At the center of the controversy is Silvergate Rancho Santa Fe, a sprawling retirement community proposed by Solana Beach-based AmeriCare Health & Retirement on approximately 23 acres near Via de la Valle and Calzada del Bosque, across from Chino Farms. The project would include 94 apartments, 30 cottages and 44 memory-care units for residents 60 and older, along with dining, fitness and recreational amenities.
But what began as a fight over one senior community has exploded into something much larger: a debate over whether Rancho Santa Fe's century-old protections should continue insulating the famously low-density enclave from the development pressures reshaping virtually every other corner of San Diego County.
The stakes rose again in late August when the Rancho Santa Fe Association's Art Jury voted unanimously, 5-0, to approve the project's Plan Review phase and advance Silvergate toward Final Review. That does not mean construction is imminent: the development still faces additional Association review and a separate County approval process, including a Major Use Permit.
Leading the fight is Protect Rancho Santa Fe, an organization that says it now represents more than 500 Rancho Santa Fe Association members and additional residents from surrounding communities. Its stated mission is blunt: stop "all high density, commercial development" that threatens Rancho Santa Fe's "peaceful, rural way of life."
The people behind that movement aren't political novices. President Russ Penniman is a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral and former F-14 pilot who now manages private real-estate ventures and previously co-founded an engineering company. He has also served four terms on the board overseeing the Del Mar Fairgrounds and Racetrack, including two as president.
Vice President Dick Clotfelter, born in Rancho Santa Fe in 1937, has spent more than six decades in commercial real estate, including private real-estate development. Board member Spencer Sloan Rosendahl is herself a commercial real-estate professional who previously led the successful campaign opposing the proposed Del Mar Resort. Executive Director Pascale Kourie has a graduate degree in international real estate and planning and previously worked in real-estate private equity. Board member Roxana Foxx is a former president of the Rancho Santa Fe Association and former chair of both the Republican Party of San Diego County and the Lincoln Club.
In other words, this isn't simply a collection of homeowners unfamiliar with development. Several of the people trying to stop Silvergate have substantial experience in development, commercial real estate, planning or political organizing themselves. And they say the project is simply too much.
Protect Rancho Santa Fe argues Silvergate would threaten traffic flow, emergency evacuation, property values and the rural character residents bought into. It also fears approving Silvergate could establish a precedent for additional high-density development elsewhere within the Covenant.
Silvergate strongly disputes that characterization. AmeriCare points out that the site's Class C Covenant designation permits up to 50% site coverage and buildings as tall as 35 feet. Silvergate says approximately 26% of the property would actually be developed, with buildings limited to one and two stories.
The developer has also made more than 20 significant changes during years of review, including shrinking the project footprint from approximately 29 acres to 23, removing structures from the 100-year flood zone and adding a second emergency-only entrance and exit.
The company behind it isn't an outside corporate developer parachuting into Rancho Santa Fe, either. AmeriCare is a locally owned company controlled by the Petree family that has operated in North County for more than four decades, with Silvergate retirement communities in Fallbrook, San Marcos and Rancho Bernardo. Founder and CEO David Petree is joined by sons Greg Petree, AmeriCare's president and COO, and Matt Petree, who oversees property development.
AmeriCare argues Silvergate fills an obvious hole in Rancho Santa Fe: residents can spend decades living there but have virtually nowhere inside the community to go when maintaining a large estate becomes impractical or they need assisted living or memory care.
More than 200 families have already joined Silvergate's waiting list, according to the developer. The company now anticipates a possible 2030 opening.
Supporter Kathi Mallick summarized the argument during the review process: "A retirement facility does not compete with our community, it completes our community."
Perhaps the most extraordinary part of the dispute involves Rancho Santa Fe's Protective Covenant itself.
Opponents point to nearly century-old language prohibiting institutions for the "care, cure or restraint of the mentally impaired," arguing that the provision makes Silvergate's proposed memory-care operation impermissible. Protect Rancho Santa Fe says approving it would therefore require changing the Covenant through its formal supermajority process.
That creates a remarkable collision between rules written for Rancho Santa Fe nearly 100 years ago and contemporary care for Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
The Rancho Santa Fe Association doesn't agree with the opposition's interpretation. After obtaining legal opinions, its Board adopted Resolution 2025-102 in February 2025, determining that Silvergate's proposed uses are consistent with the site's Class C designation. Association Building Commissioner Joel Levanetz has said the Association conducted due diligence and determined the uses "may be permitted under the Protective Covenant."
The developer has also made more than 20 significant changes during years of review, including shrinking the project footprint from approximately 29 acres to 23, removing structures from the 100-year flood zone and adding a second emergency-only entrance and exit.
The company behind it isn't an outside corporate developer parachuting into Rancho Santa Fe, either. AmeriCare is a locally owned company controlled by the Petree family that has operated in North County for more than four decades, with Silvergate retirement communities in Fallbrook, San Marcos and Rancho Bernardo. Founder and CEO David Petree is joined by sons Greg Petree, AmeriCare's president and COO, and Matt Petree, who oversees property development.
AmeriCare argues Silvergate fills an obvious hole in Rancho Santa Fe: residents can spend decades living there but have virtually nowhere inside the community to go when maintaining a large estate becomes impractical or they need assisted living or memory care.
More than 200 families have already joined Silvergate's waiting list, according to the developer. The company now anticipates a possible 2030 opening.
Supporter Kathi Mallick summarized the argument during the review process: "A retirement facility does not compete with our community, it completes our community."
Perhaps the most extraordinary part of the dispute involves Rancho Santa Fe's Protective Covenant itself.
Opponents point to nearly century-old language prohibiting institutions for the "care, cure or restraint of the mentally impaired," arguing that the provision makes Silvergate's proposed memory-care operation impermissible. Protect Rancho Santa Fe says approving it would therefore require changing the Covenant through its formal supermajority process.
That creates a remarkable collision between rules written for Rancho Santa Fe nearly 100 years ago and contemporary care for Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
The Rancho Santa Fe Association doesn't agree with the opposition's interpretation. After obtaining legal opinions, its Board adopted Resolution 2025-102 in February 2025, determining that Silvergate's proposed uses are consistent with the site's Class C designation. Association Building Commissioner Joel Levanetz has said the Association conducted due diligence and determined the uses "may be permitted under the Protective Covenant."
Protect Rancho Santa Fe has since hired its own experts and argues the Association got it wrong. Former San Diego County zoning chief Dag Bunnemeyer appeared at the opposition group's recent town hall and argued that Silvergate requires a Major Use Permit from the County and that the Covenant's institutional restriction remains enforceable. The property is currently designated Rural Residential by the County with a 2.86-acre minimum for single-family dwellings, according to the group's presentation.
Another dispute involves apartment size. Consultants retained by Protect Rancho Santa Fe say 52 proposed apartments are approximately 1,440 square feet despite a Regulatory Code provision they contend establishes a 1,750-square-foot minimum, meaning Silvergate should redesign them or formally seek a variance. Those remain disputed interpretations rather than final legal determinations.
And then there is the elephant in the room. Rancho Santa Fe isn't an ordinary San Diego neighborhood. Zillow currently estimates its typical home value at roughly $4.49 million, while its 92067 ZIP code recently ranked among the country's most expensive.
Communities throughout San Diego County have spent years confronting apartments, accessory dwelling units, housing mandates, traffic, construction and increasingly dense development. Against that backdrop, a campaign by residents of one of America's wealthiest low-density enclaves to stop 168 units spread across 23 acres inevitably raises an uncomfortable question:
Why should Rancho Santa Fe be exempt from the development pressures everyone else is being asked to absorb? AmeriCare's Greg Petree has been more direct, characterizing opponents as a vocal minority of "NIMBYs."
Opponents reject that characterization. Their argument isn't that senior housing shouldn't exist, but that this particular development is incompatible with this particular property and the rules governing it.
Dick Clotfelter has acknowledged the optics. NBC 7 reported that opponents recognize the dispute has the hallmarks of NIMBYism but maintain the location, rather than senior housing itself, is the problem. Silvergate supporter Pertti Visuri counters that fears approval would automatically open Rancho Santa Fe to similar development elsewhere simply aren't true.
There are legitimate issues buried beneath the rhetoric. Rancho Santa Fe sits in wildfire country. Via de la Valle already carries significant traffic. The project requires County review, and questions surrounding flooding, emergency evacuation and infrastructure deserve scrutiny rather than dismissal because opponents happen to own expensive homes.
But Silvergate has also responded to some of those concerns by removing structures from the 100-year flood zone and adding another emergency access point. Whether those measures are sufficient will ultimately be tested through the governmental review process.
The battle has become so heated that even the opposition's yard signs generated their own miniature scandal. After residents reported that more than 20 "Stop Silvergate" signs had disappeared, a trail camera reportedly captured someone entering private property at approximately 1:30am and removing one. Rancho Santa Fe Patrol initially said it had not removed the signs, but its chief subsequently acknowledged that an officer had removed at least one, saying the officer mistakenly believed it was an unauthorized commercial sign. Patrol apologized and offered to replace it.
Silvergate has even spilled into Rancho Santa Fe's internal politics. Earlier this year, Protect Rancho Santa Fe endorsed Association Board candidate Annie Finch, citing her commitment to protecting the community's rural character. Separately, the Rancho Santa Fe Post reported that Silvergate CEO David Petree publicly endorsed Association Board candidates Chuck Reynolds and Jeff Simmons while his project remained under review. Such endorsements are not inherently improper, but they illustrate how thoroughly the development has consumed local politics.
Silvergate still has significant hurdles ahead. Art Jury approval is not County approval, and the Major Use Permit process gives San Diego County an independent opportunity to examine land use, environmental impacts, traffic, safety and other issues before the project can be built.
But the fight has already become about far more than 168 retirement units. It is a collision between property rights and private restrictions, senior housing and neighborhood preservation, a nearly 100-year-old Covenant and modern California, longtime residents determined to preserve what they purchased and a developer arguing that the Ranch itself must evolve if its aging residents are going to remain there.
And hovering over all of it is a question increasingly difficult for Rancho Santa Fe to avoid: when virtually every other San Diego community is being told that more housing and greater density are necessary, how long can one of the county's wealthiest and least-dense enclaves reasonably insist that its century-old way of life remain unchanged?
For Silvergate's supporters, the answer is that Rancho Santa Fe can evolve without destroying what makes it special. For its opponents, approving Silvergate could be the decision that begins destroying exactly what they came there to preserve.
The County may ultimately have to decide which vision wins.
Originally published on September 12, 2026.
