SUN CITY - Neighbors warned of increasing traffic after Riverside County's governing board approved 250 apartments across McCall Boulevard from Menifee Valley Medical Center last week.

Several of the neighbors and other residents of Menifee and Sun City said the heavily residential areas need more offices and shops before developers move ahead with more houses, let alone apartments. The Board of Supervisors' 4-0 vote June 12 struck commercial zoning to allow apartments on the 19 acres just east of Antelope Road.

Supervisor Jeff Stone, who represents Sun City, argued in favor of the change, pointing toward a large shopping center expected to open late next year three miles to the south, at Newport Road. With 735,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, it would be the largest between Riverside and Temecula.

"Many of those jobs are not going to be $100,000 and $200,000 jobs," Stone said. "They're going to be $20,000, $40,000 and $60,000 jobs. We have to have a place for people to live. Frankly, there is not a lot of affordable housing in the Menifee-Sun City area that's not dedicated to senior use."

Several members of the Menifee Valley Incorporation Committee have expressed skepticism about the change, saying it would deprive a nascent city of sales tax revenue it would need to get off the ground. The committee could realize its plan to combine the communities of Menifee, Sun City and Quail Valley into a single city as soon as next year. Stone said the vast majority of cityhood proponents support the zoning change.

Stone also noted a study performed for the developer, A.G. Spanos, that showed the apartments would create only half the traffic that offices and a shopping center would bring to the immediate vicinity.

Residents of the modest houses across the narrow stretch of Antelope Road varied in their opinions of the project. One said she wouldn't look forward to any kind of development on the lot, while two said it would limit the dust blowing off the empty dirt lot and possibly boost their property values.

One woman said developing the lot would at least put an end to noisy off-roaders who ride there. A web of trails extends up the gently sloped lot, with several winding up the steeper hills at the back of the property.

Several of the neighbors said they were not happy with the prospect of more traffic from the apartments, though.

"I don't like it at all," said Glen Larsen, a Caltrans employee who commutes to San Diego before sunrise every morning. "To throw massive housing into that small of an area, and the gridlock on the roads that we have - I can't even imagine."

A commercial development would worsen traffic, too, Larsen said, but could at least keep Sun City residents from having to drive a long way when they want to go shopping.

"Why don't they put a park into it?" Larsen asked.

Stone said he, too, believed that the complex would be short on recreational facilities for children. To that end, he said, he and county employees had persuaded the developer to put $100,000 toward the creation of parks in the area. A map presented by county planners showed a small park a half mile to the west, on Chambers Avenue. Another small park is planned near Rouse Road, about a half mile to the north.

- Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.