San Marcos keeps approving housing on constrained escape roads without proving people can get off those roads onto SR-78 and I-15 in a wildfire—including when those freeways are already jammed.

On normal peak weekdays, 78 and 15 near San Marcos/Escondido are already strained: SR-78 carries ~160,000 vehicles/day and is a recurring top-tier bottleneck (Barham; San Marcos–Escondido). The I-15/78 interchange is at or over capacity much of the day, with heavy weaving, ~7–15 minute connector delays, queues that can back ~1 mile onto I-15, and hundreds of queue/weave crashes. Twin Oaks cannot freely dump onto 78/15 at peak—and City wildfire plans already treat Twin Oaks as a backup when those freeways fail.

North City / University District is entitled for ~3,400 homes and is not done filling. Early projects are occupied; 222 North City (~460 units) is leasing but was only ~10% leased at opening; Hills District (~612–627 homes) is still selling/building. Twin Oaks already carries today’s partial build-out and will get worse when the rest fill—on the order of 5,000–6,000+ vehicles from North City residential alone in a mass exit, pushing multi-hour clearance toward 78/15. We are not asking to undo finished North City. We are asking: stop adding unapproved density until a corridor evacuation study proves people can get off Twin Oaks onto 78 and 15 safely—and cut density on those pending projects as needed.

Pending projects we oppose without that study / density cut: • Oakcrest Specific Plan (Meritage) — ~257 homes on North Twin Oaks, exit only onto Twin Oaks • San Elijo Hills Town Center Multifamily / Pad F (Ambient, SDP24-0009) — 31 apartments between San Elijo Rd North & South (same City pattern; Cocos Fire already showed multi-hour gridlock) • Urban Villages at Twin Oaks & North City Dr — mixed-use/hotel expansion still in review • UDSP expansion / self-storage at Twin Oaks & North City Dr — still in planning/CEQA • Twin Oaks Valley Winery and Woodmont preschool on Twin Oaks — smaller pending uses on the same spine

Twin Oaks near 78 already runs ~25,000–26,000 vehicles/day. Rough clearance toward 78/15: ~1–3 hours under realistic conditions; ~2–5+ hours when freeways are busy—and longer as North City fills or freeways fail. Site driveway studies are not a corridor fire-evacuation study.

We ask the City of San Marcos to:

1. Continue / withhold approval of Oakcrest, San Elijo Pad F, Urban Villages, UDSP expansion, and other not-yet-approved projects on Twin Oaks– or San Elijo–constrained routes until a public corridor fire-evacuation study shows safe exit onto 78/15 (busy peaks and freeway-failure cases).
2. Reduce density on those not-yet-approved projects to meet VMT and fire-safety / evacuation limits.
   Approve no new density on these escape routes until that study exists and the project is shown not to worsen unsafe clearance times.
   
   Sign if you live in San Marcos, Twin Oaks, North City, University District, San Elijo Hills, or anywhere that needs these roads in a fire.