New Vision North County Minor Conditional Use Permit / PL25-0135
Summary
SCH Number
2026030978
Public Agency
City of Escondido
Document Title
New Vision North County Minor Conditional Use Permit / PL25-0135
Document Type
NOE - Notice of Exemption
Received
Posted
3/24/2026
Document Description
Approval of a Minor Conditional Use Permit to allow a religious assembly use with ancillary counseling services within a 2,708 square-foot (sq. ft.) tenant suite (suite 363) in the existing 1,268,185 sq. ft. Mershops Mall retail center. The site maintains a Planned Commercial (PC) General Plan Land Use Designation, and a zoning designation of Planned Development – Commercial (PD-C).
Contact Information
Name
Juan de Dios Vaca Saucedo
Agency Name
New Vision North County
Job Title
Applicant
Contact Types
Project Applicant / Parties Undertaking Project
Phone
Email
Name
Melissa DiMarzo
Agency Name
City of Escondido
Job Title
Assistant Planner II
Contact Types
Lead/Public Agency
Phone
Location
Cities
Escondido
Counties
San Diego
Regions
Southern California
Cross Streets
East Via Rancho Parkway and Beethoven Drive
Zip
92025
Total Acres
29
Parcel #
271-030-20-00
Notice of Exemption
Exempt Status
Categorical Exemption
Type, Section or Code
15301 (Existing Facilities)
Reasons for Exemption
The Project consists of minor interior alterations to an existing interior suite within a regional mall. The use is consistent with the General Plan Designation and adopted Commercial Planned Development’s allowable uses for the retail center, and no environmental impacts are anticipated as a result of the Project. No physical expansion of the building would occur.
Further, the Project also does not trigger any exceptions to categorical exemptions identified in CEQA Guidelines section 15300.2. in that:
a. Location. The Project utilizes a Class 1 categorical exemption that is not subject to the considerations listed under Classes 3 (New Construction or Conversion of Small Structures), 4 (Minor Alterations to Land), 5 (Minor Alterations in Land Use Limitations), 6 (Information Collection), and 11 (Accessory Structures), which are qualified by consideration of where the project is to be located – a project that is ordinarily insignificant in its impact on the environment may in a particularly sensitive environment be significant. Therefore, these classes are considered to apply all instances, except where the project may impact on an environmental resource of hazardous or critical concern where designated, precisely mapped, and officially adopted pursuant to law by federal, state, or local agencies.
b. Cumulative Impact. The are no cumulative impacts that would occur due to successive projects of the same type in the same place over time as any potential impacts to the site have already been addressed by the General Plan Environmental Impact Report, and no expansion of the building is proposed under this Project, and the use is permitted by the governing master plan subject to a use permit.
c. Significant Effect. There are no unusual circumstances surrounding the Project that would result in a reasonable possibility that the activity will have a significant effect on the environment because the Project would utilize an interior suite in the existing shopping center and the proposed use is consistent with the allowable uses for the center per the Master Plan for the site.
d. Scenic Highways. The Project would not result in damage to scenic resources, including but not limited to, trees, historic buildings, rock outcroppings, or similar resources, within a highway officially designated as a state scenic highway, as no exterior construction is being proposed, and no external impacts are anticipated as a result of the religious assembly use. Further, the nearest adjacent highway, Interstate 15 (I-15) is not officially designated as a state scenic highway.
e. Hazardous Waste Sites. The Project site is not located on a site which is included on any list compiled pursuant to Section 65962.5 of the Government Code.
f. Historical Resources. The Project would not cause a substantial adverse change in the significance of a historical resource as the Project site does not contain a historic resource, nor is the Project resulting in any external changes to the site.
County Clerk
San Diego
Attachments
Notice of Exemption
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