Residents of the Capistrano Park area at the edge of Oceanside next to Camp Pendleton say it’s tougher than ever to get into and out of their neighborhood, and they need the city’s help.
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Their only access is from Harbor Drive east of Interstate 5, just before the main entrance into the Marine Corps base.
Anytime there is an uptick in military activity, such as the on-and-off war with Iran, heightened security at the Pendleton gate can slow traffic and clog the entrance to the nearby civilian community. Also, the steady increase in I-5 traffic and occasional freeway emergencies or gridlock can compound their commuting difficulties.
“There is a huge need to create a second entrance/exit to this neighborhood,” said resident Melody Beauchamp in an April 21 letter to the Oceanside City Council.
The Capistrano community is sandwiched in high rolling hills between Camp Pendleton and the San Luis Rey River. Many of the outer homes overlook the San Luis Rey Valley, though there’s no road down into the valley.
“It is a lovely, diverse neighborhood of homes full of families of all ages/generations and it is imperative that we have a safer way for all neighbors to exit this neighborhood safely, in a time of emergency evacuation,” Beauchamp said in her letter.
The City Council voted unanimously last month to have city employees look into possible solutions and return with some ideas in August.
“The neighborhood feels frustrated and cut-off from the community,” said Councilmember Eric Joyce. “We need at least to study possibility of a secondary ingress and egress. We should be able to have a conversation with the community about why we can or cannot do this.”
Most of the several hundred small, single-family homes in the community were built in the 1950s, when the region’s population and traffic were far less. The 14-acre Capistrano Park, developed in 1964, has two baseball fields and two tennis courts.
The neighborhood also has a kindergarten through eighth-grade school, North Terrace operated by the Oceanside Unified School District, built on federal property at the edge of Camp Pendleton. It serves both military and civilian families, with entrances from both the Oceanside and Camp Pendleton sides of the campus.
For many years the neighborhood also had a second Oceanside Unified campus, San Rafael Elementary School, on San Rafael Drive closer to the main entrance to the base. That school, also on federal property, closed in 2002 because of seismic safety concerns. The building was upgraded and is now occupied by the Browne Child Development Center, providing child care for military families.
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The possibilities for secondary access to the area are limited. A new I-5 overpass or a bridge across the San Luis Rey River, as some residents suggested, would be hugely expensive and unlikely to receive grant money.
“There are three main reasons the only access to our neighborhood gets congested,” said resident Jason Schwartze, in a letter to the City Council.
“First, security increases at the largest military base on the West Coast, Camp Pendleton, have intensified, especially with the current Iran conflict,” Schwartze said.
“Second, increased tourism to our beaches puts a chokehold on access to Oceanside Harbor, he said. “Visitors exit I-5 to access the harbor. Third, traffic on the extremely busy I-5 can get stopped, as happened on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, and Capistrano residents could not get into the neighborhood. This also happens on a regular basis.”
City Manager Jonathan Borrego said the situation “has been getting progressively worse.”
Staffers have discussed the problem several times in recent years and “brainstormed” some ideas, he said.
“We believe we can come back with some thoughts and recommendations in August,” Borrego said. “The Fire Department has started working on an evacuation plan (for emergencies) and will be able to share some ideas.”
Councilmember Rick Robinson, the city’s former fire chief, said he wanted to reassure Capistrano residents that the Fire Department trains for emergency evacuations anywhere in the city and would be about to handle one there.
Still, he encouraged the residents to create a safe, defensive space around their homes by clearing away brush and other flammable materials.
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