Temecula has grown quickly, but achieved much in the 20 years since voters made it the first town in the area to become a city as a way to speed police responses, open more parks, ease traffic flows and keep tax revenues from being siphoned off to other regions.

Three members of the first City Council say Temecula has achieved all its initial goals during the two decades in which its population has nearly quadrupled.

"It seemed to fall into place just right," Ron Parks, Temecula’s first mayor, said in a recent telephone interview from his Murrieta home. "I think it’s a pretty nice place to live, which is what we wanted to create."

The other two original council members – Peg Moore and Karel Lindemans – said they are equally thrilled with the way Temecula has blossomed into one of the most affluent and prominent cities in Riverside County.

Since incorporation took effect Dec. 1, 1989, Temecula has built a new bridge spanning Interstate 15 and widened two others. It has opened a senior center, a history museum, a children’s museum, a community theater and a city library.

The number of car dealerships has increased and a regional mall was built and expanded. A lone sports park and a smattering of smaller parks have mushroomed to 39 recreational facilities. Temecula purchased an existing office building as its City Hall about 14 years ago, and workers are now in the process of constructing its $73 million replacement.

"It’s amazing the amount of work that’s been done," Lindemans, who moved from Temecula to Cathedral City about eight years ago, said in a separate telephone interview. "I think it turned out great."

Lindemans, Parks and Moore were feted along with the 20-year-old city at a Tuesday night reception and ceremony that attracted about 320 people to the Old Town Temecula Community Theater.

Some of their remarks and those made by other speakers touched on the bumpy road to incorporation, a complex process that was later followed by Murrieta, Canyon Lake and the still-fledgling cities of Wildomar and Menifee.

Many of the comments – and a pair of video presentations – featured accolades for the city’s accomplishments over the years.

Intertwined among many of the speakers’ remarks were recollections of how leaders of the fledgling city – as well as the then-budding Wine Country and an Indian tribe pondering gaming – started from scratch with little knowledge or expertise.

"It’s a remarkable feat to grow a city like this," Jeff Comerchero, a member of the current City Council, said in his remarks during the nearly 2 and a half hour event.

His observation echoed thoughts that Mark Macarro, tribal chairman of the Pechanga Indians, had expressed earlier.

"Somehow we’ve been able to make it work," Macarro said during a pre-event reception. "It’s something we can only do together – working together."

Much of the growth that caused Temecula’s population to soar was approved by the county while the area was an unincorporated community. That anticipated growth – as well as gridlock conditions on the bridges that carried traffic over Interstate 15 – spurred much of the incorporation fervor.

Prior to incorporation, nearly 88 percent of Temecula voters agreed to form a city. There was no organized opposition to the incorporation drive.

About 80 percent of those voters opted to formally make the community California’s first municipality to adopt its indigenous Indian name. Voters picked Temecula – a Luiseno word that roughly translates to "Where the sun shines through the mist" – over Rancho California, a cookie-cutter moniker favored by the developer of the former Vail Ranch cattle and farming operation.

Macarro began his presentation to audience members in the nearly-full theater by giving a welcome and making other remarks in his tribe’s native tongue.

The featured speakers included Jimmy Moore, who was president of the successful incorporation committee. In his comments and an earlier interview, Moore recalled the painstaking process that led to incorporation.

"The ones that didn’t (vote ‘yes’) resisted change," Moore said "They didn’t want Temecula to grow. There was no way (by Advertisement

DMM Note Investors them) to stop it."

In his remarks to the audience, Lindemans said Jimmy Moore’s efforts and perseverance during the incorporation drive earned him the right to be called "the father of Temecula."

Moore’s wife was also active on the incorporation committee. She was picked by voters for one of the first council’s five open seats. Voters in that first election picked Parks, Peg Moore, Lindemans, Patricia and J. Sal over six other candidates.

Birdsall has since died and Muñoz could not be reached for comment.

Less than three years after incorporation, the first council found itself caught in the unwanted glare of national news. Six people – including four teenagers – were killed in a traffic collision near Temecula Valley High School on June 2, 1992.

That collision – which occurred as a Border Patrol vehicle chased a fleeing Chevrolet Suburban carrying illegal immigrants – fueled angry community meetings and calls for the closure of the I-15 checkpoint near the San Diego County boundary.

Munoz, an attorney, resigned his council post in May 1995 and later pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor conflict of interest charge that stemmed from actions he took on the panel. A recent telephone message left for him was not returned. He did not attend Tuesday’s night gathering, but some speakers noted his early efforts on behalf of the city.

A later City Council approved Temecula’s largest growth flurry, much of it shadowed by lawsuits, about eight years ago. The Wolf Creek and Harveston tracts, which together total nearly 4,000 homes and apartments, have both been developed.

Those development plans were approved as Temecula was consistently ranked as one of the state’s fast-growing cities.

The 2,015-home Roripaugh Ranch project at the city’s northeast corner, which was approved by the council in December 2002, has remained undeveloped due to financial problems, litigation and a downturn in the regional housing market.

Birdsall, the city’s first female mayor, died of breathing-related difficulties in August 2006. By then, work was nearing completion on a $13.5 million sports park that would be named in her honor. The city’s $18 million library along Pauba Road opened that same year.

In recent years, council members and Temecula staff have been charting a future for a city that has seen most of its once-vacant tracts developed. Future population growth could come from annexing adjacent areas – such as the sprawling Silverhawk tract or existing homes that surround French Valley Airport.

The city’s eventual population is expected to total 120,000 to 150,000 when any annexations occur and Roripaugh Ranch and other remaining open tracts are developed.

Most land use projects in recent years have focused on "in-fill" development sites where open land is flanked by one or more residential or commercial projects.

One of those sites – a 32-acre parcel at Diaz Road and Dendy Parkway – is the source of one of Lindemans’ few regrets from his council years. In January 2000, Lindemans failed to convince his colleagues to spend $8.5 million to help develop a Big League Dreams sports park at that location.

"I lost," Lindemans said in the recent interview. "It’s amazing that was stopped."

Plans to develop a joint-use college campus at that site fell through several years ago. The city now expects to develop nearly 12 acres of that open land – once used for rodeos, tractor races and other community events – as affordable housing.

A water park developer wants to buy the remaining 20 acres of that site, but financing difficulties have delayed the close of escrow until April 30 or beyond.

There were no such regrets expressed during Tuesday’s reception and ceremony, and Parks and some of the other speakers said the city’s legacy has just begun.

"We’re 20 years old," Parks told the audience. "We’re young adults. We need to visualize for the future."

City Manager Shawn Nelson said he’s confident that new generations of leaders will pick up where their predecessors left off and tackle future challenges as they surface.

"Just think what we’ll be able to do in the next two decades," Nelson said in his prayer-laced closing remarks.