Printer-friendly version
An infill condo project for 52 units is coming to Santee
Photo and story by Mike Allen
June 9, 2025 (Santee) -- The Santee City Council unanimously approved another infill condominium project recently, this one for 52 units on the site that once housed the PureFlo Water dispensary, and had previously been approved for low-income apartments.
The site is adjacent to Laurel Heights, an 80-unit single family housing project that was approved about four years ago.
The latest project had been planned as a 96-unit apartment complex in 2022, but developer Michael Grant apparently pulled out, allowing KB Homes, one of the nation’s largest home builders, to step in and continue its activity in Santee.
This change may seem unremarkable except it continues a trend by Santee of not meeting a state-mandated target to produce more affordable housing, including the type aimed at low-income and very low-income residents.
The city was required to increase its housing stock by a minimum of 1,219 units starting in 2020 and ending in April 2029. The figure was determined and assigned to every city in the state by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, and called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA).
Since that RHNA number was identified, Santee has added 607 units to its housing stock, but of that target only four were designated as low income. The rest were tabbed to be sold to buyers considered in the moderate- and above moderate-income levels -- that means buyers who earn between 80 to 120 percent of the region’s median income.
In San Diego County, the median income, or exact middle figure, was $130,800 this year, according to the county’s website.
It’s unknown at this point what KB Homes intends to price the new condos, but its representative, John Abboud, told the council at the May 28 hearing that the units would be smaller than those being built at nearby Prospect Park, and “hopefully more affordable.”
The latter project, also developed by Grant and approved in 2019, was for 53 total units, including 38 condos and 15 single family houses.
KB declined to talk with East County Magazine but the prices for the units at Prospect Park range from about $765,000 to about $920,000, according to its website.
Grant was also contacted but did not return an email seeking comment.
Grant is the owner/developer of the Lantern Crest nursing home complex off of Magnolia Avenue in Santee that is in the process of adding about 200 more units to its existing count of 227 units.
Housing Element ID'd Parcel, Needs
In its housing element plan adopted in 2021, Santee identified 10 parcels that could accommodate low-income housing, including the 2.63 acre site at 7737 Mission Gorge Road, the PureFlo site. The zoning was changed from general commercial to R-22, meaning between 22 to 30 units an acre could be built. If the developer wanted the maximum, they might try to build about 75 units on the parcel.
As it turned out, KB asked for a 20-unit per acre density to build 52 condos within 12 separate buildings of about three stories. All units have three bedrooms with either 1,400- or 1,470-square-foot layouts along with two car garages. The project will also have 15 guest parking spaces and 12 public parking spaces on the east side of Aubrey Glen Drive.
It won’t be enough to accommodate all the cars parking in the now vacant lot, said several people testifying at the May 28 meeting.
“There are already 40 cars parking there now…and you can’t park on the street so now of all a sudden we’re going to have people (fighting) for this parking,” said Duane Patterson, the owner of the nearby Pleasant Valley Mobilehome Park.
A resident of Aubrey Glen housing next to the KB site who identified herself as Cory said not only will there be reduced parking, but also getting into or out of Aubrey Glen Drive will be more dangerous due to increased traffic, which is already speeding on Mission Gorge Road, and especially for cars making a left turn.
Another Aubrey Glen resident, Jessica Palmer, complained about the lack of street parking and how dog owners aren’t picking up after their pets, causing health issues. A better use for the land would be a restaurant or a dog park, she said.
City officials said while they might agree there could be better things to build at the site, their hands were tied because of zoning restrictions and respecting the property rights of the land owner.
Left unmentioned was how the city intended to address meeting its RHNA number for low income housing. Its number for the low income and very low income category remains at about 600.
Councilman Ronn Hall said Santee has made efforts to get affordable hosing built but “for some reason it always gets derailed. I don’t understand why.”
Hall said everyone may be in favor of increasing the stock of low income housing, but “we still have to get someone to come in and build it.”
Most developers are looking to make a decent profit, and you don’t do that with low income projects, Hall said.
Fanita Ranch on Tap at June 11 Meeting
The Santee Council will take another crack at the issue of new housing when it considers the biggest one in the city’s history, Fanita Ranch, at its June 11 meeting.
The developer, HomeFed Rancho Fanita, now a part of investment bank Jeffries, is seeking another approval on the project that would add 2,949 housing units to about 2,600 acres that is now open space in the city’s northwest quadrant.
The developer is proposing to contribute $2.6 million toward the building of 150 “workforce housing units” that can be built onsite or offsite.
Comments
I wonder...