PUBLIC LETTER No. 1
From: Emily Gonzalez < >
Sent: Sunday, May 4, 2025 2:27 PM
To: Scott Nightingale <[email protected]>
Subject: Mission Villas Community on Woodward 46 Residential CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Hi,
I am a resident of Mission Villas in San Marcos and I wanted to share my concerns about Woodward 46 Residential.
- I am very concerned that the breaking up of the rock on the hillside will negatively impact the structural integrity of our property. Since our house was built 2 years ago, we have already seen settling and structural changes.
- My husband and I both work from home. Our unit is on the end facing the hillside and blasting and construction would severely impact our ability to work from home. We have no options to go into an office.
- There is a lot of wildlife in the hill like hawks, squirrels and coyotes. I am concerned that this development would displace them.
If you have already looked into these concerns and have solutions, please feel free to let me know. Or feel free to reach out with any questions.
Best regards,
Emily Gonzalez
PUBLIC LETTER No. 2
From: Raquel Kasprzyk < >
Sent: Friday, May 2, 2025 11:36 AM
To: Scott Nightingale <[email protected]>
Subject: Woodward 46 Specific Plan
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Hello, Mr. Nightingale!
I have added my concerns and another option for this proposal to go through at another location. I have attached this body of text in this email as a pdf as well.
I appreciate your time and efforts to make this city a great one to live in. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Dear San Marcos City,
This project should not go through in this area. This is going to disrupt the lives of the existing residents, incoming residents, and wildlife. This housing will be pivotal in reflecting what San Marcos values. Through these three topics I will share my point of view on why this project should not go through at this location, instead, I have a proposal of where this would be very beneficial.
The surrounding houses will be subjected to pollution from the construction, especially since being built higher up this will affect people below depending on where the wind is blowing.
Water run-off and flooding would impact our plants and wildlife since the runoff would contain harmful chemicals which could spread to pets and into households. There is currently already a lot of pollution in our community being next to the train, a busy street intersection, city hall is near which draws in a lot of people, planes flying overhead, and factories nearby. Building on top of that green space will continue the process of damaging our health and the families and college students who could live in those buildings.
The retaining wall that is dividing the Mission Villas community and the new community up top will also need to be looked into since there will be more weight on the ground than before. This wall does not look like it was taken into consideration when the proposal was made. This wall is made of concrete with metal beams. If you were to add pipes in the ground, could these new pipes cause rust on these metal beams if anything were to happen? This needs to be looked into. This retaining wall is new compared to this proposal. We have had a significant earthquake since then so this wall should be assessed that no damage has weakened the integrity of the beams.
Existing residents will be affected by the light pollution from the buildings on the hill which will cast light onto houses nearby. In my community (Mission Villas) we have a light pollution problem from our own community from having too many lights. All bedrooms are on the top floor so if there are going to be lights on the hill they will be shining in the windows - which they are already from our own street lights from our community.
Existing residents would also be subjected to more sound pollution during the day with the construction and blasting of the rock they would have to dig into. A lot of the people in this community are work-from-home and this would be disrupting our work as well. The plan for the new community seems to include a deck. This will create more noise pollution because college students throw parties. We toured the community at Madiera, Corte Bella, and Porta Rosa Condos but the college students who were renting were too loud. We ended up seeing Mission Villas and found the community a lot quieter since it is mainly first time families.
New residents will be subjected to a hotter environment. Adding these buildings will make this area hotter since they will be higher on the hill and block off air flow. The community I currently live in is very hot and hard to keep cool since the bedrooms and home offices are on the top floor. The only natural cooling we get is - sometimes - from the top of the hill to the greenspace across Woodward St.
This will also disrupt traffic onto Woodward Street which is already a hassle to cross. There is not a protected light for residents to get across Woodward St. A lot of kids bike around the area and I would hate for this to cause accidents. This area is not very walkable. There is only one crosswalk at the intersection of E. Mission Rd. and Woodward St. which contributes to air pollution due to lack of walking options.
The city will be allowing people to buy these condos and make the condos for rent if this goes through. Currently, there are people renting their houses for higher prices in Mission Villas.
People buy these condos and rent them out to families and college students who have more cars than they are allowed which creates confusion and a lot of cars being towed. Students who want to come to school here will have less options for affordable housing. I have seen it reflected in my own community.
The incoming residents will be subjected to the noise and light pollution. They will be paying for something that is very loud. The Sprinter’s horn and freight train is incredibly loud and very disruptive to sleep. If I had known it was going to be this loud and that planes would be flying directly overhead all the time I would not have found this place worth it. I saw in the plan that it states we are not in a flight path and that is completely false. The planes are loud and directly overhead. It is also loud since the fire station and sheriff’s office are near and use their sirens around a lot and all times of the day. The light pollution will be from our community adding to theirs.
Animals do not get a say in what happens to their environment. Adding more housing here will disrupt the path the animals can take to get from neighborhood to neighborhood. If you look at a map you can see there is a clear path for animals to move. In the proposal, “IV. BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES subsection d.) Interfere substantially with the movement of any native resident or migratory fish or wildlife species or with established native resident or migratory wildlife corridors, or impede the use of native wildlife nursery sites?” It says ‘Less Than Significant Impact.’ This is false since I have seen these hawks and insects come back here at certain times of the year. There have been all sorts of species: roadrunners, eagles, crows, hawks, bugs, spiders, snakes, frogs, and coyotes. I have seen animals become displaced by these houses in Mission Villas community. The community (Mission Villas) that was built displaced them. Adding new houses would interrupt animals having a safer path to cross Woodward St.
Adding these homes will create more cars having to cross Woodward St. possibly killing more animals that use the road to cross.
The homes at the top will also want more guardrails and protection from the steep drop-off onto our parking lot. This will impact birds or smaller insects from getting over the wall.
More people on top of the hill will add to the problem of sound pollution which disrupts the sleep of the animals. I hear this happening to the coyotes, especially when the freight trains come through in the middle of the night. The current homes and this new plan will collectively add to the light pollution problem and will disrupt the sleep of these animals. The freight trains that come through multiple times a week already disrupt the animals’ sleep and this would be adding to the problem.
Communities - like mine - use pesticides to get rid of bugs and vermin that other animals eat.
Adding more people to the top will contribute to more extermination of these animals and insects. These animals will have less food and create a less varied environment and ecosystem.
Creating more homes in this area will reduce the cool air that is produced because there are no buildings blocking airflow. Adding these buildings on top of the hill will disrupt this airflow and create a hotter environment. This will affect the environment surrounding City Hall and shopping centers nearby, plus the new apartments being built behind Outback restaurant.
There are already a lot of dead bees I see around our homes; adding this new development will be adding to the problem of killing insects.
Removing plants at the top will also contribute to pollution since these plants help clean the air and reduce greenhouse gas emissions - something the proposal says it will not impact: VIII.
GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS.
This is a small plot of land but it contributes to the world at large. Cutting out plants will also reduce our chances of rainfall which is something we need in this drought-prone state. https://www.nationalforests.org/blog/a-breath-of-fresh-air-how-trees-help-mitigate-climate- change
https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/12/08/plants-buy-us-time-to-slow-climate-change-but-not- enough-to-stop-it/
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/LAI/LAI2.php ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL:
San Marcos should consider making affordable housing at 528 E Mission Rd, San Marcos, CA 92069.
This would help boost the local economy. There is a storage facility - ‘StaxUp’ - nearby which would boost the use for that space. This idea could also benefit the shopping center where the Cavalry Chapel is located: 456 E Mission Rd STE 130, San Marcos, CA 92069. This would also help our local businesses and restaurants, ‘Blackstone Pizza’ and ‘Pegah’s Kitchen’. This would also be in walking distance to Hollandia Park which would also help people stay active and make this neighborhood safe. Currently, the homeless try to use this space as refuge.
Using this space would help with less pollution than completely annihilating existing plants’ and animals’ homes.
This space is also on even ground. The hill has a huge dropoff which could be dangerous for small children. There will be new families moving into these and I would hope that they have security. This area is also quieter since it is a little more removed from city hall, emergency response buildings, and the trains.
Creating an affordable housing structure here would also help families who have children since there is a montessori and a high school in walking distance. This area is within walking distance to two churches. This area is also near a development called Caprice and Setina which has a lot of new families and children in the area.
This area would be cheaper to convert into a complex for more people since this area should already have power and sewage.
Thank you for your time and consideration for this project. I hope San Marcos City continues to create an environment all new families can thrive in. The efforts the city has made so far have been positively impactful on my well-being and I hope it continues to grow in a way that benefits us all.
-Thank you for your time and consideration.
Raquel Kasprzyk
PUBLIC LETTER No.3
From: Drew Kedra < >
Sent: Thursday, May 1, 2025 10:57 AM
To: Scott Nightingale <[email protected]>
Subject: Woodward 46 Specific Plan - Local Community Opinions CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Mr. Scott Nightingale,
My name is Drew and I'm a resident in the Mission Villas community on Mission Road and Woodward Street directly below the proposed Woodward 46 development. I am reaching out because myself and others in our community are concerned about the possibility of the construction of more housing directly above our communities and how it affects us, our homes, our area, our safety and our city as a whole. Some of the things we want to bring up are listed below:
- The destruction of the natural environment, scenery, wildlife, green spaces and habitats in the area. We have been seeing more and more build up of homes and businesses in our city. From the planned location of this development alone I can see construction projects for high rise apartments, office and business spaces and other new home developments. Some of these developments are being constructed on land that has no other use and makes sense to build on.
However, the construction of the proposed community would see the majority of the hillside's foliage and natural habitats for dozens of animals being completely destroyed. Along with the removal of plants and animals, the community would require blasting of the hillside to even accommodate everything they are proposing.We constantly see different animals that traversing through or living in that area, and the idea of destroying so much land, displacing all of the wildlife that lives in the area and blasting the hillside in exchange for a few homes is wrong. - Our community was built with a 30 foot concrete retaining wall and tiebacks holding back the hill. When the original plans for Woodward 46 were drawn up, there was no mention of our community being here and even in 2023's review there was no mention of how the planned community could affect the retaining wall. We fear that there is no consideration of how the weight of a new community, as well as all the digging and blasting needed to create the development, will impact the structural integrity of the retaining wall. The study completed by the developer mentions a rock wall net along Woodward Street but does not mention the rock wall next to Mission Villas Road which was not made to support an entire community from sheer and slides.
- Construction of the development will lead to the removal of the natural soil and foliage on the hill which helps control drainage and flooding, and could lead to flooding and drainage issues that will impact the communities at the bottoms of the hill. The developer's plans look like they would replace almost all of the natural foliage for some small plants and trees, and more importantly roads and sidewalks which will not control the issue. - Pollution during and after construction. We will be dealing with impact for years during and after construction. This not only includes emissions from construction equipment and trash from construction workers, but also the blasted rock dust and debris which will be prevalent throughout the construction.There will also be an increase in air, noise and light pollution during/after construction that will fall on residents around the development and the green spaces that will remain further along the hillside. This area is extremely windy and to hear the developer say that it is not an impact is misleading.
- We have seen other housing communities such as The Hill District take years to even start development, and even now they are barely beginning work. This project has taken years to get to this point,and would take years to complete. During that entire time the residents currently living in the area will have to deal with all of the issues listed above and more, and that's if the project is even completed by the developer. The Hill Disctrict's previous developers pulled out and left a massive unsightly mound of dirt on the side of the 78 for years before finally starting work again. What's to stop that from happening with this development and leaving a massive barren hillside filled with trash, construction equipment, unfinished drainage systems and more that will cause issues to the surrounding community? And if the plan falls through all together, the hillside will have been destroyed for nothing.
- We need affordable housing, not more luxury condos that are rented out by investors over market value. We live in the community here, we see how much they take advantage of renters, especially SMCSU students. Prices on homes in the area have increased significantly since the original proposal was drawn up to almost double what they were in 2019. How does adding more premium condos built by a luxury home builder help make San Marcos affordable for the residents here? There are more homes on the market in San Marcos than the amount that will be built with this proposal. It feels wrong that instead of filling those homes that are already on the market, we are just adding more expensive homes to the area and making the prospect of younger families moving into their first homes even more out of reach. - The addition of expensive luxury homes also means that you are impacting residents in the area who are actively trying to sell their homes. Older homes can't compete with the incentives that builders like Cornerstone Communities can afford to give to fill their homes. All this will do is hurt the local homeowners who are trying to sell their own homes. Homes in this part of town near the train and flight path already take a long time to sell, and adding more new homes to the area will only further compound this issue and make life tougher for residents who need to leave here.
- The future residents will be subjected to awful noise pollution. Between the highway, Sprinter, freight trains, airplanes and sirens, these were all downplayed to residents when we moved to Mission Villas by the builders and it is almost guaranteed that the next builders will also underplay this to new residents to sell their homes. The report also lists airport noise as not being a factor which is wrong, we are affected by airplane noise all day every day. The development is directly under the flight path of low flying planes to McClellan-Palomar Airport, so to hear the developer say it is not an issue feels like they are being purposely misleading. - The loss of privacy and peace of mind. Currently, the homes in our community are overlooking the green space on the hill. With the proposal, the majority of the space would be turned into housing with homes that will be directly above the community with houses looking directly down into our windows, completely removing any privacy that was here before. Not only this, but the noise that the new community will create was not mentioned in the report. Being on top of a hill, the noise generated from the new community during and after construction has nothing to stop it from traveling straight into our community. The proposed community talks about having rooftop decks which will overlook our community and provide no protection from noise or views from the newly proposed residents. We would be turning this area from a place where families are trying to sleep to a community with rooftop decks filled with partying college kids nightly. It's hard enough dealing with that now, and this development feels like it would just compound the issue.
- While we know earthquakes are always a risk and new building codes have made homes safer, the thought of having three story homes directly above buildings below them feels like an accident waiting to happen. I don't think it is worth the risk having so many large homes in such a precarious location.
- The visual landscape of the area. I am able to see the land proposed for the new development all around town, whether driving down San Marcos Blvd, hiking on Double Peak Trail or even at the Civic Center, we are able to see the hillside. It's a refreshing break from the sprawling builds scattered throughout the town to have a natural landscape, and to see this removed just to be filled with towering condos feels gross. We should be protecting the little bit of land we have left instead of destroying it to build a few more homes. We have flat land and available space all around town that is more suitable for home projects. The updates to Restaurant Row is a perfect example of large swathes of flat land that could be modernized with homes. We should be looking at putting homes in places like that already primed for construction with utility lines, sewer and water are already ready to be connected in the area, instead of spending time and resources blowing up uneven and difficult to alter natural land.
I understand why there are considerations of building more homes here. I know we are trying to be a more budget friendly town and a good place to bring in new families to grow the community. However I think the prospect of building this specific development is shortsighted and hastily being proposed to quickly try to fill more space and make the developer a quick buck. My fiance and I are first time homeowners. When we moved to San Marcos, we stretched our budget to even be able to afford the home we have now and still ended up with a smaller home making sacrifices we didn't realize we'd have to make. We see now that most new homes are made in the few spaces that are left to build and usually involves being in a less than desirable location (eg. Next to a Sprinter station and crossing, under a flight path, next to the 78 like The Hill District or Lennar's Brix) and that it only causes new current residents to suffer being crammed in and losing any available breathing room, as well as new residents spending way too much money and still having to deal with the consequences of living in a home where the developers only cared about making money and not what the new residents would have to deal with after moving in. In my opinion, it is wrong to turn such a nice natural space into a housing project when the developer could build in a more manageable space that doesn't involve destroying the natural hillside in the process or burdening current and future homeowners and renters. There is so little protected space within the city now and it makes us sad to think that this land will be so easily destroyed for a developer who doesn't care enough to preserve it.
We ask you to please reconsider allowing this project to go through. Please reach out if there is anything to discuss.
Thank you for your time,
Drew Kdra
PUBLIC LETTER No.4
Good afternoon, Mr. Nightingale,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Erica and I serve as the Community Manager for Mission Villas Condominium Owners Association, which is adjacent to the Mission Terrace HOA.
A letter regarding the upcoming development by Cornerstone was recently shared with me, and I wanted to reach out on behalf of the Mission Villas Board of Directors and homeowners. The community has a Geogrid retaining wall located along the shared property boundary, as shown in the photo below. Given the proximity of the proposed construction, the Board is concerned about any potential impact to the integrity or stability of this wall.
Could you please clarify how close the new build will be to the existing retaining wall? Additionally, will the wall be impacted or modified in any way as part of the project, or are there any expectations for future work involving the wall? If you require any additional documentation or information from our end, I’d be happy to provide it.
Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.
Erica
URGENT: OFFICE HOURS
Monday through Thursday 8:00 am-6:00 pm
Closed on Fridays
After-Hours Emergency Line: (619)340-1907 /7 days per week /6:00 pm to 8:00 am Thank You
Erica Mercado-Amaro
P.O. Box 881096
San Diego, CA 92168
For after-hour emergencies between 5PM to 9AM, 7 days per week: 619-340-1907 Despite any other statement in this e-mail to the contrary, this e-mail is not a solicitation, offer, acceptance of an offer, or a negotiation or amendment of terms for the sale of a home. Any such agreement/amendment must be contained on our company’s properly executed purchase agreement forms.