The Coast News Group
CommunitySan Marcos

Referendum on proposed development enters final days

SAN MARCOS — A group of residents protesting the city’s recent approval of a 220-home development have until Feb. 21 to collect enough signatures to suspend the approval.

The group is pursuing a referendum to reverse the council’s 4-1 approval of Brookfield Residential Properties’ proposal, which would re-zone about 23 acres near the southwest corner of Twin Oaks Valley Road and Village Drive — just south of Cal State San Marcos — from commercial to residential to pave the way for the new condominiums.

In order to do so, the group must collect more the signatures of 4,000 registered voters — 10 percent of the city’s total voters — which would then force the City Council to either repeal the ordinance outright or put the issue up for election.

Becky Shipley, one of the group’s chief organizers, said that 66 volunteers are circulating petitions. She and others said that the group of residents isn’t opposed to growth, they just want it to be well planned.

“Many who oppose the Ordinances want smart and sustainable growth” the group writes in an answer to frequently asked questions provided to reporters. “They want to make sure that the city has the infrastructure to support our new residents when they move in. The problem is

that our roads are congested and our schools are overcrowded.”

The group argues that the city will actually lose more money for providing services to the new development than it would reap from the property taxes and fees.

City officials in recent months have been meeting with San Marcos Unified School District to address concerns about the lack of schools to complement the pace of development.

A comprehensive update on Task Force progress will be shared during a joint public meeting between the San Marcos City Council and the San Marcos School Board at 6 p.m. March 29 at the San Marcos Community Center, 3 Civic Center Drive.