The Santee City Council voted unanimously to approve a 285‑unit multi‑family residential development, known as Parkview or the Cottonwood and Park project, and adopted an addendum to the city’s previously certified program environmental impact report.

City planning staff presented the proposal as a 22.17‑acre condominium project with three product types, units sized between about 1,342 and 2,074 square feet, two‑ to four‑bedroom layouts and two‑car garages. Rachel Linda, an associate planner with the Planning and Building Department, said, “The project as proposed complies with the density requirements.”

The project will be built on land rezoned in 2022 through the city’s housing element rezone program. The council approved a set of conditions intended to address traffic, floodplain and biological concerns raised in staff reports and by residents. Minjie May, the city’s principal traffic engineer, told the council that the project itself would generate an estimated 126 additional PM‑peak left turns at the Magnolia/Mast intersection and that, including diverted traffic from the north, the total PM‑peak left‑turn volume could reach 314 vehicles. May recommended adding a dual left‑turn lane and increasing storage from 120 feet to about 250 feet to handle the change.

The developer and staff said the improvement is required only when the project plus a set of nearby planned projects are combined; the developer’s representative said the project contributes about 40 percent of the modeled added peak‑hour left‑turn volume. The project also proposes street improvements on Cottonwood Avenue and a roundabout on Park Centre Drive.

On environmental and habitat issues, staff explained the site will include a 100‑foot buffer from riparian habitat along the San Diego River that will be managed as part of the city’s preserve system. The project will raise building pads several feet to bring the site out of FEMA floodplain limits; staff said that adjustment should remove the requirement for individual flood insurance for the new homes and might also reduce the portion of Town Center Community Park that is currently inside the floodplain. The planning report cited CEQA guidelines sections 15162 and 15164 in support of preparing an addendum to the certified program EIR.

Residents who spoke during the public hearing raised traffic, safety, wildlife and privacy concerns. Jennifer LaCroce, a Carlton Oaks teacher who said she lives in the area, and several Walker Trails residents urged the council to require better screening along Cottonwood, to protect an approximately 80‑year‑old cottonwood tree that an adjacent neighbor sought to save, and to address cut‑through traffic into residential streets. Michael Hoskins and others said existing overflow parking and event parking patterns are used for park events and might be affected by the development. One resident asked for more pedestrian‑level renderings and video to better understand visibility and scale.

Staff and the applicant said they had met with neighbors about the cottonwood and that, because of site constraints and the species’ limited transplant survivability, the tree would be removed; the applicant offered to plant a replacement cottonwood within the 100‑foot buffer if appropriate and agreed to modify the street trees along Cottonwood Avenue to match adjacent plantings.

The council approved the project and the CEQA addendum with no recorded abstentions. Staff will work with the developer on final engineering, FEMA concurrence for the floodplain revision and planting details for the Cottonwood Avenue frontage. The developer said the homes will be sold as ownership units rather than held as rentals.

Why this matters: The decision implements a rezonings-driven housing element site and will add several hundred residents near Town Center Park while triggering traffic and floodplain changes that affect nearby neighborhoods.

Details and next steps: The project will require the applicant to construct frontage and trail improvements, comply with the program EIR mitigation measures, obtain FEMA concurrence on the floodplain revisions, and complete final map and permitting steps before building permits are issued.