By Mike Allen
Photo by Scott Lagace: Santee firefighters saved the life of an unconscious woman during a July 2024 fire that engulfed her mobile home, also administering oxygen to save a cat.
March 14, 2025 (Santee) -- Santee knows it has to be better when it comes to providing fire protection to its residents, and after a sales tax-funded plan for new fire stations failed in November, its City Council made improving that essential service as its top priority.
In fairness, the Council was already focused on getting a couple of new stations to double the current number—two—to serve a population of more than 60,000.
It was building a temporary station off Olive Way where it formerly used to keep its maintenance operations, and was planning a new station in the north part of the city. Yet the Council was hoping the half-cent hike to local sales taxes would finance the improvements. Not so fast, said voters who rejected the plan.
At its March 12 meeting, the Council set building new fire stations—along with finding new ways to pay for them--as its No. 1 goal from a list of ten.
City Manager Marlene Best rattled off what the city was already doing including adding new trucks, more emergency medical personnel, completing the temporary station, designing a permanent station at the operations yard, and conducting a study for a third station in the north part of the city.
“We’re also looking at the potential for a new funding measure,” Best said. That could mean another sales tax hike or raising taxes on property owners.
The remainder of the list mirrored what the priorities were two years ago, with Best giving updates on whether goals were accomplished or what the status was. The entire five-member board made no comment about the list.
The number two priority two years ago, considering annexing West Hills Parkway and surrounding parcels, is still up in the air. Best said the Council wants to work with one property owner to ensure his project conforms to Santee’s higher standards. The fact is that this property, indeed all of West Hills Parkway, remains in the city of San Diego so whatever Santee wants could be ignored as was the case when San Diego approved the Castlerock/ now Weston development.
At No. 3, continued focus on road paving, which is always an item that generates lots of complaints, especially on West Hills Parkway.
Fourth, expand economic opportunities through a recently adopted Arts & Entertainment District. The city has a vision of turning the Town Center and its surrounding area into a village that would feature art galleries, dance studios, theaters, restaurants and bars. It also will be deciding on who will run a total of four cannabis shops in the industrial-zoned areas of the city by early July.
Fifth, a new building permit system, has been implemented so that should make it easier to get all those new galleries and theaters built faster. It also redid the city website and has a new app to make interactions with the city easier.
Sixth, continue focus on risk reductions, meaning fires, from homeless folks camping in the city, particularly in the San Diego riverbed. Best said since the city hired an outreach person two years ago, the number of encampments cleaned was 120, and 16 in the last month. She also noted that a recent count of the homeless population in Santee fell to 46 from 112 one year ago.
The seventh priority, looking for ways to improve the trails linked to Mission Trails Park, particularly at Big Rock Park, was put on the backburner, Best said, due to the fact that most of the land remains in San Diego County, not the city.
But the Council once again wants to make safety on its trails a priority and ranked it at eight. Best said among the efforts to make the trails safer is the possible adoption a video camera system, now in the testing phase, that would be monitored by the Sheriffs Department.
At No. 9 is the continued reduction in the city’s liabilities involving the pensions it must pay to retired workers, which it has been doing by making higher annual contributions to that budget expense over the last four years.
The tenth priority and one that was achieved in January was completing a development impact fee study and adopting a new set of fees charged to new development that took effect March 10.
Among the add-ons, but not officially tabbed as a priority, the Council wants to adopt a funding plan for a community center behind the Cameron YMCA. Best said a workshop on this is scheduled for April 9. The cost for the center was estimated at $50 million a few years ago.
At one point, the center was a darling project for most officials but in light of the pressures from building new fire stations, that may have to be put on the backburner too.
