Nearly 3,000 Homes Could be Coming to the City of Santee

by | Sep 22, 2020 | San Diego County

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HomeFed Corp

The Santee City Council will hold a public hearing for a proposal to develop a nearly 3,000 residential unit mixed-use community on Wednesday. 

The project, known as ‘Fanita Ranch’ and proposed by HomeFed Corp, would be located on a 2,368-acre site in the northern portion of the City of Santee. Fanita Ranch would contain either 2,949 housing units under a preferred land use plan with a school or 3,008 housing units under a land-use plan without a school. It would also contain up to 80,000 square feet (SF) of commercial uses, parks, open space, and agricultural uses. Under the proposal, the City’s General Plan would be amended, and a new Fanita Ranch Specific Plan would be established.

The project development would be clustered into three villages so as to preserve natural open space areas, drainages, and wildlife corridors. Each village would be named according to its design theme: Fanita Commons, Vineyard Village, and Orchard Village. Each village would contain a centralized farm as a community focal point and source of food.

The architectural designs of the villages reflect various periods of development in California including the hacienda, the ranch, and contemporary/modern homes and commercial/farm buildings. Fanita Commons would serve as the main village and contain the K-8 school site, the Village Center, the Village Green, and the Community Park. The Vineyard and Orchard Villages would include smaller, mixed-use Village Centers that would allow for office space, and a variety of community services and amenities. The project would contain a comprehensive system of walking and biking trails and a variety of parks.

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HomeFed Corp

The project would feature a variety of land use designations to accommodate a range of residential densities. 67 acres of the project site would be designated Medium Density Residential and would feature attached, detached, and semi-detached building typologies with a total of 866 residential units. 240.8 acres of the project would have a Low-Density Residential designation and would feature 1,203 detached units in a variety of lot sizes. 31 acres of the Fanita Commons Village would have an Active Adult land use designation with 445 age-restricted residential units. 

15 acres of the Fanita Commons Village is designated for a potential K-8th grade public school, should the Santee School District acquire the site. If the School District does not pursue the site, the land will be available for a charter school, or other private school uses. 

The 27.3-acre farm in Fanita Commons is the intended community focal point of the Ranch. This farm would be open to the public-at-large and would include a range of educational experiences and community events and activities linked to the farm including harvests, festivals, farm-to-table events, and a community-supported agriculture program.

A previous proposal to develop the site was curtailed by legal challenges to its EIR between 2008 and 2012. 

Under the current proposal’s Development Agreement, HomeFed would contribute $10 million towards improvements to State Route 52 and $4 million for transportation infrastructure improvements intended to ease traffic congestion. The City estimates that the Fanita Ranch proposal would contribute $1.4 million in a net positive revenue stream to the City upon full build-out, and would add a gross total of 31,213 Average Daily vehicular Trips. 

 

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