An eight-story, mixed-use development with 360 apartments and 62 hotel rooms proposed for the 1.72-acre site of an old Motel 6 and an abandoned restaurant on North Coast Highway, received unanimous approval Wednesday from the Oceanside City Council.
The council and residents alike praised the Modera Neptune project and the way the developer has worked with residents to address concerns about traffic, a shared border with an adjacent mobile home park and other issues.
Located near the access ramps to Interstate 5 and state Route 76, the property is a high-visibility spot considered a gateway to the city. It will include the required minimum of 10 percent affordable housing and is near public transit and other services that allow the buildings to be taller and more densely populated than otherwise allowed by the city.
“The building is very attractive, much nicer than the existing eyesore,” said a woman who lives nearby on Tremont Street. She called the development “a welcome solution” to the aging motel on the property.
Wednesday’s approval included a development plan, a tentative parcel map, a conditional use permit, a density bonus, and a local coastal permit for the project.
Dan Niebaum of the Lightfoot Planning Group, as a representative of developer Mill Creek Residential Trust, said Mill Creek has been working with city officials for three years on the proposal.
The developer will pay an estimated $9.2 million in fees, including $1.8 million for schools and $1.6 million for parks, and will install a traffic signal at North Coast Highway and Neptune Way, Neibaum said.
The building will have 260 one-bedroom apartments averaging 726 square feet and 100 two-bedroom apartments averaging 1,068 square feet, most with a private deck or patio. Residents will have access to a rooftop deck and swimming pool. The hotel will be a separate, seven-story part of the same building with a lobby on the ground floor.
The parking structure will provide 493 spaces, which is 21 more than required and includes 62 spaces for the hotel and 13 for apartment guests, he said. Spaces for apartment residents will be assigned.
Access to the parking structure will be from Neptune Way, and the hotel will have a five-minute loading and unloading zone on North Coast Highway.
Oceanside’s Planning Commission approved a different Mill Creek project last year called Moderna Melrose, a six-building, multi-story, mixed-use development near the Vista border with 323 apartments, a parking garage and ground-floor space for restaurants and shops.
The site at the southeast corner of Melrose Drive and West Bobier Drive is near a Sprinter train station and includes 33 apartments for low income households, which qualifies the project for a density bonus.
Mill Creek also built the seven-story, 368-unit Modera San Diego that opened in 2021 on K Street near Petco Park in downtown San Diego.
Modera San Diego has studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. The complex includes a rooftop pool, bowling lanes, a fitness studio, clubhouse, lounge areas, storage lockers and work-from-home features.
Some Oceanside council said that, even though they liked Modera Neptune, they had reservations about adding so many apartments downtown. The project is among a number of large residential buildings recently completed, approved or proposed in the area.
“It’s huge,” said Councilmember Eric Joyce. “We are getting so many of these projects … we need a comprehensive downtown plan for the potential doubling of residents in the downtown area … how that affects mobility, walking, biking and driving.”
City Manager Jonathan Borrego said he can bring a proposal for a downtown master plan to the council in September.
