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Photo by Karen Pearlman
East County News Service
Sept. 4, 2025 (El Cajon) – El Cajon has been given a Notice of Intent to be awarded three grants through the San Diego Association of Governments TransNet Smart Growth Incentive Program.
The city is expecting to receive one engineering grant and two planning grants as part of SANDAG’s Cycle 6 Call for Projects.
The engineering grant for $2.7 million will go to the second phase of the city’s $3 million El Cajon Boulevard Streetscape. That project will complete the El Cajon Boulevard corridor by adding bikeways, sidewalks, pedestrian furnishings and landscaping to strengthen mobility connections.
One planning grant for $500,000 will go toward a $551,000 Mix Use Overlay project, expanding the city’s Mixed Use Overlay Zone to provide increased housing capacity, rezoning and CEQA analysis.
The other grant is for $650,000 toward the $801,000 Parkway Specific Plan, which will create a comprehensive planning document for Parkway Plaza and the Arnele Avenue Transit Station, focusing on revitalization, transit access, pedestrian/bike infrastructure and roadway improvements.
The latest cycle of SANDAG’s TransNet Smart Growth Incentive Program was announced in December 2024, offering $45 million in funding for transportation-related infrastructure and planning projects that support smart growth development, focused on projects that improve the public realm, advance mobility hubs, and encourage transit-oriented development to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote healthier communities.
The SGIP provides San Diego County residents with safer, more efficient and accessible transportation. Funded by TransNet, the half-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1988 to fund local transportation projects, SGIP funds comprehensive public infrastructure projects and planning activities that facilitate compact, mixed-use, transit-oriented development, and increase housing and transportation choices.
Since 2009, nearly $60 million in TransNet funds have been distributed to the cities around the county and the County of San Diego to complete scores of planning and capital projects.
El Cajon City Manager Graham Mitchell told the City Council that the funding recommendations will be presented to the SANDAG Committees in October, with final adoption by the SANDAG Board of Directors on Oct. 24.
Following adoption, the city will coordinate next steps, including kickoff, schedules and reporting requirements, Mitchell said.
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Nice!