San Diego

A development that would put 979 homes on 279 acres in northwest Rancho Bernardo won approval Tuesday from the San Diego City Council, which ruled against the local planning group by increasing the project’s density.

The Rancho Bernardo Planning Board had appealed to the council to not change the zoning density on a 27-acre portion of the project, known as Westwood Valley, to allow 408 rather than 274 houses there, but council members sided with the developer, R.B. McComic. The council did side with the planning board, however, when it ruled that McComic could not cut 40 feet from the top of a knoll to build 20 houses. Those houses were deleted from the plan.

The council also postponed a decision on the developer’s request to be permitted to start construction immediately. A hearing on when McComic can break ground will be held in three weeks.

Planning board members have asked that McComic be prohibited from beginning construction until an update of the Rancho Bernardo Community Plan is completed, possibly sometime this summer.