Feedback about development of Escondido's’s proposed Safari Highlands Ranch by neighboring citizens and city officials will delay groundbreaking for a few months, according to the developer, Solana Beach, CA-based Concordia Homes. Pictured is the envisioned entrance to Safari Highlands Ranch.

The 1,098-acre luxury community includes 550 homes and 750 acres of open space. In the hills above the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park in the San Pasqual Valley, it will be the largest housing project developed in Escondido in a quarter of a century, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune.

City officials had originally believed the project would be approved by the planning commission by year-end and voted on by the City Council in early 2017, noted a San Diego Union Tribune report. The property will have to be rezoned higher density, as current zoning only allows 27 homes to be built there.

Residents west of the project contend the new subdivision would have a detrimental effect on traffic and overburden schools, and neighbors to the north say it would disrupt their quiet, rural way of life. This is not the first time a developer has eyed this piece of land. Escondido developer Joe Crowder had planned in the early 2000s to build 403 homes, a 250-room resort hotel and an 18-hole golf course on the property, but abandoned the plan due to community opposition. [SDUT]