Planners OK Sage Canyon project, reject bid to avoid road upgrades

ENCINITAS — The Encinitas Planning Commission approved most elements of a proposed apartment complex on a vacant lot in New Encinitas but denied the developer’s request to avoid roadway improvements along El Camino Real.

The developer, Wermers Properties, is behind the proposed Sage Canyon Apartments project, a 120-unit multifamily development on a 5.23-acre site just south of the intersection of Sage Canyon Drive and El Camino Real.

Of those units, 24 would be deed-restricted to low-income households — 22 in perpetuity and two for 55 years — to qualify for density bonus waivers that would loosen requirements for building height, open space and storage space, according to city documents.

The commission voted to approve those aspects of the project at its Dec. 18 meeting, after delaying a vote in September, but denied the developer’s request to forgo frontage improvements along El Camino Real, a decision aligned with city staff recommendations.

A staff report prepared for the project stated that the requested “concession would have a specific, adverse impact … upon public health and safety, and there is no feasible method to satisfactorily mitigate or avoid the specific, adverse impact if the concession is granted.”

According to city documents, staff raised concerns multiple times about the lack of improvements along El Camino Real and recommended adding sidewalks and a buffered bike lane along the east side of the road.

The bike lane currently narrows near the southern portion of the development for cyclists heading north on El Camino Real, and there is no paved sidewalk along that stretch of roadway. The staff report noted that at the prevailing speed on that portion of the road — 56 mph — pedestrians would face nearly a 90% risk of death if struck by a vehicle, based on findings from the Federal Highway Administration.

Tim Hutter, an attorney representing the developer, said during the meeting that the city had not met the legal standard required to deny the request to waive the roadway improvements.

Hutter noted that the city is already planning improvements along that section of El Camino Real, including restriping. While city staff presented national, state and local research, he said, they failed to objectively and quantifiably demonstrate adverse impacts from the project’s estimated 68 additional daily pedestrian or bicycle trips and 720 daily vehicle trips.

“Instead, what we hear is, ‘any increase in this area would cause some additional risk,’ and that’s not what the standard calls for,” Hutter said. “There were multiple references even in the city engineer’s memo — which, again, is very detailed — to the correlation between increased population and these safety standards. The correlation is not causation.”

Hutter added that potential next steps could include appealing the decision to the City Council or pursuing litigation.

The developer applied Dec. 23 to have the project heard by the City Council, a city spokesperson told The Coast News. Which meeting the discussion will occur at has not yet been determined, and as of Jan. 5, no City Council agendas had been posted.

The 120-unit proposal is the third plan to come before the city for the site’s development.

In May 2016, the Planning Commission approved preliminary plans for a 10-lot single-family subdivision, according to city documents. That proposal included roadway improvements to El Camino Real, but the discretionary permits expired before construction began.

In October 2023, the Planning Commission approved a separate plan for 145 units, including 29 low-income units, according to city documents. The plan was later abandoned following concerns raised by the Coastal Commission.

Commission Vice Chair Christine Ryan said at the December 2025 meeting that the density bonus law’s goal of encouraging public transit use conflicts with the nearest bus stop being nearly a mile away.

“The fact that the nearest bus stop is .9 miles away, now you have people walking to the bus stop almost a mile or riding a bike to a bus stop when they don’t have the ability to safely leave their community in order to get to that bus stop,” Ryan said.

Commissioner Robert Prendergast said he appreciated the staff’s work and supported the recommendation to approve the project while denying the exemption from roadway improvements.

“If you just stand on the road, it’s not safe, and we’ve documented that it’s not safe and it’s practically not safe,” Prendergast said. “From an evacuation standpoint, from a bicycle standpoint, it’s just not safe.”