SAN MARCOS — An expansion of the Hughes Circuits campus in San Marcos will be able to move forward after the City Council unanimously rejected an appeal of the project by an environmental group last week.
The proposed project will construct an approximately 67,000-square-foot light industrial building on a vacant 10.46-acre site at South Pacific Street and Linda Vista Drive. The two-story building will serve as another site for the operations of Hughes Circuits, whose current building is located across the street.
Just days after the city Planning Commission unanimously approved a site development permit and environmental impact report for the project in mid-April, Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility, or SAFER, filed an appeal alleging that the project did not comply with the California Environmental Quality Act.
Specifically, SAFER said the city should not have adopted the project as proposed because a smaller, alternative version — a 21,800-square-foot warehouse — was also studied and would have had fewer environmental impacts.
“Where a project is found to have significant and unavoidable impacts, CEQA requires the adoption of a feasible alternative that meets most of the project objectives but results in fewer significant impacts,” SAFER said in an April 15 letter.
SAFER also argued that the environmental impact report (EIR) did not adequately outline the impacts to the land, the project objectives were excessively narrow, and that comments from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were not adequately addressed.
At the City Council’s June 25 meeting, Hughes representatives reiterated that the reduced alternative would require many of the same mitigation measures as the larger project, and would not meet the project objective for a fiscally sound and employment-generating project that maximizes the light-industrial zoned area.
The electronics manufacturing company currently has around 250 employees.
“We would love you to deny the appeal and support Hughes’ efforts to expand business in town,” said Matt Simmons of Collaborative Consultants Inc., the firm representing the applicant.
Noah Garrison, an attorney representing SAFER, said that just because the smaller alternative would mean a smaller business expansion didn’t mean it was infeasible.
“The city can’t make the finding that the reduced alternative is infeasible,” Garrison said.
City staff and Hughes representatives addressed several of SAFER’s arguments. They confirmed that the EIR accurately characterized biological resources onsite and the needed mitigation measures and was not deficient.
Simmons also claimed that SAFER’s statements about the development’s alleged environmental impacts did not rely on data related to the actual project site.
Hughes representatives also noted that the new building will be contained to around 2.6 acres of the vacant site, and 75% of the parcel that contains vernal pools and sensitive species will be maintained as open space.
“[Hughes] purchased the land knowing they were going to dedicate 75% to open space,” Simmons said.
City staff also said all comments from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were addressed, and there were no outstanding requests from the agency.
City Council members questioned why no members of SAFER or any of their subject matter experts attended the meeting to speak about the appeal, instead relying only on their attorney.
“This group’s very passionate, apparently, but they didn’t show up, and that’s very bizarre to me,” said Councilmember Mike Sannella.
The council rejected SAFER’s appeal in a 5-0 vote and expressed excitement for the project, noting that the parcel is currently unsightly and needs restoration. Officials also thanked Hughes for keeping their business in San Marcos and continuing to grow.
“I’m looking forward to what it’s going to look like, because it is a bit of an eyesore over there right now,” Mayor Rebecca Jones said.
The project site is across the street from the newly opened Bradley Bike Park to the west and is surrounded by industrial uses to the north and south.
