SAN ELIJO HILLS TOWN CENTER PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT MEETING
The conceptual revamped plan Home Fed (San Elijo Hills Development Company) submitted Thursday at a City of San Marcos hosted workshop included a reduction in commercial space by two-thirds. Approximately nine retail units isolated to San Elijo Road. The units are to face the existing Marketwalk. The retail spaces are marked in red on the diagrams. The proposal did not include any retail on the opposing side of San Elijo Road, Elfin Forest Road or Baker Street. Home Fed plans to increase the number of residential units: condos and lofts to 70- 80 units. Originally 28 residential units was the plan for the town center. 17 additional units are proposed for the estate lots near Double Peak Park and Montage area and are part of the planning process with the City of San Marcos.
There was a consensus of outrage over this plan from 70 plus San Elijo Hills Residents who attended the meeting. The majority expressed their interest in buying into this community as a self-contained community. This plan has drifted from the original vision of the San Elijo Hills town center/square.
The overwhelming suggestions from residents attending the meeting: Larger storefronts with more depth and storage space, full-scale restaurants. The homeowners expressed businesses on the three streets is a non-negotiable if you want to create a town square atmosphere and bring residents in to shop in San Elijo Hills. You need to figure out how to draw the critical mass in, to shop in San Elijo Hills. One resident suggested a large pool to host swimming meets, volleyball courts, etc for sporting activities. A teen center was another suggestion. The three streets being directly across from Marketwalk on San Elijo Rd, around the corner on Elfin Forest and the other corner Baker Street. The suggestion is to have an open space in the middle of the businesses instead of residential. The businesses could also open inward to the center, have grass, table & chairs, fire pits, maybe display movies, etc.
The lot next to Chevron is slated for more residential. Homeowners expressed concern. Who wants to live next to a gas station and if we are going to have all these businesses where is everyone going to park? The recommendation by the homeowners: a parking structure in the lot next to Chevron.
Home Fed is in the process of purchasing the lot slated for the church site. They plan to build 18 residences, a green belt and tot lot. There are two aqueducts running through the site which limits the building capabilities. One speaker mentioned a tot lot is not advisable with the busy streets. Church of The Hills appears to be selling this site back to Home Fed.
Home Fed took notes, Jeff said they are going back to the drawing table and will host another meeting once they have a revised plan in place for homeowner feedback. We suspect more meetings and homeowners surveys are in the works.
Keep in mind Home Fed is deeply invested in San Diego County with 6,000 units in the works in Chula Vista, another project online in Santee and they use San Elijo Hills as it’s prize example of its work. We suspect they have a lot of reasons to care about the successful completion of San Elijo Hills.
San Elijo Hills this is your chance to shape the future and your participation and education in the process is critical to the success of the project.
Join the discussion at www.facebook.com/SanElijoLife
I was there at the meeting. The present retail space in San Elijo Hills Marketplace is too small. It might be 1,000-1200 sq. ft per retail space? This is too small for a company to profit for restaurants, which people in this community want. We have over 7,000 residents currently and growing. Adding 96 condos in the town square is crazy. The current traffic around school opening and closing is congested already. As the person suggested more parking behind gas station and off of Baker Street. To get to retail businesses and events for a court yard retail space in the middle with no condos so the businesses can actually per flexible with the space and not worry about condos above. Here is a pdf website of The Headquarters at Seaport District with square footage on it. It has a courtyard in the middle.
http://www.theheadquarters.com/uploads/media_items/the-headquarters-leasing-plan.original.pdf
It doesn’t have to be this big but it’s a good concept. Also condos where the church site is ok with me.
Jen so your clear we don’t think they are proposing 96 townhouses in the town center. 70-80 in Town Center and 17 new homes in the estate lots high in SEH. Some in Double Peak Area and some in the Montage are.
We would like to see a park, no more retail and a teen recreation area. Court yard concept makes a lot of sense.
Here are you saying ‘we’ again! Stop saying we. You are San Elijo Life and just one family who doesn’t even live in the square. We who brought in the square want restaurants and more businesses. They can and will succeed if Home Fed listens. Stop representing San Elijo like you have a voice for all.
Anonymous, your comments towards SE Life are just rude and not necessary. “They” are providing our community with a service and platform to communicate. They are just trying to provide facts and information.
I’m not sure who “Anonymous” is, but if by “those of us who bought in the square” means Marketwalk, please be aware that the square is bigger than just Marketwalk, affects more residents who live near the square than just those who live in Marketwalk, and you don’t represent everyone who will be directly affected by the Town Center any more than San Elijo Life represents all of San Elijo Hills. For example, one of the things people are clamoring for is retail on all three sides (not including the cut-through street) of the center parcel. Well, many of the people on the Morgan’s Corner side, facing San Elijo Road, do NOT want retail on that side. Retail brings lights, noise, potential crime and other headaches. I just wanted to make it clear that no one speaks for everyone when it comes to this project.
The plan that they had before ( still accessible on the Flocke Avoyer website) was much better with more parking spaces in the middle and more retails surface.
It looks like the developers are just seeing green with the idea of selling more condos and townhouses.
They’ve sold us the idea of a vibrant small town and now they just are delivering another sleeping suburb area..
I agree with “Anonymous”. I too am disappointed to see more condos. The town center really needs more retail. Small shops, restaurants, etc. It’s especially irksome that several of the originally touted features of this community, including the town center, have been “revised” to create more homes and condos instead of the parks, recreational areas and shops we were promised.
I would prefer a food court arrangement rather than individual restaurants – that would allow residents to mingle more. Also what’s missing imo is some kind of attraction to draw residents to
the towncenter- an indoor gym with basketball/volleyball/pool/workout equipment would be awesome.
It has been 10 months since this meeting. What is going on with this project. We gave our email address and was told that they would contact us with updates.
San Elijo Hills Development/Home Fed has not made any comments since December 2013. The last move they made was to send out a survey at the request of The City. We will keep our readers posted of any updates.