The Planning Commission denied the proposal 4-2. Ambient Communities appealed. Residents are asking the City Council to uphold that denial until evacuation, emergency operations, and traffic safety are publicly addressed.
Residents are asking how the project's driveways, parking activity, and additional evacuation demand would affect existing bottlenecks along San Elijo Road, including at the school entrance. During the 2014 Cocos Fire, residents reported taking more than three hours to evacuate because traffic backed up along that road. Read the evacuation record.
Fire is not the only question at this location. Traffic, parking, visibility, and pedestrians near the schools are part of the same ask. Read the other safety concerns.
In their words
The public record includes letters from the community association, neighbors beside the site, and a land-use attorney. These are their concerns in their own words.
Community association
On behalf of the San Elijo Hills Community Association, we respectfully submit our unanimous opposition to the proposed apartment complex planned for the final remaining parcel within our town center.
San Elijo Hills Community Association, April 29, 2025
For the following reasons, the Planning Commission should deny this project in its current planned size and location because it will create severe traffic congestion and put the community at great risk.
Our focus is safe projects. We're not opposed to growth, because we want the empty dirt triangle lot developed. But the current project, in its current design, at this specific site has significant safety concerns which we believe the developer hasn't proven can be adequately mitigated. The result will affect our community as well as the residents living in the proposed project.
Safety comes first
All we ask is that projects are proven safe before they are approved.
What has not been shown
Where is the evacuation analysis?
Where is the Fire Protection Plan?
Can fire apparatus safely operate at the site?
Has school-hour traffic and sight distance been adequately analyzed?
Have the safety effects of the requested height and setback waivers been demonstrated?
Where is the project-specific environmental analysis, including community impacts?
This project is the first of many more to come. The housing shortage has resulted in new laws to streamline approvals of projects that provide high-density housing combined with affordable housing. Affordable housing is a good thing. We want our children, our seniors, and families just starting out to be able to live here.
New state housing laws can put our city leaders in a hard place, requiring cities to accommodate greater density and, for qualifying projects, waive development standards that would otherwise apply. That is why San Elijo Hills residents are asking that public safety is fully addressed before projects are approved. Residents have serious concerns about the CEQA infill exemption, the lack of traffic and safety analysis, the lack of an emergency evacuation plan, and waivers from local development standards.
We invite Ambient to discuss alternative designs and uses that address the site's constraints. Residents have suggested smaller residential uses, and professional or therapy-office concepts, for feasibility review. These ideas require their own parking, access, safety, and financial evaluation.
