Growth that serves families

Menifee is growing whether we plan for it or not. The question is what we get out of it.

The city’s 2026 economic strategy identifies approximately $2.2 billion in annual spending occurring outside Menifee on shopping, dining, and entertainment. The same strategy reports that approximately 93 percent of employed Menifee residents work outside the city, with an average commute of about 42.5 minutes. That is families driving out of town for a sit-down dinner, a doctor’s appointment, and a paycheck.

Northeast Menifee knows the wait better than anyone. The shopping center at McCall Boulevard and Menifee Road was approved under a plot plan the city numbered 2009-051, and the grocery store families actually needed did not break ground until July 2026, when Stater Bros. started the first supermarket to serve the Heritage Lake community. A wait that long is exactly why the city should recruit hard, keep sites ready, and track every promised project in public.

I will push the city to actively recruit what we’re missing:

• Sit-down restaurants and gathering places, not just another drive-thru.
• Medical and dental offices, so more routine care is available close to home.
• Licensed childcare and preschool capacity. Countywide, a licensed space is available for only 15 percent of Riverside County children age 12 and under whose parents are in the labor force.
• Room for the local entrepreneur. Build the small bays and keep permitting fast and predictable, so more residents can plant their careers here.
• Schools that keep up. Help the school districts forecast enrollment so classrooms arrive with the rooftops.
• Somewhere to take the family. Finish the Central Park amphitheater and program it, and recruit the entertainment businesses families now drive to other cities for.

Good commercial development means more of daily life can happen here. The General Plan already directs the city to locate needed goods and services close to where residents live. I will hold it to that on our side of town.