Residents worry about housing project’s effect on neighborhood

For months, 92-year-old Beatrice Nelson says she’s been worried about how traffic and safety near her mobile home neighborhood in northeastern Oceanside might worsen once a huge housing development is built next to the nearby Mission San Luis Rey.

She has written several letters to the city asking questions about the project, and was one of about 80 people who attended a community meeting Friday where city officials tried to provide some answers.

The gathering, organized by Deputy Mayor Chuck Lowery, featured the city’s top public safety leaders talking about how the project could actually help boost emergency response times along Academy Road, the main entrance to the 328-unit San Luis Rey Homes community where Nelson and hundreds of other senior citizens live.

That did little to ease Nelson’s fears.

“They cannot guarantee my safe ingress and egress,” she said. “It’s terrible out there right now.”

The officials — Fire Chief Darryl Hebert and Police Chief Frank McCoy — said road improvements that will be made by the developer of the so-called Villa Storia housing project will shorten call times in the area.

Hebert assured residents that officials are confident in the city’s first-responders and their ability to quickly access the neighborhood.

“The No. 1 concern for us is not that this development gets built, it’s safety,” Hebert said. “You have my word on that. We will get to you.”

The Villa Storia project, planned by developer Integral Communities, was approved by the Oceanside City Council last month and a second reading is expected at Wednesday’s council meeting.

The developer is planning to build up to 420 homes on a 35.5-acre property just north of Mission Avenue and east and west of Academy Road.

Lowery said he felt compelled to call for the meeting because there were a lot of misunderstandings about the project, including the false belief that main entrance to the park would be closed for months to rebuild Academy.

Academy will be temporarily closed for repairs but residents will be able to exit through the main gate and access Mission Avenue through a parallel road immediately to the west.

Nelson said the city’s police and fire departments are stretched thin as it is and that adding hundreds of new homes was not safe.

McCoy said the department is working with the city manager to boost personnel.

Hebert said firefighters would be able to answer calls to the area faster because of road improvements that the developer agreed to make, such as a new connection between Frazee Road and Academy and a new traffic light at the intersection of Academy and Mission.

The developer will also build a new gate to the San Luis Rey Homes that will include a remote opening system allowing firefighters to open the gates before they get to the property.

Don Robb, another resident at the mobile home park, said the improvements will make the community safer because the new, improved Academy Road will have sidewalks, bicycle lanes and a median. He said he believes most residents in the park feel the same way.

“I think that we have a vocal minority and a large majority reluctant to say anything,” Robb said.