Annexation needed for project near Safari Park

A proposal to build a gated community of 550 luxury homes on mountainous land north of the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park will be taken up Wednesday by the Escondido City Council, which would have to eventually annex the 1,100-acre housing site into the city limits.

Concordia Communities LLC wants to construct its Safari Highlands Ranch project in an unincorporated area of the county where a decade ago a similar project was abandoned due to insurmountable environmental issues.

On Wednesday, the council will be asked if the city should spend staff time studying the annexation and building proposal. Concordia would pay the city for all studies, staff costs, and application fees. If the project is eventually approved, it would take many years to complete.

“Our council is very interested in annexations,” said Barbara Redlitz, Escondido’s director of community development. “One of their major focuses is to increase the median income of city residents. In addition to trying to attract jobs, one thought is to attract higher-end housing with the assumption that the people who are buying those homes are of higher income levels.”

The proposal is already being opposed by at least one environmental group, the Endangered Habitats League, which sent a letter Friday urging the council to deny the request to initiate annexation and processing for the project.

League President Dan Silver said two-thirds of the project lies in a “preapproved mitigation area” for the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program. “Project design shows that roads and development would hopelessly chop up the pristine natural resources of the site,” Silver said.

Annexation would be the final step in the approval process, Redlitz said, happening only after the project had obtained all other approvals from the city which would be conditioned on annexation being approved. The director of the Local Area Formation Commission, which handles annexation matters, said once it got to that stage the annexation process could take up to a year.

Annexation is the only way such a dense housing development could be approved because Concordia’s land is located in the county, where zoning laws for rural areas would allow far fewer homes.

Don Underwood, president of Concordia Communities, on Tuesday said the proposed development differs significantly from what was considered a decade ago.

“While there are unquestionably environmental hurdles, our approach will be to minimize the impact as thoughtfully and sensitively as possible and then mitigate those impacts which can’t be avoided conscientiously and acceptably.”

Redlitz agreed that the development proposal will have a number of environmental challenges.

In the early 2000s, Escondido developer Joe Crowder worked for years to try to develop the same property. His plans were to build 403 houses, a 250-room resort hotel and an 18-hole golf course.

But studies identified many significant environmental impacts and residents of nearby communities attended hearings by the hundreds to complain about the potential traffic, air quality issues and noise the project would cause.

The city’s Planning Commission recommended denial of the project and Crowder withdrew the proposal in 2003 before it went before the City Council for consideration.

Escondido Mayor Sam Abed said Tuesday the council is only being asked to begin a lengthy study process.

“I know it is going to be a challenging project,” he said. “My goal as a mayor is to have a project that will provide more benefits for the San Pasqual community than impacts.”

Concordia’s proposal eliminates the resort and golf course, increases the number of homes, and includes plans for a fire station, a public park, hiking trails, and more than 600 acres of open space. Redlitz said at one point Concordia was considering a hotel that could tie in with Safari Park guests, but that has been withdrawn.

Concordia plans to work with homeowners to the west of the property to try to win their support, Underwood said.

Access to the land will be a major issue. The primary road into the development would be off Cloverdale and then Rockwood roads, via a new road that would be built between the Rancho San Pasqual development (which surrounds the Eagle Crest Golf course), and the Rancho Vistamonte development roughly seven miles east of downtown Escondido.

The fire department will also require two emergency access points, one to the south and one to the north, which will present challenges to the developer.

A zoo spokeswoman said the zoo doesn’t object to the project, but has nixed an initial plan to have the main entrance to the development off Zoo Road, the private street that runs behind Safari Park. Redlitz said the zoo has made it clear they will not grant easements unless Zoo Road were to be used only as an emergency exit.

To the north, the developer wants to build a three-mile long road from the northern border of the property to the Lake Wohlford area. However easements have not been obtained yet and property owners in that area are objecting.

The council will take up the matter during it’s meeting Wednesday beginning at 4:30 p.m. in the council chambers, 201 N. Broadway.