The Silvergate retirement living project is moving forward in the Rancho Santa Fe Association’s Art Jury review process. At the latest hearing on March 10, the Art Jury voted 4-0 to approve the project’s bulk and mass and advance the application to the plan review stage, where they will take a deep dive into the project’s lighting and landscaping details.
After the developers presented a reduced project without a second story on the proposed memory care building, the Art Jury moved to put it back in.
According to RSF Association Building Commissioner Joel Levanetz, “In light of the reductions to architectural bulk and mass resulting from the incorporation of apartment breezeways and the elimination of several cottage buildings, the Art Jury motioned that they were willing to reconsider the inclusion of a second-story element on the memory care building.”
Silvergate Rancho Santa Fe is a development proposed on the long-vacant lot on Calzada del Bosque, including a mix of 148 age-restricted units across rental cottages, apartments and memory care units with amenities such as a restaurant, clubhouse, spa and recreation all included on site.
The Art Jury and RSF Association review process will be conducted in parallel with the project’s review at the county level.
“The goal is to keep moving forward,” said Greg Petree, president of AmeriCare Health and Retirement, the Solana Beach-based developers of Silvergate. “We feel over the last three years we’ve been highly accommodating to a variety of Art Jury members.”
The March 10 hearing was Silvergate’s eighth meeting with the Art Jury and the first with a brand new jury that includes three newly seated members. Currently, the Art Jury is down one member as Stephanie Kilkenny resigned.
Responding to the last review in October 2025, Petree said they made “significant” changes, including architectural refinements and a reduction in the project’s footprint from 29 acres to approximately 23 acres—a nearly 20% decrease in the overall land area.
One of the biggest updates was the removal of two county parcels, which Petree said eliminates concerns about Covenant annexation and building within the 100- year flood plain. With the development, AmeriCare would have raised the site out of the FEMA flood plain, but Petree said the threat of flooding was often used as a “scare tactic” by opponents.
Pulling out the two acres also eliminated 10 of the proposed 40 cottages.
A rendering of a proposed cottage at the Silvergate Rancho Santa Fe development. (AmeriCare)
Design changes over the last several months include adding breezeways to the apartment buildings to break up the massing, spacing out the cottages to add more landscaping between them, reducing the size of the main entrance road from 75 feet to 50 feet, and making the interior road more meandering.
After a preliminary review with the fire department, they also added a second emergency exit on Via de la Valle.
“We’ve taken six months to figure out what we can do to try and accommodate Art Jury requests while keeping the project feasible and still offering the level of community that residents want. We feel we found that balance,” Petree said. “We are grateful for the Art Jury’s thoughtful and professional review… We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with the Art Jury as we further refine the plans, including landscaping and lighting, during the next review phase.”
At the March 10 hearing, which is open only to Covenant residents, the Art Jury provided for about two hours of member input on the project. According to Levanetz, there were 10 members who spoke out against the project and nine comments from those in favor.
During public comment at the Rancho Santa Fe Association board’s March 12 meeting later that week, resident Jeff Brooks characterized the Art Jury hearing as an “unmitigated train wreck”—he said the second story was added back into the project with less than five minutes of deliberation from the jurors.
The long-vacant lot on Calzada del Bosque and Via de la Valle, proposed to be the new Silvergate development. (Karen Billing)
Rancho Santa Fe resident Annie Finch said the meeting room was packed, with people overflowing into the hall, but the proceedings were very civil. She complimented the Art Jury for how they conducted the meeting, but said it was admittedly a bit of a “mic drop” when President Tom Walper called for a vote on the bulk and mass, putting the second story back in.
Finch is strongly opposed to Silvergate and has hosted several of her own town hall meetings to discuss the project with her neighbors.
“My biggest concern is everything,” she said. “A gated rental community doesn’t belong in the Covenant.”
Finch said she moved to the community for its rural character and this project seems to bring a lot of cement and traffic as an “active, commercial business.” As the property is not zoned for medical uses, she also has concerns about how people who move into the development will be cared for, outside of the memory care facility.
An organized group called Protect the Covenant has also made its opposition clear, posting signs throughout the community with messages like “Protect San Dieguito Valley” and “Stop Silvergate”. Their opposition to the “megacity” centers on the high density, the traffic impact on already congested roads, the risk of wildfire and evacuations, light pollution and the potential to set a precedent for future commercial projects and density. “The approval of the project would be the beginning of the end of the Rancho Santa Fe Protective Covenant,” the group states on its website, protectthecovenant.net
While Finch is not a member of Protect the Covenant, she shares the same worry that more development will creep into the Ranch if Silvergate is approved.
“It just doesn’t fit,” Finch said. “It’s too big of a project…this is really changing our whole Covenant.”
Finch, who is now a candidate for the RSF Association Board of Directors, believes that a project of this size should be put to a community-wide vote.
Last year, the Association board passed a resolution determining that the proposed senior living community complies with the property’s current zoning of Class C, which allows for higher-density development. While institutional or medical uses are prohibited in Class C, Silvergate has stated that medical care will not be provided in the project’s assisted living units.
While traffic studies will likely be a part of Silvergate’s review process at the county level, Petree has pushed back on the concerns about traffic impacts.
“Senior living is known to have one of the least impacts on traffic,” he said, noting that seniors don’t drive as much, community transportation will be provided for residents, and staff shifts are purposely scheduled during non-peak hours to avoid adding to rush hour traffic.
Rancho Santa Fe resident Pertti Visuri has been a Silvergate supporter since the very beginning and spoke out again in favor of the development at the latest Art Jury hearing.
“I think it fits well, it’s beautiful the way it’s designed,” Visuri said. “The Art Jury process has worked. It’s been long but at the end of the day, I think it’s a nicer-looking and better project as it is now moving forward.”
Visuri said he was excited when he first learned about the proposed development and when he heard that there was an opposition group, he formed his own group, the Rancho Santa Fe Friends of Retirement (RSFfriendsofretirement.org)
“I think this is a tremendous need in the community and there has been for a long time for something like this,” said Visuri.
With more than 850 Covenant residents currently over the age of 75, he said there is an urgent need for smaller homes that are “less demanding,” allowing for people to remain in the community that they love. He said it’s a good opportunity for seniors to not only downsize but to become a part of a vibrant development where they can make friends, socialize and share in activities.
“It just seems like every community should have an option for that,” Visuri said. “It’s not for everybody, but it’s very important that the option is there.”
Petree has said that time is of the essence for seniors. AmeriCare hopes to get through the review process at the RSF Association and county and begin construction in 2027, with the community ready to welcome residents by 2030. When you’re 80, Petree said, three years matter, and it’s important to start building as soon as they can.
“We are taking the Art Jury process very seriously,” Petree said. “We’ve done everything we can to accommodate the demands while still ensuring the integrity of the project and the ability to build the kind of senior living experience that we’re known for, and the seniors in the Ranch are excited about.”