OCEANSIDE — A City Council majority has directed staff to stop pursuing clustered housing in the South Morro Hills community as part of the city’s ongoing work on its General Plan Update.
The decision was made during a March 19 workshop, during which staff presented a report on the city’s General Plan Update and Climate Action Plan.
Oceanside began the second phase of its General Plan Update in 2020. During the first phase, in 2019, the City Council adopted the economic development and Climate Action elements, along with the city’s first Climate Action Plan.
Phase 2 includes updates to the remaining General Plan elements, the Smart and Sustainable Corridors Plan, an updated Climate Action Plan, and an analysis of the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.
General plans serve as long-term guides for cities’ growth and development. Many of Oceanside’s elements haven’t been updated since the 1970s.
“This is the city’s opportunity to set a new vision for how the city will develop moving forward,” said City Planner Sergio Madera.
Many of the updates aim to align the city with state mandates, such as the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or RHNA, which outlines how many new homes cities must plan to meet the needs of residents across all income levels.
While the Housing, Economic Development, and Energy and Climate Action elements in Phase 2 were previously approved, staff created six more elements to replace the city’s existing eight:
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Remarkable Community, focused on preserving neighborhood identity
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Efficient and Compatible Land Use, replacing the land use element last updated in 1986
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Integrated Mobility, replacing the circulation element
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Vital and Sustainable Resources, focused on conserving open space, natural resources and water quality while reducing greenhouse gas emissions
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Safe and Resilient Environment, replacing the city’s 1975 safety element
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Healthy and Livable Community, replacing the 1990 community facilities element to ensure facilities, housing and jobs meet residents’ needs
Staff also included three guiding documents: a trails master plan, an active transportation plan, and the South Morro Hills Community Plan.
In response to public comments, staff had already removed references to clustered housing from the South Morro Hills plan before the March 19 meeting. Clustered housing typically groups homes, often sharing amenities, to preserve nearby farmland or open space.
City officials had considered using the clustered housing model in South Morro Hills to protect farmland. However, the council majority ultimately voted to pull the plan from the General Plan Update, following Mayor Esther Sanchez’s instructions to stop pursuing the clustered housing approach and bring the plan back separately later.
For Sanchez, adding housing near farms would spell “the end of farming.” Instead, she encouraged continued efforts to promote agritourism in the area to preserve agricultural lands.
Dennis Martinek, a 45-year resident of South Morro Hills, supported most of the General Plan Update but opposed the clustered housing concept.
“It’s urban sprawl – it conflicts with the Smart and Sustainable Corridors Plan, the Economic Development Plan, and the Climate Action Plan,” Martinek said.
He suggested the city instead explore an agritourism overlay zone for the area.
Others disagreed. Michelle Castellano Keeler, a third-generation South Morro Hills farmer, said her family has been working the land for 100 years and was among those who initially approached the city in 2008 to begin planning for the area’s future.
“After years of working together, we came up with a plan that worked for everyone at the table to preserve agriculture and to pay for needed infrastructure,” she said. “It’s disrespectful and disappointing that those who were at the table are now coming here to remove aspects of that plan, and we go back to the start.”
Councilmember Rick Robinson, who represents District 2, which includes South Morro Hills, supported Keeler.
“There are many other important elements of the South Morro Hills plan that need to be addressed, and I would just say without the farming… agritourism means nothing,” he said.
The council voted 3-2 to remove the South Morro Hills plan, with Robinson and Councilmember Peter Weiss opposed.
Work on the broader General Plan Update will continue over the coming months, with final adoption expected later this year. The public will also have a chance to review the revised Draft Environmental Impact Report during a 45-day comment period anticipated in late spring or early summer.
City staff are also exploring removing a property near Vista Way and Rancho del Oro Road from the Smart and Sustainable Corridors Plan. The plan encourages higher-density housing near transit along Vista Way, Mission Avenue and Oceanside Boulevard.
Councilmember Jimmy Figueroa, who lives in the area, expressed safety concerns.
“We don’t have a bus stop in that area, and there are parts of Vista Way where bus stops are extremely dangerous with no crosswalks or even buffers between the road and the stop,” he said. “It is very dangerous to even wait for a bus, and it’s even dangerous for a bus to stop there.”
City Manager Jonathan Borrego noted that any change would need state review, since the parcel is part of the adopted Housing Element.
Borrego said that the city can generally remove parcels as long as it can show that housing goals will still be met elsewhere — something he believes is possible in this case.
