A group of North County mayors gathered Thursday to endorse a controversial home development proposed for an area near San Marcos and Escondido.
In 2018, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved the project proposed by Newland Sierra. But opponents gathered more than 100,000 signatures to force it onto the March 2020 ballot.
They say the development would cause more traffic in the area and ruin the environment. Despite the opposition, the mayors of Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos and Escondido signed a letter today giving their support to the project.
"I think it is a good compromise. We need workforce housing, we need low-income housing, we need a lot of housing in every category," said Escondido Mayor Paul McNamara.
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Most of the homes will cost between $500,000 and $900,000, but Newland Sierra has promised to allocate 10% of the homes to affordable housing.
"We do need this housing and it really fits into all of the different income categories so it's a broad spectrum of housing. It's for our workforce, it's for low-income folks and then also the move-up buyers within the communities," said San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones.
If approved by voters, the project would take an estimated seven years to complete.
