (KöppenCsa). Rancho Bernardo has warm, dry summers and mild winters. Rainfall is relatively sparse, and most rain falls between December and March.
Climate data for Rancho Bernardo, San Diego (normals and extremes 2000–present)
The pre-colonial history of this area is divided into an early (prior to circa 900 BCE) and a late period. The period of habitation is from around 850 CE to 1790 CE. The peoples believed to have occupied this site are the Kumeyaay (formerly known as Diegueno/Ipai), although there are strong traces of Luiseño as well. During the late period, the Westwood Valley complex was a village located along an intermittent stream bed. This village was likely known to the Kumeyaay as Sinyau-Pichkara.[5] The area the village occupied is now under the western section of Ranch Bernardo near Duenda and Poblado Roads.
In the 1960s, Rancho Bernardo was annexed by San Diego. The area was developed by AVCO Community Developers until their involvement ceased in 1984.[7] The Rancho Bernardo Inn opened at the center of the development in 1963.[8]
On October 22, 2007, the Witch Creek Fire burned through Rancho Bernardo and several other populous areas of San Diego County, destroying hundreds of homes, and completely destroying several entire neighborhoods, particularly ones that firefighters had trouble accessing due to rugged terrain and rapidly advancing flames pushed by strong Santa Ana winds. The highly unpredictable flames pushed into the northeast section of Poway during the day, prompting evacuation of Palomar-Pomerado Hospital. The neighborhoods of the Trails, Montelena and Westwood were the main areas hit in Rancho Bernardo.
Economy
The Carmel Mountain Ranch/Rancho Bernardo submarket is the fifth largest office space submarket in San Diego County, with over 6 million square feet of office space.[9] It is part of an "I-15 edge city", edge city being a major center of employment outside a traditional downtown.[10]
Tourism
There is an annual carnival-type street fair, RB Alive!, during the summer.[11] Rancho Bernardo is also home to the oldest-operating winery in the region, the Bernardo Winery, established in 1889 and family-owned and operated since 1927.[12]
^Thorne, Robert F. (1976). "The Vascular Plant Communities of California". In Latting, June (ed.). Plant Communities of Southern California. California Native Plant Society.
^Garreau, Joel (1991). Edge City. Knopf Doubleday Publishing. p. 436. ISBN9780385424349. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2019.