On May 22, 2025, the San Diego section of the American Planning Association recognized the Santee Town Center Specific Plan with a 2025 Comprehensive Plan – Small Jurisdiction Excellence Award. The awards jury congratulated the City of Santee Planning Department, HELIX Environmental Planning, MW Steele Group, RRM Design Group, Intersecting Metrics, Graphic Solutions, and McCullough Landscape Architecture on high-quality work that embodies and promulgates key planning principles and practices. They gave high marks to the Santee Town Center Specific Plan for innovative approaches, incorporating art, enhancing a sense of place for the community, and demonstrating itself as a great example of a comprehensive plan.

HELIX provided environmental consulting services in support of the comprehensive update to the City of Santee Town Center Specific Plan including preparation of technical reports addressing air quality/greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, biological resources, cultural resources, and noise, and developed a combined Program-level and Project-level Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

The purpose of the project is to provide new land uses and objective design standards to apply to new ministerial and discretionary development projects within the Santee Town Center Specific Plan area. The project pays particular attention to the expanded Arts & Entertainment Neighborhood and four strategic infill housing sites. Information from the technical reports informed the planning process, and the EIR establishes a mitigation framework to help further streamline future projects in the area.

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HELIX has completed environmental documents for virtually every project type including mixed-use, residential, commercial, industrial, and transit-oriented development projects. We have worked on general, community, and specific plans. For more information, visit our CEQA/NEPA Compliance services page.