Not long after the modern Rancho Bernardo was born, a combination of local and corporate influence began to make its way into
the grand design, especially from a New York-based conglomerate called AVCO (originally founded as the Aviation Corporation in
1929).[1] AVCO acquired a fifty-one percent controlling interest in Rancho Bernardo, Inc., in late 1968, upon which they changed
the name of Rancho Bernardo, Inc., to AVCO Community Developers, Inc., or ACDI for short.[2] In February 1971, they moved
their headquarters from Rancho Bernardo to La Jolla, as the former community was no longer their primary focus.[3] At this
point, AVCO had diversified their real estate development arm not only into other areas in southern California, including in
Mission Valley and Laguna Niguel in Orange County, but also into three other states: Georgia, Illinois, and Ohio.[4]
AVCO sought to develop areas like these not just to increase their profits and diversify their portfolio; they, like some other
development firms, believed that the overall trajectory suburban development in the United States had taken proved to be both
inefficient and unsightly.[5] While AVCO was not officially part of the “New Urbanism” movement, they did embrace some of
their underlying guiding principles in their development of Rancho Bernardo: providing a mixture of architectural styles, higher
developmental density for the area as a whole, and maintenance of some “open space” for both municipal parks and natural
preserves. However, some elements of “conventional” suburbanization remained: single-use zoning, allowing roads to follow the
natural contours of the land rather than using “gridiron” layouts, and spreading out shopping areas and business offices as
opposed to gathering them into a single central business district. Hence, one of AVCO’s explicit goals from the outset was to
participate in the continued suburban expansion across the United States, but to do so in a more “controlled” form so that the
people living in these developments could enjoy the same benefits of suburbia without the perceived drawbacks. In fact, the first
issue of the Bernardo Brandings, published in July 1962, spoke about the “Bernardo idea” as a reference to a completely master-
planned community, asserting that “…men have a right to as much security as possible in their homes and that this security can
best be insured by planned land use,” suggesting that most of the rest of the city of San Diego did not enjoy as much security with
its then-current land usage.[6]
References
[1] “AVCO Corporation — Bright New Chapter in the History of the Ranch” (Bernardo Brandings, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 1969), 15.
[2] Carl W. Ritter, “It’s Official Now — AVCO Joins Us” (San Diego Union, Tuesday, December 10, 1968), p. C9.
[3] “AVCO Community Developers, Inc. Active in a Diversity of Projects” (Bernardo Brandings, Vol. 4, No. 2, February 1971), p. 12-15.
[4] Ibid., 14-15. Interestingly, AVCO did not locate any of their early real estate projects in the northeastern United States, despite having their headquarters there.
[5] Ibid., 14.
[6] “The Bernardo Idea” (Bernardo Brandings, July 1962), 2.
Early Housing Developments in Rancho Bernardo
General Historiographical Background of Suburbs and Suburbanization
Homeowners’ Associations and Common-Interest Developments (CIDs)
Other Important Places in the Community
Promoting the Big Idea: Rancho Bernardo Decides to Advertise