David Hawkins, Randy Brown, John Scafani, Bettie Sax, Richard Sax, and Rick Woolsey at The Lofts at Moonlight Beach’s ground breaking ceremony last month

Banner image: The Lilian At Rancho Santa Fe

Developments In North County’s Future
Rancho Santa Fe doesn’t see a whole lot of Village development, but a new project of mixed-use housing units and retail space is being proposed. The Lilian at Rancho Santa Fe, named after Lilian Rice, the visionary architect behind the Ranch’s Village, will be erected on the corner of El Tordo and Avenida de Acacias. Providing the proposed plans pass the private community’s standards, that is.

"The current plans for the Lilian are 11 residential units and 1,000 square feet of retail space," says Allard Jansen, the architect of the project. "It will have 113 underground parking spaces, doubling what is currently available on that corner. This means 26 extra spaces available to the banks or retailers for customers."

"Parking is just one of the amenities that the Lilian has," says Lisa Beaumont, a resident of Rancho Santa Fe and the coordinator of the Lilian project for the developer and architect. "Certainly the Village needs more parking, but what I’m most excited about is the option of living in RSF without the work of maintaining a house on two acres. Since all my children are in college, I don’t need this big home anymore, but I don’t want to leave the Ranch, either."

Marie Addario, president of the Rancho Santa Fe Association, likes the idea of having a home right in the Village that allows a resident to easily walk to the Village’s services. "When I moved here in 1978, there were more retailers that supported the Village — a hardware store, two gas stations, markets. When the cost of rent and leases became exorbitant, the small businesses left." This perhaps explains the large number of real estate companies, mortgage offices, and banks found in the Village today.

While many residents are in favor of The Lilian at Rancho Santa Fe’s step-down housing — housing for "empty-nest" middle-aged people or for active seniors — and are pleased that it will attract new business ventures, The Lilian at Rancho Santa Fe is no shoo-in. "The reason we’re unsure of whether it will be the Lilian or some other project is because we are very early in the process," says Addario. This sentiment is echoed by Beaumont and Jansen, as well as the Ranch’s building commissioner, Robert Green. "We’re really at the information sharing and community awareness stage," he says.

The process of obtaining approval for such a development is arduous, to say the least. In 1928, the town’s Protective Covenant was assembled, approved, and recorded on much of the community’s land area by the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company and some of the landowners. The objective of the Covenant is "preserving, continuing and maintaining [the] character of the community and rare landscape features and upholding the quality of all future architecture and improvements and of restricting the use, height and bulk of buildings."

Based on the ideals of Rice and the Covenant, the Rancho Santa Fe Association Art Jury was formed. The Art Jury must approve and report its approval to the RSF Association as to whether a development, such as the Lilian, meets the artistic standards and conforms to size and bulk requirements. This is to ensure that the project "blends" into the landscape.

The Lilian was submitted for consideration by Jansen on behalf of the developer, Joe Pinsonneault, in November 2006 and presented at an Association meeting in December. Since that time, Jansen and Beaumont have worked with Green and the Art Jury to ensure that the Lilian is the best project available for the community while upholding Covenant principles.

Over in neighboring Encinitas, Richard Sax, the president of Distinctive Projects Company and the mastermind behind The Lofts at Moonlight Beach, had similar challenges in getting his development off the ground (though the project is running full steam ahead now). "It took two-and-a-half years from the introduction of the concept to the Encinitas Planning Commission to the groundbreaking," says Sax.

Why so long? The Encinitas Planning Commission appointed a subcommittee of two architects and one realtor to help develop the plans with Sax. These plans were presented to the city in a number of public forums where Sax received comments from the community and the city. "The ultimate product was well worth the wait. And it’s something I’m proud of."

The Lofts at Moonlight Beach are 18 two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath lofts that range from 1,600 to 2,500 square feet. All have ocean views. There are potentially 15 business condos, live/work spaces with commercial space ranging from 600 to 1,200 feet.

Besides the length of time it took to assemble the perfect product, there was resistance from some community members when it came to knocking down the 101 Artists’ Colony. Further resistance came from a group called Keep Leucadia Funky, who wanted to see these buildings stay since they added character to the community.

"The buildings were broken down and no amount of commercial renovation would have made the buildings worthy of occupying," Sax says. "There was no demand for the buildings even if we could have rehabbed them."

Despite these challenges, or because of them, The Lofts at Moonlight Beach is the first of more live/work developments on the horizon for the beach community. The Leucadia Business Corridor Master Plan has specific language to support these kinds of developments.

"We were the first of this type of project, but we’re certainly not going to be the last," affirms Sax. In fact, there are 14 such mixed-use projects in various stages of completion in Encinitas. But none larger than the Pacific Station development, which is proposing 47 condominiums on top of approximately 10,000 square feet of office space, and 42,000 square feet of retail space. A large anchor store, such as a grocery store or pharmacy, will be identified sometime this fall. Three types of condos will be available from $450,000 to $1 million.

The Pacific Station development has taken about two-and-a-half years to get off the ground. "We are working with the community, and have received a lot of input from both the community and the city as to what will be an Encinitas-compatible development," says developer John DeWald. "We’re excited because we think we’ve found an interesting project that will support a beach-urban lifestyle. The beach is nearby, as well as markets and restaurants, and the railroad and Encinitas Commuter Station. It will be good to have more people living in downtown Encinitas, which will bring vibrancy to the area."

The Pacific Station site at 687 South Coast Highway 101 was the location of the headquarters and print shop for the former Coast Dispatch newspaper. The building will be dismantled and removed in order to break ground this winter. DeWald hopes to complete Pacific Station in early spring of ’09.

If there was any doubt about the larger community embracing the Lofts project, the billboard advertisement on the corner of Encinitas Boulevard and Highway 101 says it all. "In the 30 days the billboard has been up, we’ve already had 200 reservations and 100 hits a day on our Web site," says Sax. "Now that’s satisfying." The Lofts at Moonlight will be completed in summer of 2008.

While The Lofts at Moonlight Beach truly offers a live/work opportunity, The Lilian at Rancho Santa Fe does not, with the current plans offering only 1,000 square feet for commercial space. There are, however similarities between the two mixed-use projects. In fact, Rice envisioned this back in the 1920s when she planned the four Lilian row houses in the Village and the commercial buildings in the Ranch.

"I can’t speak for Lilian Rice," says Beaumont, who studied Rice architecture for two years before having her own home built. "I do think she would recognize a lot of her details in the project. But, it’s the restraint of her architecture that is hard to pull off in this day of 'bigger is better.’"

"We’re not there yet," Jansen says of his design. "But hopefully we’re getting closer to the project the community wants." Jansen will go back to the drawing board and prepare the next design with the comments from the Art Jury, building commissioner, the RSF Association, and community. A model of The Lilian at Rancho Santa Fe and plans are available at the RSF Association for community input. Green, the Ranch’s building commissioner, is ready to listen. — Michelle Zive, photos courtesy of Allard Jansen, Maple Dell + McClelland, and Janet Newcomb