From Colorado Snow to California Sunshine, Meet the Neighbor Who Helped Rebuild Fencing & Community in Jeffries Ranch
If you’ve strolled past the freshly painted fences behind the elementary school, you’ve seen Zell Lundberg’s handiwork. A Jeffries Ranch resident since 2016, Zell is the kind of neighbor who doesn’t just mend fences. He builds community.
We sat down with Zell to chat about his journey from Colorado to Oceanside, his passion for volunteering, and how he spurred neighbors into action.
A Life of Craft & Grit
Long before Zell moved to Jeffries Ranch, he was shaping the world with his hands. Growing up in New York, he spent decades as a sculptor, making art out of stone and wood.
“I started carving bars of Ivory soap when I was about 9,” he says. “By junior high school, I was carving salt licks.” After graduating art school, he taught sculpting in Crete, Greece throughout the 1980s.
But sculpting, he admits, “was not very lucrative.” So he painted houses, built stone walls, cut down trees, plowed snow, and even crewed on a sport-fishing boat to make ends meet. “I had a landscaping business at one point,” he says. “I operated a lot of heavy equipment like loaders, skid steers, graders, and dump trucks.”
Yet through it all, volunteer work anchored him. “I’ve done volunteer work all my life,” Zell says. Case in point: He met his wife, Tina, while volunteering to reroute a section of the Appalachian Trail.
From Mountains to Melrose: Why Jeffries Ranch?
Zell and Tina fell for San Diego while living in Colorado. “We’d visit 2-3 times a year looking for a home here,” he says. “At the time, I wanted to return to sailing.”
They hunted for a home across North County, even eyeing Vista, until their recumbent tricycles steered them elsewhere. “Vista had no sidewalks, and it was dangerous biking on the roads there,” Zell explains.
“When we found Jeffries Ranch, it was really the only neighborhood that we fell in love with. The trees lining Old Ranch Road, the dirt paths… we started driving through here, and we kept coming back.”
Sawdust & Sweat Equity
What sealed the deal? Jeffries Ranch’s equestrian charm. “The wooden fences, the open spaces to walk our dogs,” Zell says.
But by 2018, those iconic fences were showing their age. Zell had a bold proposal: “I had the skills to put up a fence, and if I could get the funds raised to buy materials, I would do it.”
The neighborhood stepped up. Donations started rolling in. $6,000 were raised for the first phase of fencing behind the school. Then, another $8,000 came in for the stretch along Spur Avenue.
Zell teamed up with neighbor Mark Pavelka (“the guy with all the battery-powered tools”). Together, they replaced 90% of the school-side fencing.
“After we built it, the real magic happened,” Zell recalls. “Volunteers started showing up to paint.”
The Power of Good Neighbors
The project’s second phase brought another local hero into the fold: Dianne Evans. Dianne and her husband, Scott, along with Mike Pavelka and a crew of volunteers, rebuilt the fences along Spur Avenue.
But it was Dianne’s hustle that made a big impact. She managed to persuade the City of Oceanside to chip in. “The City agreed to rebuild the fence on the south side of Spur,” Zell says. “Dianne saved us a lot of money.”
Home is Where the Heart Is
For Zell, or the unofficial “Mayor of Jeffries Ranch” as neighbors like to call him, rebuilding fences was never just about wood and paint. It was about preserving what makes Jeffries Ranch feel like home.
Thanks to Zell, Mark, Dianne, and the dozens of neighbors who grabbed a tool or a paint can, Jeffries Ranch stands as proof that the strongest communities are built with kindness and many hands working together.
Ready to Grow This Grassroots Effort?
Change can start right here, one neighbor at a time. Here are ways for you to get involved:
- Join our founding board of directors
- Meet us on May 3 at 10 am at Spring Creek Park to learn more
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