Plans for El Camino Real’s first high-density housing project — an 87-unit apartment complex that its developers say could launch a transformation of the busy corridor — won Encinitas Planning Commission approval last week. Commissioners voted 4-0, with Commissioner Chris Ryan absent, to issue the project the design review permit it needs to proceed, but two commissioners expressed reservations about granting the developers’ request for a waiver from city tree-planting standards. The project, which will go on a 1.9-acre, vacant parcel just south of the Armstrong Gardens Center and north of El Camino’s intersection with Garden View Road, does not require City Council approval. “I’m not inclined to grant that waiver,” Commissioner Susan Sherod said initially before the commission ultimately voted to approve the requested permit and various waivers from city building standards. Commissioner Robert Prendergast agreed with Sherod, saying, “There’s a reason we have a tree ordinance in the city, and that’s for public health (benefits).” Developer representative Brian Grover then told them that his company was doing all it could to meet the city’s tree-planting standards, but said it was hard to fit a four-story apartment building, its required parking and a fire lane onto the proposed site, which is slightly less than 2 acres. “It’s not really possible to put 58 trees, which is the city’s requirement, on that site,” Grover said, later adding, “We’re putting a tree everywhere we can possibly put a tree.” Their development plans call for planting 34 trees, which far exceeds the 19 trees and bushes that are currently on the site, he noted. His company, Nolen Communities, also is developing the Fox Point Farms Agrihood and the Sunshine Gardens projects in Encinitas. Grover stressed that both of those projects are exceeding the city’s tree planting standards. And, he said, cost-cutting is not the reason that they are failing to do the same thing at the El Camino Real site. “We’re building a hybrid podium (apartment) structure, which is not cheap to build,” Grover said as he described the El Camino project construction plans. “We could have built something different that costs a lot less, but we wanted to set a good example on this corridor. I have a certain level of architectural integrity that I want on the projects I work on, and we’re achieving it here.” Grover said he believes this project will start a “positive redevelopment of El Camino Real” and encourage future housing development along the now-mostly commercial corridor, which is one of the city’s major roadways. Other than the lack of windows on the first floor facing El Camino Real and the tree issue, commissioners praised the development plans. “In my mind, it’s a very attractive building,” commission Chair Steve Dalton said, adding that the developer’s design does a great job of making the proposed, U-shaped structure visually interesting by using a stair-step model where each of the three upper stories is smaller than the one below it. A neighbor who wasn’t keen on the size of the project said even he was impressed with the design. “I love this project, it’s beautiful, but it probably doesn’t belong here,” said Ruben Flores, a former city planning commissioner who lives several blocks away from the proposed site. Flores mentioned that he knew the site was slated for multi-family housing — it’s included on a previously approved city list of 15 places where higher-density housing would be allowed — but said he was startled this past week when he saw what the developers were proposing. “I never thought that 87 units could be developed at this site, honestly,” he said. “I thought that we’ll see 40, maybe 50, but this is insane.” The project is allowed to receive waivers and exemptions for some city building standards under state law because some of its units are being set side for low-income people. In this case, 12 of the 87 rental apartments will be designated as low-income units.