OCEANSIDE -- A controversial housing project that includes a public transportation center moves to the Oceanside City Council after it was denied by the city's Planning Commission.

David Druker, a member of the North County Transit District's governing board and also a city council member in Del Mar, said Friday that the agency, which runs all public bus and rail services in North County, will ask the council to overturn a denial from the Planning Commission, which denied its San Luis Rey Transit Center project on June 12.

"We believe (the project) does follow all of the guidelines the city has set up for this property," Druker said.

City records show that the Planning Commission rejected the project on several grounds, including that it contained too many condominium units and that it did not include extra "park-and-ride" parking spaces where anyone from the public could park their vehicle before getting on a bus. While most of the transit district's existing bus stations do not include park-and-ride spaces, its Coaster train stations do.

Developer Loranda Corporation of Escondido has worked with the transit district for more than four years to craft the development on a triangular 10-acre parcel at North River Road and Vandegrift Boulevard in Oceanside's "back gate" area.

A planning document on file at City Hall shows that the project would include 106 condominiums, 13,684 square feet of commercial space and a 2.1-acre bus transfer pad with access to Vandegrift and North River Road.

Opposition to the project has included area neighbors, who filed a 134-signature petition with the Planning Commission stating that the project should be denied because it has too many condominiums and lacks park-and-ride accommodations.

If and when it is built, the new transit center would replace a smaller facility in the Wal-Mart shopping center at Highway 76 and College Boulevard.

Robert Schaffer, who lives nearby and who served as a planning commissioner for 12 years, has helped lead the petition drive. He said Tuesday that he and many others oppose the project, saying it the transit center should remain in the shopping center.

"We talked to the manager at Wal-Mart and to Gatlin (the shopping center's management company) and they both said they wanted it to stay," Schaffer said.

The Loranda Corp. did not return calls for comment on the project.

But Druker, who has watched the project wind its way through the approval process for years, said the transit district looked throughout the area for a suitable parcel on which to relocate the transit center. He said the existing facility inside the shopping center is not ideal because it is difficult for the long-transit vehicles to turn around in tight quarters.

"This was what we thought was the best place to build the transit center," he said.

Druker rejected opponents' claims that the proposed project is too dense for the surrounding neighborhood, noting that there are several other apartment complexes on adjacent properties that are more densely developed than the one proposed by Loranda and the transit district.

"Our density is less than the maximum that is allowed," Druker said.

Schaffer begged to differ. He said that when the transit district calculates housing density, it is including the 2 acres of land which would serve as a transit center.

"It's kind of smoke and mirrors," he said.

It will ultimately be up to the City Council to uphold or overturn the Planning Commission's decision. Though no official date for a hearing has been set, it is expected the project will come before the council in September.

Councilwoman Shari Mackin, who is Oceanside's representative on the transit district board, said she wants answers to the questions raised by the community. But she declined to tip her hand on how she might vote.

"I need to hear what everyone, the transit district, the neighborhood, the developer, says before I decide," she said.

- Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.