Reduced Santee Council approves 285-unit condo project near Town Center Community Park

By Mike Allen

October 5, 2025 (Santee) -- The vacant lot behind the Cameron YMCA will soon be vacant no longer.

The Santee City Council voted 3-0 to approve a 285-unit condominium project on the 22.17-acre site which had long been used by dog walkers, model car and plane users, and overspill parking during big events at the Town Center Community Park. Mayor John Minto and Councilman Ronn Hall were absent and on vacation for the Sept. 24 meeting.

The elected trio present heard complaints and criticism on the plan that will generate more traffic, eliminate trees, open space and wildlife, but will result in new housing for those who can afford it. Developer City Ventures of Irvine didn’t reveal what the prices for the units, ranging in size from 1,342 to 2,074 square feet, will be except they will be a “wide price range.”

The existing median single-family house in San Diego County is about $1 million, while existing condos are averaging about $700,000, according to several housing data sources.

Those new residents of the Walker Trails development, which only opened several years ago, weren’t too pleased with the plans even though most said they were aware that it was coming.

Mary Kate Spahn said she was hoping to see something less dense and a lot safer than the plan that was approved. She and several others said because of the increased traffic, children who now play in the open space will be threatened.

Scott Seever and his wife, Margaret, said the fact that the new project will be elevated to avoid flooding will result in new owners looking into the windows of his home. They also wanted the developer to save at least one large cottonwood tree.

Lam Nguyen, who moved to the same complex eight months ago, said his main concern was the traffic flow and speeds. Already many drivers are  speeding and running red lights, as well as using Cottenwood Avenue as a cut through route to get to Mast Boulevard quicker, he told the Council.

“People are speeding like crazy, and since I moved here, the one thing I’ve noticed is that people are running red lights all the time,” Nguyen said.

Parking was another sensitive subject for the neighbors, who said there will likely be insufficient supply at the new complex.

Santee’s staff assured the Council the developer is adding mitigation measures to handle increased traffic, such as adding an additional left turn lane off of Magnolia Avenue, and other things to offset the impacts from the new housing. They noted the project will also have 75 guest parking spaces, three more than required.

Photo, left:  map shows site for 285 new condos just south of Cameron YMCA

Several councilmembers noted while new housing always brings more people and cars, this plan was so much better than an earlier plan authorized by the county of San Diego, which previously owned the land. The parcel was originally zoned to accommodate about 400 total units, and another county-owned parcel just to the north is planned for about 400 units, they said.

Vice Mayor Rob McNelis said at one time the two parcels were planned to have between 900 to 1,000 units. “It’s still a lot. I get it...We did a lot of work negotiating to get it down to this,” he said.

City Ventures, which has done two other smaller projects in Santee, said it held meetings with the community before submitting their plan to the city. The 44 buildings will have two or three bedrooms, and all come with two car garages. The developer is also paying for a range of improvements to the trails along the adjacent San Diego River, and is raising part of the grading by four feet to avoid flooding.

That work will also raise the elevation of part of Town Center Community Park. The project will also install runoff catch basins to ensure significant rain won’t impact surrounding parcels.

“This (project) is a heck of lot better than what it could have been,” McNelis said. “These are condos, so it’s personable. If somebody likes it, they’ll buy it.”

Michael You of City Ventures said, “This is a great long-range plan where both public and private goals were achieved.”

The Santee Council’s regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 8 was cancelled to allow three councilmembers and one city staffer to attend the annual League of California Cities meeting in Long Beach. The next meeting is Oct.22.