San Marcos OKs Inexpensive Homes

A housing project for lower-and moderate-income families--denounced by neighboring senior citizens as “an incubator for future gang members” and a threat to property values--was unanimously approved Tuesday night by the San Marcos City Council.

As more than 100 people, most of them opposed to the project, watched, the council changed what was originally meant to be an expansion of the seniors-only Las Brisas Pacificas mobile-home park into a tract for affordable housing.

“We’re getting the shaft,” park resident W. J. Siemens said.

Reacting to a comment that moderate-income buyers attracted to the units might include police officers, Siemens said: “Probably the only policemen visiting the project will be answering a call.”

Another elderly speaker, Robert Wondka, argued that allowing affordable units would “scrub out seniors and put in families” in the mobile home park.

But others in the audience urged the council to favor the plan for affordable housing.

“I’m a college graduate, I can’t afford to buy a home, and we need it,” said John Masson of Escondido.

David Strong told the council that “a number of families work in San Marcos but can’t live in San Marcos because of the cost of homes.”

After 90 minutes of testimony and debate, the council agreed to pave the way for lower-cost housing at the mobile home park.

“This is sorely needed,” Councilman Mark Loscher said.

Las Brisas is along San Marcos Boulevard, west of Rancho Santa Fe Road. The proposed addition, to the north, would tack on 84 mobile homes, similar in size and appearance to the 169 existing units.

The city would buy 50 of the new units and then resell or rent them to families earning $29,000 to $50,000 a year. No more than six people would be allowed to occupy any of the homes, which are expected to cost $113,000 to $121,000.

Originally, the land was planned exclusively for senior citizen housing. But last fall, when developer Owen-Johnson, which has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, asked the city to put at least $2 million in redevelopment money into the project, San Marcos officials insisted on including affordable housing.

State law requires 25% of redevelopment agency funds to be spent on affordable housing.

Residents of the existing seniors-only park responded to the news of future affordable housing with a flurry of protest letters to City Hall, along with a petition signed by more than 200 people opposed to the plan.

“You have no right to do this to a group of people who have worked a lifetime for peace, security and privacy,” wrote Roger and Suzanne Sullivan.

“We do not need an incubator for future gang members built in our back yard,” said another letter, from Alice J. Bunge.

What really rankles the seniors is that, when they moved in during the late 1980s, it was understood that the neighboring property would be limited to people 55 and older.

True enough, acknowledged city planning director Jerry Backoff, but times have changed and the city has an obligation to meet demands for affordable housing, he said.

Even if this project remained seniors-only, nearby land to the north and west was already zoned for single-family homes, city officials noted.

Las Brisas residents argue that allowing low-income families into the area invites crime, noise and lower resale values on existing homes.

City officials dismiss such fears.

San Marcos planners say the affordable homes would be targeted at an income category that includes the likes of firefighters, nurses and secretaries--and that crime fears are overblown.

Vice Mayor Mike Preston said newer studies show that affordable housing doesn’t lower property values.

Residents got nowhere with complaints that lower-income families would destroy the serenity of their neighborhood, said protest leader Bob Baldwin.

“We’ve had to talk around the issue” by focusing instead on questions about environmental effects and finances, he said.

Residents have complained that a small canyon on the property would be partly filled in to make room for the homes, damaging a 1-acre wetland habitat.

Backoff said the wetland destruction would be offset by having the developer preserve or restore wetland habitat elsewhere, subject to approval by the state Department of Fish and Game and the Army Corps of Engineers.

Residents have also said noise from nearby Palomar Airport could harm children, but city officials said Federal Aviation Administration reports show that the area falls within acceptable sound limits.

Protesters also question the wisdom of the city becoming a landlord to low-income renters, but San Marcos officials say that role is preferable to being sued for failing to comply with affordable-housing laws.