What feels like a spiritual battle to preserve our pastoral soul, the people of Rancho Santa Fe have got to dig deep to fight round three of high-density development whack-a-mole. Yes, that’s right, yet another developer, David Petree, is popping up everywhere about town to shmooze the community into signing off on Silvergate, a 162-unit rental housing project – the biggest proposal thus far of them all – on the old Mabee property at the corner of Calzada del Bosque and Via de la Valle. Let this be the final straw, where we stop this endless impending commercial opportunism — once and for all.
With a 29-acre campus, Silvergate’s monster truck of a new-build facility would contain all the trappings of an urbanized city, unfolding across approximately 475,000 square feet — like an Orlando-fied, Sam Walton-inspired Leisure World, weighing in at more than two-and-a-half Walmart Supercenters. Now, there’s not a big-box, bulk-buy, discount megastore and flat-bed shopping cart this girl doesn’t like. But that’s for commercial lots off a strip-mall-pocked boulevard — not our bucolic, bedroom hideaway prized for its historic designation.
Two-And-A-Half Walmart Supercenters
Was it not only a few years ago the RSFA Board of Directors promised to create a bylaw to finally address members’ (275 petitioners) vehement opposition to high densification on this property? Yes it was. I remember, because I was there. In fact, in January of 2019 when I was the editor, the RSF Post launched a campaign with Covenant resident and immediate Mabee neighbor, Saiid Zarrabian, which involved fiercely promoting, publishing, and circulating an anti-densification petition to forever protect our community and bordering areas from Silvergate-like proposals that come with a set of irreversible long-term issues.
The long-suffering squeaky wheel finally got a shot of grease when the Board responded in its Dec. 6, 2019, meeting to the 275-signature-strong petition. Then Board President, Ken Markstein, believed the petitioners “made a strong case,” and confirmed he and his colleagues would begin work on a new bylaw amendment where — even if the Board approved a “high-density” project — it would have to be put to a Covenant-wide vote and receive the approval of at least a two-thirds majority to get the go-ahead. As a development unprecedented in its impact on our landscape and all RSFA owners, Silvergate should be made to meet these conditions before proceeding further.
Petree Property Rental Redux
Two high-density projects by separate developers were proposed on this now near-infamous corner of our enclave, where structural vestiges are suspended as ethereal relics of an estate once owned by Larry Mabee, the son of legendary horse breeders, who, I’m told, planned to develop it into a first-class equestrian facility. What a loss for such an apt intention to fail in its fruition. Mr. Petree was involved with the second (Silvergate being the third) try at turning the property in question into “senior housing.” Both the first and second attempts were squashed for good reason.
Enter the Petree family once again, who, circa 2021, purchased all the Mabee property’s parcels — some Covenant, some not – and set out to convince us that their 162-unit, senior housing rentals with 200 parking spaces were somehow an oversight to Rancho Santa Fe’s Master Plan. This is Oliver-Stone-level revisionism. Do we really think our beloved architectural visionary, Lilian Rice, sat in deep thought, dreamily fantasizing about a 162-rental-unit facility plonked down on a landmark lot at one of Rancho’s main gateways, and just plum forgot? We’re being fed pure fiction, folks — proselytized into believing that for our aging members’ benefit, we must abandon all for which Rancho Santa Fe’s rural, low-density, and historic landscape stands, for a commercial, for-profit, mega development.
Commercial Mega Development
Let’s be clear here: Silvergate is not a residential project – it is a commercial endeavor with an entirely different set of requirements related to: lighting (essentially eliminating dark-sky policy), American Disability Act (ADA) regulations, parking, and various egress/ ingress in the event of flood and or fire, etc. This is above and beyond the Association’s Building Department’s regulations purview for a typical, single-family home in the Ranch.
Team Silvergate is supposedly telling members that, if the development “meets all the regulations,” the Art Jury must approve it. What Pecksniffian twaddle. This proposed project is far from a fait accompli, no matter the speculative tattle du jour. Let’s try to refrain from being reduced to a psycho-analytic category of marketing manipulation — don’t believe the hype, regardless of how many times it’s repeated. I understand the County has not approved anything, and that Silvergate has open applications for grading, a Major Use Permit (MUP), environmental review, and whether an amendment to the County’s General Plan will be required. Is Mr. Petree’s strategic MO to show off an Art Jury and Board stamp of approval praying to get the County’s blessing?
There’s an Amenity for That
Mr. Petree and his two sons who work in the family business at Silvergate’s parent company, AmeriCare Health & Retirement, Inc., have been busy lobbying the community by regularly rocking up at RSFA Board meetings, Art Jury meetings and hosting cocktail informational meet-and-greets at the Golf Club for the better part of two years. They even make whistle-stop-tour pop-ins at the RSF Senior Center (which somehow doesn’t really sit right). And the marketing charm offensive continues in local media outlets with endless ads.
The Petrees maintain that Silvergate’s lux senior living digs will “address a long underserved community need” here in the Ranch. The way they portray their mission, you’d think this was some kind of altruistic charitable outreach in an underprivileged community. But I digress. Supposedly, older Covenant members are hankering for a hangout where food and beverages are served and they can dine and imbibe with friends. You mean like the Golf Club restaurant? Or that seniors want a place where they can practice their putting, or swing around a tennis or pickleball racket. Like the Golf and Tennis Clubs? Or what about a game of cards with your peers? We have the RSF Senior Center in the village and a regular ladies’ bridge game at the club. Fancy regaining the old green thumb potting a bounty of blooms? Association members can do that at the RSF Garden Club. The list goes on. The point is, these are precisely the many reasons people do retire in the Covenant. As a member.
Win-Win? For Whom?
How about the oft-repeated sentiment expressed by seniors of: “I want to stay in my own home.” For the last 100 years this has been the norm — not the exception — in the Ranch. Many aging residents do stay in their home, and are fulfilling that wish indefinitely, often using guest houses (or new Accessory Dwelling Units — ADUs) for live-in caretakers or housekeepers. In fact, studies show that when seniors leave their homes and move into assisted living, their life expectancy actually drops. Have we been fooled by pictures of seniors playing canasta by the pool?
With a slick marketing/PR campaign complete with “I Heart Silvergate” lapel pins and a waiting list reportedly chock full of Covenant converts, the Petrees would have you believe their facility is the one amenity missing from Rancho Santa Fe’s offerings. For the record, anyone who clicks on Silvergate website’s “I’m interested” tab is automatically on the “waitlist,” so the numbers are a bit of a fudge.
Follow the Money
The Petrees argue Covenant residents can’t afford to retire in Rancho Santa Fe (insert slow eye-roll here), so once they sell their estate, they can unpack their suitcase at a Silvergate rental a skip-hop down the road. They call it a win-win for the community: The Association will get higher assessments from the recently sold, Prop-13-protected homes, and residents will only need to pay what I understand is $12,000++ per person, per month to reside in the Ranch. Is that now what we’re calling “affordable” retirement? And since when was our HOA — sitting pretty in one of the wealthiest zip codes in the nation — hard up for hard cash? The logic’s as convincing as living-large Ivy Leagues flush with fat endowments equal to a Central American country’s annual GDP hitting up alumni for alms. If you believe the Ranch is so strapped it’s roused by a little extra assessment revenue, I’ve got a beach house in Iowa I’d like to sell you.
Who is really benefiting here? Senior housing is Big Business. Make no mistake, the Petrees have everything to gain – but at Association members’ expense. The proposed Silvergate project will be the grand, crowning achievement of the Petree AmeriCare empire, where our home zip code will be capitalized on to create cache for a non-Covenant-Member-restricted rental community. This isn’t a Field of Dreams. It’s a nightmare.
Act Now
Other towns where Mr. Petree’s cut-and-paste senior-care homes are replicated may be OK with all this. And that’s fine. But Silvergate doesn’t belong in Rancho Santa Fe. Period. There. I said the quiet part out loud.
About 140 people signed a petition last October asking the Board to hire a Land Use attorney to deal with this densification issue once and for all. The Board and Association Manager Dominique Albrecht said they wouldn’t be able to act until the Petrees submitted their project to the Art Jury. That day is here.
The Silvergate project will be presented to the Art Jury at 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, October 8, at the Association office at Avenida de Acacias. The RSF Post urges members to show up and speak up. Public member input in person is preferred, however those who cannot attend may email comments to the Building Commissioner Joel Levanetz at: joel@rsfassociation.org.