Oceanside OKs Revised Plan for Rancho del Oro Development

After two long days of meetings and more than a year of negotiations, the City Council has approved an altered master plan for what is destined to become the largest development in the city’s history.

Under the agreement, approved on a 3-0 vote with two council members absent, developers of Rancho del Oro will pay for more than $11 million in public improvements, mostly for immediate construction and upgrading of roads around the project. In return, the city has guaranteed that no changes in density, zoning and land-use regulations governing the property will be made over the next 10 years.

Not present for the vote were Councilmen Walter Gilbert and John MacDonald.

The $1-billion, 1,951-acre development, a joint venture by Collins-Rancho del Oro of San Diego, will be built eight miles east of downtown on a boomerang-shaped parcel bounded by College Boulevard, El Camino Real, Mission Avenue and Oceanside Boulevard. Plans include a subdivision and commercial and industrial projects, and construction will take an estimated 25 years.

The city first approved the master plan in 1980, and construction of the industrial area is under way, said Douglas Spickard, Oceanside’s community development director. But since the initial approval, state laws allowing for special development agreements have been passed, and last year Collins-Rancho del Oro officials approached the city in hopes of altering their master plan.

“Basically, the agreement takes the uncertainties away for the developer for a 10-year period,” Spickard said. “That’s important for the developer, but also for the community because that sort of guarantee will attract quality developers to buy and invest in residential developments.”

Spickard said that “the end result approved by the council is the addition of 200 residential units to the plan and an increase in the industrial area.”

For the city, the new plan means road construction and improvements will come immediately rather than as land is developed, as was approved under the original 1980 agreement. “That’s important, because right now, the only north-south thoroughfare in the east part of the city is El Camino Real,” Spickard said. “We need College Boulevard as soon as possible.”

In addition to extending College Boulevard, the developer agreed to widen a stretch of Oceanside Boulevard from four to six lanes and donate a 16-acre park to the city, Spickard said.

Under the newly approved plan, the project will include as many as 4,840 single-family homes, town houses and condominiums on 782 acres; light industry on 819 acres, and two separate “town centers” totaling 155 acres. The centers will include retail stores, post offices and office buildings, Spickard said.

The agreement is expected to be formally adopted by the council Nov. 20. The plan would then become effective Dec. 20, and work on the first public improvements--construction of College Boulevard between Oceanside Boulevard and Mission Avenue--would begin soon after and last about 12 months.