The all-affordable, transit-oriented, 199-unit Olive Park apartment complex received unanimous approval Monday from the Oceanside Planning Commission, despite strident opposition from neighborhood residents.
Many of the opponents live on Olive Drive, a short residential street that would provide the only access to the apartments. The 43.5-acre site is on an undeveloped slope at the end of Olive Drive, near the corner of College Boulevard and Oceanside Boulevard, and the development will include a public walkway to the nearby College Boulevard Sprinter train station.
The Sprinter hybrid rail line began service in 2008 and has 15 stations on its east-west route between Escondido, San Marcos, Vista and Oceanside, where passengers can make connections to the Coaster, Amtrak and Metrolink lines.
“When you look at this project and all its merits, it hits every box,” said Commissioner Jay Malik.
He can sympathize with people who live near the site and may not want the project, he said, but added that “it is for the greater good.”
Meg Ley, representing residents in the group Mira Costa Neighbors for Responsible Development, said Tuesday she was disappointed in the commission’s decision and planned to appeal it to the Oceanside City Council.
“We want to ensure that new developments ensure neighborhood safety, address infrastructural needs, and adhere to legal standards for mitigating environmental impacts,” Ley said in an email.
She and other members of the group believe the project’s environmental impact report had “errors in traffic and noise data, unaddressed public safety risks, and legal inadequacies,” she said. For example, she said, the buildings’ only access road would make it difficult for residents to get out in an emergency such as a wildfire or earthquake.
City officials said the environmental report is accurate and that the Fire Department and Police Department have approved the plans.
The developer, Brian Mikail of Capstone Equities, said he worked with the city and residents nearly three years on the proposal.
A preliminary plan presented to the city in 2023 called for up to 400 seniors-only apartments at what was then called Oceanside Trolley Place. That was reduced to 282 apartments in a draft environmental impact report filed with Oceanside building officials in October 2023, then to 199 apartments late last year.
Despite the changes, the additional traffic on Olive Drive remains the top concern of most residents. Some have lived on the street for 40 years or longer.
However, city officials said the additional cars on Olive will be minimal, and there’s little they can do about the heavy traffic on College, where the nearby intersection at Oceanside Boulevard is rated at “F” on a scale of “A” to “F.”
“The additional traffic is less than 1%, so it’s negligible,” said City Planner Sergio Madera.
Residents also asked for a second access road to the complex. The developer said that would be impractical for a number of reasons, such as crossing the railroad tracks and Loma Alta Creek, and the need to acquire additional private property.
Representatives of the local Sierra Club chapter and the nonprofit Preserve Calavera both spoke in favor of the project, in part because more than 35 acres of the site will be set aside as native habitat under a permanent conservation easement.
Also, the location is in what regional planners call a “smart growth” corridor because it’s within walking distance of things such as a grocery store, a pharmacy and public transportation.
“This one is putting that growth right where we want it,” said Diane Nygaard of Preserve Calavera.
The complex will have two buildings with a combination of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments on a little less than 11 acres of the property.
Forty of the apartments will be reserved for households making no more than 120% of the area’s annual median income, which was $119,500 for San Diego County in 2024.
Two apartments will be leased to managers, and the remaining 157 units will be reserved for households making no more than 80 percent of the median income.
