The Lowe’s home improvement chain has formally submitted plans to build a new store on Poway Road.

The company proposes to build a 121,000-square-foot store, a 31,658-square-foot garden center and a 4,500-square-foot fast-food restaurant pad on 11 acres on the north side of Poway Road where Toyota of Poway and a auto repair shop and former Chevrolet dealership now stand.

A preliminary plot plan was submitted by Lowe’s in May. The company last week turned in six sets of plans, a 366-page draft traffic impact study and other related documents. The applicant’s representative also paid $6,566 in city fees.

Assuming city approval, Lowe’s projects a January 2012 store opening.

Bob Manis, the city’s development services director, said Thursday his staff will spend the next month or so reviewing the documents to make sure the application is complete. He said that once all items have been submitted, the staff will determine whether the proposed use will require the preparation of an environmental impact report. If required, the preparation of the report could take up to a year, Manis said.

After a year of construction — and years of fundraising and planning — local Muslims will soon hold religious services and community events in their new center.

Final touches are being completed on the Muslim Community Center of Greater San Diego at 14698 Via Fiesta in Santaluz.

The almost 200 member families will be celebrating its completion at a 1:30 p.m. Aug. 8 ceremony for members and invited guests. Its theme will revolve around openness and being American Muslims, said Anita Tallman, MCC spokeswoman.

The majority of members live in 4S Ranch, Rancho Bernardo, Poway and nearby Inland Corridor communities, said Tallman, a 4S Ranch resident. She added several members recently moved to Santaluz, in part to be closer to the center.

Rancho Bernardo Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol lost its leader Wednesday, with the death of Marie Graver.

The Westwood resident died at home in her sleep or while reading, said police officer Vickie Watkins, San Diego Police Department’s RSVP coordinator.

She was a 2004 Rancho Bernardo Hall of Fame inductee who was going to turn 80 on Aug. 6.

Watkins said RSVP members were shocked to learn of Graver’s passing.

For the past five years, Bryan Fear and Eric Eseke have been building a replica of an Ectomobile, the souped-up ambulance featured in the 1984 movie “Ghostbusters.”

Both of the men, who moved from Poway to Rancho Bernardo this week, have been re-creating the equipment featured in the popular movies for years and dressing up as characters for the San Diego Comic-Con.

They’ve built seven 35-pound proton packs, the ray-emitting backpacks the characters used to lasso in the undead, complete with sound systems to make the recognizable hum. They’ve also made ghost traps, “Ecto Goggles” and PKE meters built to emulate the movie props.

“It’s almost like we had to build the car to use it as a box to keep and carry all of that equipment,” said 41-year-old Fear, who started the hobby in 2002.

(CNS) - Authorities today were investigating who was responsible for growing 350 marijuana plants worth as much as $1.4 million in a North County grove near Poway owned by the City of San Diego.

Members of the San Diego County Narcotics Task Force, which includes federal and local law enforcement agents, seized the plants from an area off Highland Valley Road near Pomerado Road early Wednesday.