OCEANSIDE — The former site of Pacifica Elementary will transform into a 164-townhome residential development following the Planning Commission’s approval in late October.
Developer MLC Holdings, Inc. purchased the 14.55-acre project site, located at 4991 Macario Drive in the North Valley neighborhood, a few years ago from the Oceanside Unified School District, which declared the property surplus in 2019.
Built in 1978 and opened in 1980, Pacifica Elementary served the neighborhood for nearly 40 years. In 2004, the school buildings were determined to be seismically unsafe and demolished, replaced with modular classrooms until the school closed in 2007. The site has remained vacant ever since.
The 164 townhomes will offer a mix of two and four-bedrooms ranging from 1,200 to 1,800 square feet, each complete with a two-car garage, plus an additional 61 guest parking spaces.
The project will create a public park with picnic areas, fire pits, an off-leash dog park, pickleball courts and a playground for young children. A new sewer lift station will also replace the existing one, which only serves 90 homes, to serve the same homes plus the entire Pacifica development.
To mitigate the project’s increased traffic impact on the neighborhood, a stop sign will be added to the Redondo and Roja Drive intersection.
The design work on the project will use a Spanish-eclectic style, complete with clay tile roofs, recessed entryways, stucco columns and wrought iron decoration.
Developers described the project as for-sale “workforce housing” targeting middle-income households.
Shannon Vitale, senior planner with the city, noted at the Oct. 23 planning commission meeting that the project complies with all local requirements and would help provide much-needed housing.
“The project provides an alternative to single-family detached homes by providing attached housing,” Vitale said. “This site is an infill location in an already urbanized area that would provide another source of housing for current and future Oceanside residents.”
As part of the project, the site’s land use designation was changed from “civic institutional” to medium-density residential, and its zoning was changed from public/semi-public to planned development.
Commissioners praised the project as one of the best in recent years.
“It’s a quality project,” said Chair Tom Rosales.
Diane Nygaard with Preserve Calavera, a local open space advocacy group, also had good things to say about the project, highlighting how it exceeds environmental standards.
“This is probably one of the best projects in Oceanside we’ve seen,” Nygaard said. “Let’s hope we raise the bar so that this becomes the new standard for future development.”
Despite the project’s good qualities, several neighbors were still concerned about the potential traffic and other impacts the sizable project will have on the community and suggested using the land for a large park or resource center.
“This is too big,” said Edgar Manzanera. “That community has been neglected for a long time… Those people deserved that land for their personal benefit. There are too many houses already there.”
Fellow Oceanside resident Jimmy Figueroa agreed, saying the neighborhood is one of the most “under-resourced” communities in the city.
“The best thing for that space is something to benefit our youth – anything from a resource center to another community gym or garden,” he said.
If the space is to be used for housing, he continued, it should be affordable for low-income households.
