San Marcos Council OKs Large Community, Resort

San Elijo Ranch, a proposed planned community and resort to rival Carlsbad’s La Costa, sailed through the San Marcos City Council with a unanimous vote of approval late Tuesday night.

The developer, Wolf Industries of San Diego, plans to break ground on the 2,000-acre project within the year, vice president Kevin Darnall said Wednesday.

It is expected to be completed within 10 years, adding about 7,000 residents to San Marcos.

The project will include about 2,700 residential units ranging from townhouses to one-acre custom-home estate lots, plus a 300-room resort hotel and an 18-hole golf course. The resort complex will include meeting and banquet rooms and restaurants, Darnall said.

San Elijo Ranch, east of Rancho Santa Fe Road in the Questhaven Valley and surrounding hills, offers views of the ocean and the adjacent Lake San Marcos. About 60% of the hilly acreage will remain open, in its natural state, as parkland or as a golf course.

Although the development borders the San Marcos landfill and the future site of a $300-million trash-to-energy incineration plant, Darnall said those facilities will not harm the new community.

Darnall said the planned community will feature a 240-acre regional park with an equestrian facility, a system of hiking and riding trails, a smaller community park with playing fields and other recreational facilities, a community center, a swim and tennis club, a fire station and sheriff’s substation, an elementary school and other urban amenities.

Councilwoman Pia Harris, who usually opposes large-scale development and is a slow-growth advocate, praised Rancho San Elijo when the project came up for approval late Tuesday night. She said that, despite its size, she had not received a single complaint from constituents about the proposed development.

Darnall said Wolf Industries acquired the property from another developer last May and began immediately to acquaint nearby residents with plans. Opposition to the project melted as residents learned that the earlier developer had hoped to build up to 8,000 residential units, a plan which was shelved in favor of the resort and planned community.

According to a report by Kenneth Leventhal & Co., San Elijo Ranch will generate nearly $1 billion in tax revenue for the city in the next 36 years. The revenue includes $27.3 million in sales taxes, $95 million in hotel-motel taxes and more than $735 million in property taxes.

About $311 million of the property tax revenues is earmarked for use by San Marcos Redevelopment Agency, and about $147 million is reserved for development of low- and moderate-income housing in the city.