Where Elbow Room Is Close at Hand : San Marcos: This fast-growing San Diego County town is still a popular retirement spot with its open spaces and easy-going lifestyle.

San Marcos has a split personality, but in this case, that’s not all bad. Straddling California 78 in north San Diego County, a few miles west of Escondido, the city is a place where you can still live the quiet, country life.

“I haven’t heard a siren since I’ve been here,” marveled Marc McGuire, who last spring escaped from a condominium to a $280,000, 2 1/2-acre spread that includes a two-bedroom house in the rural Twin Oaks Valley area.

“There are no street lights, so you can see the stars really great at night, and you can hear coyotes. I have a feeling that I’m 50 to 100 miles out of the city here.” McGuire is really only a mile or two from town.

But that is one side of this city set among low, khaki-colored foothills. The flip side is the fastest-growing city in San Diego County, with a population that has increased from 17,479 in 1980 to 39,000, and may approach 90,000 by the year 2000.

This emerging urban center has been chosen by the California State University system as the site of a new campus scheduled to open in the fall of 1992. As San Marcos comes of age, shopping malls, multiplex cinemas, tract housing and industrial parks are altering the laid-back lifestyle.

The 304-acre university campus on Twin Oaks Valley Road south of California 78 is part of San Marcos’ “Heart of the City” plan for 1,700 acres centered at the intersection of Twin Oaks Valley Road and California 78.

“San Marcos doesn’t have a true downtown, so we’re planning to provide a focal point,” said Paul Malone, deputy city manager. A 60-acre redevelopment project in the town center north of California 78 will include a city hall, library, community center and a station for the light-rail trolley expected to link coastal Oceanside with inland Escondido through the highway corridor by the mid-1990s.

The new public buildings could be finished as soon as late 1993, according to Malone.

The city also anticipates 500,000 square feet of mixed-use development in the town center, including offices, retail, hotels and residential. And there are proposals for new hospitals, an off-price retailing center and a business park, he said.

Developers are drawn by the relatively low cost of land in San Marcos. Home buyers are attracted by prices that seem a bargain compared to many other Southern California communities.

“The entry level is around $150,000 for your average three-bedroom house in some of the older neighborhoods, or in a few newer areas such as the Vineyard area, near the intersection of Vineyard and Mission roads,” said Barbara King, owner of Twin Oaks Realty in San Marcos, who has lived in San Marcos for 30 years.

A step up would be the three-bedroom, two-bath homes in the Vallecitos area on the south end of town near Escondido, where homes are priced in the $175,000 to $250,000 range, according to Wally Akin, who runs a San Marcos real estate business with his wife, Darlene.

In 3-year-old Walnut Hills south of California 78, near the new university campus, homes are priced from $200,000 to $350,000, Akin said.

San Marcos also has a variety of condominiums. These start as low as $80,000 or $90,000. For $400,000 or $500,000, you can buy some of the area’s finest estate homes on larger chunks of land in more rural settings, and there are premium properties, such as a nine-acre horse ranch in Twin Oaks Valley that listed recently for $1.5 million.

The city is especially appealing to families with children. The 9,123-student San Marcos Unified School District has a good reputation. Over the last 10 years, grades three to eight have shown more improvement in their California Assessment Program test scores than any other district in the county.

Students from San Marcos High and seven grammar schools consistently score in the 90th percentile and up in reading, writing and math, while junior high scores are slightly lower.

Fine weather is another draw. The city is 12 miles from the coast, far enough to avoid thick fog, but near enough that ocean breezes keep it several degrees cooler while cities swelter only a few miles east.

San Marcos is especially popular with retirees, many of whom end up in Lake San Marcos, a community-within-a-community of 4,000 people living around a man-made lake dotted with paddle boats and small fishing skiffs used to troll for bluegill, catfish, sunfish and bass.

“We moved here from Orinda (in Northern California) 18 months ago for four reasons,” explained Marjorie Scott, who lives in Lake San Marcos with husband Otis, retired from a large oil company six years ago.

“One, it was too cold. Two, it was too far from golf. Three, we had too much property to take care of. And four, our kids live in Southern California.

“George says No. 4 is the main reason, but it’s really No. 2.”

The Scotts sold a three-bedroom, two-bath home on one-third acre in Orinda for $420,000 and bought a similar-sized home on a smaller lot next to the private golf course at Lake San Marcos for $325,000.

Scott plays golf four days a week. His wife doesn’t play golf or engage in other traditional Lake San Marcos pastimes, but she likes the place.

“When you come here, the first things they want to know are, ‘Where are you from? Do you play golf? Do you play bridge?’ Well, I didn’t play golf or bridge in Orinda, and I was happy, and I’m happy here.

“There are classes, crafts, swimming, aerobics, tennis. You can be as involved as you want or not. And I really like the people. I’ve already made more friends here than I did in 12 years in Orinda.”

Other newcomers, such as McGuire, who owns a tile business called Irish Setters, come to San Marcos in search of elbow room. Last spring, he moved from neighboring Vista to his new acreage a couple of miles north of the town center.

Although McGuire is a surfer, he doesn’t mind living inland.

“I moved here because I wanted to have some ground around me and more of a country atmosphere,” McGuire said. “I never thought I’d find two and a half acres I could afford in San Diego County and still be halfway close to the beach.

“When I saw this small, hidden valley in San Marcos, I fell in love with it. It’s 20 minutes to surfing, and five minutes to Interstate 15 if I want to head north.”

McGuire, who didn’t grow up on a farm, is adapting nicely to his new lifestyle. The 25 chickens he bought lay six eggs a day, and his rooster wakes him every morning, joining a rooster chorus. Neighbors own llamas, geese, sheep and horses, and McGuire hears coyotes howl at night.

Country life has drawbacks, such as septic tanks and the lack of cable television, but such shortcomings are a small price to pay for a sense of freedom.

“The neighbors don’t mess with me,” McGuire said. “I might work late in the yard or ride my three-wheeler out back, and people don’t care. They live here for the same reason. They want to be able to do their own thing.”

While mindful of the value of preserving this rural quality of life, city officials are also open to development, more so than their peers in neighboring communities, where annual building permit caps have been adopted. San Marcos has none.

City planners say they are more interested in making sure adequate infrastructure is in place before new development occurs, and that projects are carefully planned and designed to suit the character of the terrain and existing neighborhoods.

With this open attitude, developers have been eager to take advantage of opportunities and, as a result, the new San Marcos is becoming barely recognizable to old-timers.

“The quality of life has changed a lot, but it’s changed all over,” said Stan Mahr, whose grandfather brought the family to San Marcos in 1886 to homestead on land where the university is now under construction. “Roads get congested, so do schools, the post office, businesses.

“This used to be a rural area, with lots of agriculture. At one time, it was all dry farming, with cattle and horses and stuff like that, and later, chicken and dairy ranches. There was lots of open space, let’s put it that way.

“I used to know quite a few people, but now, you go to the post office and you don’t see many people you know. It’s still got a rural atmosphere, though. We’ve always had friendly people. And it’s still the only place to live. I’ve been around just enough to know there’s no place better anywhere in the world. For year-round living, I don’t think you can beat it.”

One of McGuire’s Twin Oaks Valley neighbors, a longtime resident, seems tolerant of the population boom.

“I moved here from Cardiff (on the coast of San Diego County) in 1973,” said Dick Crockett, owner of a commercial printing business. “I looked around one day for new space for my business, and I couldn’t find any along the coast. This was the closest place with available space.”

Crockett sold his beach house for $29,000 and bought 10 acres off a dirt road at the north end of Twin Oaks Valley for about the same price. He and his wife still live in the ranch-style house they built. Crockett is an active Kiwanis member whose idea of a good time is a spaghetti fund-raiser--service organizations are strong in San Marcos, doubling as major social outlets.

“When I came to San Marcos, there were 4,200 people, and I was the only print shop in town. Now there are about 50. You can’t stop progress, but I liked it the way it was better.”

At 58, Crockett is looking forward to retirement.

“I’m dreaming about it. Will I stay here? If I am financially able to, I probably will.”

AT A GLANCE Population

1990 official: 38,974

1980-90 change: +123%

Median age: 34 years

Annual income

Per capita: 12,969

Median household: 30,760

Household distribution

Less than $15,000: 19.8%

$15,000 - $30,000: 28.9%

$30,000 - $50,000: 31.9%

$50,000 - $150,000: 18.8%

$150,000 +: 0.6%