SAN MARCOS -- City officials are polling residents of the Coronado Hills neighborhood about their willingness to pay for a $5 million road that would provide a second route in and out of the semirural area in an emergency.

The city developed the road proposal after a 100-acre fire last year threatened the somewhat isolated neighborhood, which includes about 112 homes.

Set in the hills southeast of Cal State San Marcos, Coronado Hills has about 330 residents who use Coronado Hills Drive to get in and out of the neighborhood. Long, steep and S-shaped, the road narrows down to two lanes and then one at its southern end.

City officials have said that could make it difficult for the road to handle residents fleeing the area and emergency vehicles trying to get in during an emergency.

"You don't have to be a fire expert or engineer to realize that when you have residents trying to flee on this narrow road … while you're trying to get some fire equipment in at the same time, you could very likely have some vehicles get stuck," city engineer Mike Edwards said last week.

Edwards said there could be "potentially catastrophic consequences" if fleeing residents and incoming firefighters get overrun by a Santa Ana-driven fire while they're stuck on the narrow road.

The city mailed the road survey to each Coronado Hills home last month. Residents were asked to weigh in on whether they want to work with the city in getting the road built, pursue the project on their own, or live without the road.

The proposed road would widen and improve a private, one-lane road near the southern end of the neighborhood. Once open, that road, Attebury Drive, would connect Coronado Hills Drive to Twin Oaks Valley Road via Washingtonia Drive.

An alternate alignment would include a private road called Oceanview Drive in the new route. Coronado Hills residents familiar with the private roads said last week that only four-wheel-drive vehicles can get through them now.

City spokeswoman Jenny Peterson said last week the survey results will determine whether the city continues to work on the road proposal, which was created at the City Council's request.

Mixed opinions

Mapped out in the 1970s, Coronado Hills is accessible from La Moree Road via Coronado Hills Drive and spreads over about 350 acres that offer sweeping views of San Marcos on one side and Escondido and Elfin Forest on the other. Residents said individual properties are at least 1 acre and occupied by custom-built homes.

No one was hurt during the 100-acre fire last October, and none of the homes burned. Even so, Coronado Hills residents contacted by the North County Times last week had vivid memories of jumping into their cars to flee heavy smoke and flames that awoke them in the wee hours of that day.

They had varying opinions about the road proposal.

Some said they might be willing to contribute money toward the project, depending on the amount of individual home assessments, which would spread out over several years and added to residents' annual property tax bills.

City officials said assessment figures and the question of whether the assessments would be pro-rated according to property size or other factors have not been discussed yet.

"A million's too much, and one's not enough," Coronado Hills Drive resident Darwin Farrell said, referring to the potential assessment. "It would have to be somewhere in between."

Others said they saw no need for another way in and out of the area or believe the new road would be too far from their homes to be of any use to them.

"I don't know why I would do anything that wouldn't benefit me," said Coronado Hills Drive resident Howard Burgeson, who has lived in the area roughly 12 years. "And it's certainly not going to benefit a lot of people here."

Sticker shock

Farrell, who has lived in Coronado Hills for 24 years and raised a family there, recalled watching two previous fires come across the ridge behind his home at a speed that gave him time to pack belongings into his car. The October fire was different, he said.

"This time it was really quick," said Farrell, whose daughter had just arrived with family and friends who fled another wildfire in Ramona. "We all walked outside and saw that the entire hillside was ablaze. I jumped in my camper without shoes and socks and left."

Like neighbors who were evacuating, he headed down Coronado Hills Drive. Others, including Debra Koechert, hunkered down in their homes, unaware the fire was so close because their power was out.

"If it had burned up the hill, we probably would have been one of the first houses hit," said Koechert, who moved to the neighborhood in 1989 with her husband and two children.

Still, the proposed road's $5 million price tag prompted her to check the "let residents deal with it" and "leave things as they are" boxes on the city survey.

"I think it's an awful lot of money for a little road," Koechert said.

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.