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Northeastern San Diego

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Living here can mean a long commute to downtown San Diego, but some folks find the mesas, hills, relative isolation, and master-planned communities worth it. Prospective residents also are persuaded by the Poway Unified School District, which serves part of Northeastern San Diego and is among the county’s highest-scoring districts.

Northeastern San Diego’s neighborhoods include:

Carmel Mountain
Mira Mesa
Rancho Bernardo
Rancho Peñasquitos
Sabre Springs
Scripps Ranch

View healthcare facilities in Central San Diego

Carmel Mountain
The Sisters of Mercy, founders of Mercy Hospital, bought this acreage in 1899. The nuns cultivated the land to supply Mercy Hospital with vegetables and dairy products, and named their property on the mountain’s north side Carmel Mountain Ranch.

The “mountain” actually is a 403-acre mesa. Alternately called Carmel Mountain and Carmel Mountain Ranch, the master-planned community here consists of middle- to upper-middle-class housing developments. Single-family homes outnumber the condos.

Carmel Mountain shares a community pool, recreation center, and three parks with neighboring Sabre Springs. Golfers can tee off from the courses at the Carmel Mountain Country Club and the Carmel Highland Doubletree Resort. Retail opportunities aplenty await consumers in plazas, large department stores, and specialty shops.

Environmentalists caution against further development of Carmel Mountain, which once was the county’s last undeveloped coastal mesa. Seven federally protected species, including a coastal cactus wren and an arroyo toad, inhabit the mountain. About one-fourth of Carmel Mountain has homes.

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Mira Mesa
“Top guns” needing homes helped prompt the 1970 launch of this master-planned community. The local military presence stems from the neighboring Miramar Naval Air Station (now known as Marine Corps Air Station Miramar), where the nation’s “Top Gun” flight-training program was initiated in 1969.

But whether for military or civilians, Mira Mesa offers affordable single-family homes, condos, townhouses, and apartments. The quiet community features numerous shopping centers and recreational facilities.

Mira Mesa is bounded by Los Peñasquitos Canyon, I-805, I-15, and Miramar Road.

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Rancho Bernardo
When the King of Spain acquired this land in 1789, it took the name “La Canada de San Bernardo,” probably after Second Crusade leader St. Bernard of Clairvaux. But it wasn’t until the early 1960s that crusaders for development turned Rancho Bernardo into a master-planned suburb of neighborhoods, parks, shopping areas, golf courses, and light industry.

Advertised as a “52-week vacationland,” Rancho Bernardo caters to retirees and upper-middle-classers. Single-family homes, condos, and townhouses lie along clean streets with underground utilities. Walking, jogging, and equestrian trails wind through this neighborhood, which—at 23 miles from Downtown—is San Diego’s northernmost residential community.

The community’s 685-acre industrial park is home to such corporate giants as Hewlett-Packard and Sony Electronics. Also with an address here is the Bernardo Winery, one of Southern California’s oldest continuously operating wineries.

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Rancho Peñasquitos
A few years back, when one-third of Rancho Peñasquitos’ residents were under age 18, the family-oriented neighborhood had the nation’s largest Little League. Kids and their activities remain defining attributes of this planned urbanized community.

Another key characteristic is the terrain. The community’s full name, Rancho de los Peñasquitos, means “land of the little hills.” Sub-neighborhoods gain a sense of privacy from the surrounding canyons, ridges, and hillsides, which include the 1,500-foot Black Mountain. Man-made amenities include a smattering of mini-malls, golf tournaments, and such annual events as Spring Festival and the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta de los Peñasquitos.

The community’s recorded history begins in 1823, when the commandante of the San Diego Presidio constructed an adobe ranch house. Housing here now includes tract homes from the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as larger, stucco houses from the 1980s. Sub-neighborhoods range from middle-class to upscale.

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Sabre Springs
With 1,500 acres of hilly terrain, Sabre Springs has plenty of space for walking and biking paths. And between community parks, business parks, golf courses, and protected land, there’s a whole lot of green in this master-planned community. Its quiet sub-neighborhoods offer mostly single-family, mid-priced homes with three to five bedrooms.

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Scripps Ranch
Journalism pioneer E.W. Scripps, of the Scripps Howard newspaper chain, first observed this area in 1890 while visiting his ailing sister. Impressed with the locale, he built a family ranch here, unintentionally breaking ground on a new neighborhood. But it wouldn’t be until 1976 that the Scripps Ranch community realized its master-planned potential.

Present residents live in mostly middle-class and upper-middle-class homes, built from the 1970s onward. Other residential units include townhouses and spectacular custom homes. The eucalyptus-garnished community features parks, trails, field sports, swim clubs, and tennis clubs. Nearby Lake Miramar is a perfect spot for fishing, lakeside picnicking, and boating. Among the tamer activities in Scripps Ranch are clubs with themes centered on writing, computers, music, gardening, and quilting.

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Healthcare facilities in Central San Diego:
Pomerado Hospital
Scripps Clinic