Why this matters
North City has been praised as a development that reinvigorates San Marcos’ downtown and helps the city meet its housing goals. But one family says it’s at their expense.
One day in December, Liz Santos lay down in an easement next to her house to prevent a bulldozer from crossing into her property. It was the last remaining effort she could think of to protect her family’s three-decade-old land in San Marcos.
It’s a battle she’s been fighting for years, and one that is soon headed to court.
The Santos family has owned two homes on East Barham Drive since 1980, and were excited about what neighboring development would bring. A nearly 200-acre project would mean homes, businesses and community spaces for the city’s downtown.
But as the North City development progresses, the family feels like they are being pushed out by a “coordinated effort” by the developer and the city.
When Santos’ father bought 134 and 140 East Barham Drive, the houses were surrounded by neighbors with single-family homes. Today, they are surrounded by empty gravel lots owned by developer Urban Villages San Marcos, which is preparing to develop the land.
Santos said the developers began construction that encroached on an easement for their property without their permission and hindered the family’s access. In February 2023, the company sued for full ownership of the easement.
“While we support local revitalization, we do not support the weaponization of city resources to ‘steal’ property rights from long-term residents,” Santos said.
Attorney Rebecca Fortune, who represents the developers, did not comment on the pending lawsuit, but disputed some of Santos’ claims about interactions with workers at the site.
‘Years-long pressure campaign’
Santos and her 82-year-old mother, Gloria Santos, don’t currently live on the site, but they hope future generations of the family can live there.
Liz Santos’ brother lives in one of the family’s two homes in San Marcos, and renters live in the other. There’s an easement on the property for entrance onto the land since 1959.
By 2018, Urban Villages San Marcos had bought the land surrounding the Santos property and knocked down the structures for redevelopment, according to court records.
The Santos family declined to sell to the developers, but the city did purchase some of the family’s land through eminent domain for a road widening project to facilitate redevelopment in the area. That arrangement required the demolition of their homes, but the family figured they’d rebuild on the site.
Then, in the middle of negotiations in 2023 over the easement to access their property, the family was hit with a surprise lawsuit from the North City developers seeking to take ownership of the easement .
Urban Villages San Marcos said in a so-called quiet title action that it had acquired title to the parcels surrounding the family with the exception of the Santos parcels and that something had to change: “While providing no beneficial value to the trust parcel, the continued existence of the Easement creates harm to the Urban Villages Parcels in that its existence is negatively impacting Plaintiff’s ability to obtain certain entitlements from the City of San Marcos for and/or to develop and finance development of the Urban Villages Parcels and neighboring parcels.”
The complaint says that the company’s intention is to “develop the entire block” other than the Santos land, and that the family has not used the easement to travel in or out for more than 20 years.
Santos’ father previously had a special use permit for the easement to store heavy equipment in the back, and he used it to back up trucks and equipment for storage. That special use permit is no longer active, according to legal documents.
Liz Santos said the family still uses the easement, and she’s ready to go to court. She said the developers have put up fencing that blocks access.
In legal filings, Urban Villages San Marcos argues that the family no longer needs an easement as they have direct access to Barnham Drive.
Santos thinks the developer’s lawsuit is part of a “years-long pressure campaign.”
“Because we refused to sell our homes, they have resorted to legal warfare with the City’s assistance,” Santos said.
Matthew Lab, a San Diego State University lecturer with expertise in property law and easements, called the lawsuit “befuddling.” He said he’s seen lawsuits over easements before, but that it seemed an “uphill battle” to prove that the family had abandoned the easement.
San Marcos spokesperson Nikki Matosian told inewsource the city needed the part of the Santos property to widen Barham Drive based on the University District Specific Plan, which the city adopted in 2009 to create a “vibrant, urban, and pedestrian friendly downtown area” in San Marcos.
“The property to be acquired will be used exclusively for these public road improvements, not for any private developer use,” she said.
Negotiations between the city and the family stalled when the family was served with the lawsuit, and Matosian said talks can’t be completed until the lawsuit is settled.
“No municipality can take any steps to extinguish an easement,” Lab said. “But at the same time, it’s in the city’s best interest to see this development go forward.”
A revitalized city center
In the meantime, the Santos family has seen their section of San Marcos transform.
North City is a much-praised project meant to invigorate the city’s center.
Upon buildout, its 200 downtown acres could have 3,400 residential units, 250 hotel rooms, 1.1 million square feet of office space and 345,000 square feet of retail.
The development has helped put San Marcos on track to meet its stand-mandated housing goals, Voice of San Diego reported earlier this year.
Documents show the development was years in the making, and came together via land transfers between the city and the developers around the Santos’ property.
It is not an uncommon arrangement.
“The state Assembly here in California, and other states as well, have put pressure on the cities to change their master plan to include more zoning for higher density housing,” Lab said. “But there are consequences to it, and the consequences are such that we’re seeing here with the decrease in single family homes.”
Santos doesn’t think the city should be moving ahead with the project while there is active litigation.
“What would happen with our properties?” Santos said. “Would we be able to redevelop? We don’t know that, because they don’t provide that information.”
Santos has spoken out at many city meetings, including at a May 18 Planning Commission meeting, when the city approved a master sign program for the area. A map of the University District Specific Plan includes the family’s land, though Matosian said no signs are proposed on the Santos property. It’s unclear how new traffic patterns would affect their property.
Drama and damage at the site
In addition to the legal battle, Santos has had direct confrontations with workers at the site.
On the day she lay on the ground near her home in December, Santos said she got into an argument with a construction worker in a bulldozer coming onto the easement. She lay down knowing he would not run over her, but she said he threatened her. She called the police, and the responding officer said someone would be arrested if the fight didn’t stop.
That worker eventually left, but later a small excavator that came to do work on the Urban Villages San Marcos property started getting into the easement, and she stood in front of the excavator.
She said when she turned, it hit her and her knees hyperextended.
Fortune, the attorney, said that neither she nor Urban Villages San Marcos had any knowledge of Santos ever being harmed.
“Frankly, if a UVSM contractor had backed into Ms. Santos, I would think her lawyer would have reached out to me immediately,” Fortune said. “He didn’t.”
In September, Liz Santos said a construction crew was working on the easement and a chunk of concrete hit and shattered the window of her car as her mother was getting out.
Fortune said that a rock did hit the car, but a mobile windshield repair company was called and repaired the damaged car window within hours.
Despite the aggravation, Liz Santos said she and her brother still dream of growing old on the property. They’ve had several discussions about the future and what that would look like.
“Our goal is to rebuild, or whatever the city will allow us to do,” Liz Santos said. “My nieces and nephews, family, I have cousins, I have friends that could live here. Even I could come back to live here.”
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
