Poway highlight
“The City in the Country” identity
The official motto adopted when Poway incorporated in December 1980, reflecting the city's commitment to preserving over half its 39.4 square miles as dedicated open space.
Poway became a city in December 1980 as a general law city under Council/Manager governance, and its founding commitment centered on a simple idea: a community need not choose between suburban neighborhoods and natural landscape. The "City in the Country" identity reflects this directly. Today, over half of the city's 39.4 square miles remains dedicated to open space rather than developed land, a choice that shapes everything residents see and do, from the 78 miles of interconnected trails to the canyons that separate neighborhoods.
That commitment shows in places like Lake Poway, a 350-acre recreation area built around a reservoir created in 1971 that now serves both water supply and public use. The lake opens at dawn and closes at sunset every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas, with fishing, boating, an archery range and hiking trails for residents who want to spend an afternoon outdoors. Blue Sky Ecological Reserve, a 700-acre canyon habitat on Espola Road, protects native plants and wildlife—mountain lions, bobcats, deer, raptors and seasonal wildflowers—and offers free guided hikes led by trained docents year-round.
A city that prioritizes open space for decades ahead is one where families think in decades too. Poway residents choose to raise children in neighborhoods bordered by canyons and trails, and they plan for the people who share those places—the people who know which park, which trail, which season matters. Term life insurance works at the same pace: choosing coverage that protects the years when those people matter most, then letting the need decline as circumstances change.