ENCINITAS — The Planning Commission, one of the groups reviewing the General Plan Update, presented its recommendations at Wednesday night’s Council meeting.
The General Plan Update will steer development and land use in Encinitas over the next several decades. As part of the General Plan Update, the Planning Commission was tasked with where to place 1,300 state-mandated housing units.
Presenting on behalf of the five-member Planning Commission, representative Kurt Gloseclose said the housing units should be spread throughout the five communities that make up Encinitas.
Based on mapping exercises of which areas can accommodate the units, the commission said 25 percent of the units should go in Old Encinitas, 25 percent in New Encinitas, 22.5 percent in Leucadia, 15 percent in Cardiff and 12.5 percent in Olivenhain.
“With this dispersion, we’re not recommending that they be straight lined or evenly distributed across all five because each of the five communities have different abilities,” Gloseclose said.
The commission’s housing allocating recommendations were not “parcel specific,” Gloseclose noted.
Gloseclose said the commission was given 14 housing categories that it had to rank in terms of importance to help decide where to allocate housing.
The commission’s greatest priorities: the ability to increase density to 30 units per acre in the area, to disperse density throughout the city, locate housing near transit and place the housing units near commercial services.
Ranked last on the commission’s list: that the housing be near schools, though Gloseclose said that was “still important” — it just came in last in the ratings.
“It’s very critical to understand these (categories) are not mutually exclusive; there’s a tremendous amount of overlap with these tools — they have to work in concert,” Gloseclose said.
Council accepted the report and praised the Planning Commission for its hard work. But a month ago, Council decided not to act on information related to the General Plan Update until the fall — when they’ve had a chance to revisit their objectives for the process.
Two residents expressed concern that the Planning Commission’s presentation included language about 45 units per acre in select areas.
Currently, most of Encinitas isn’t zoned for more than 25 units per acre.
Next, two citizen groups will present their findings on the housing portions of the General Plan Update.
The General Plan Advisory Committee is slated to go before Council Feb. 20, followed by the Elemental Review Advisory Committee Feb. 27.
8 comments
The real problem is that the state is overriding the will of the citizens of Encinitas, using inflated self-serving growth projections. This is all about cramming quality of life destroying density down our throats and will not do a thing to create “affordable housing.”
What have staff been doing since the last Council tabled the project? The first order of business should be to correct the inflated growth projections and to go to SANDAG to renegotiate the 1,300 number to something reasonable.
Why are Planning Department staff doing the analysis and why aren’t appropriately educated people with ethics used to write questions and interepret data? Staff saw ‘massaging the data’ as a good thing instead of an attempt to change or ignore information from the public. They also proudly admitted that they were the ones who endorse 30 units per acre.
Message: we will degrade your property, you neighborhoods and your community character and convert it into 6-figure salaries and lifetime pension payouts for ourselves. Of course it sounds like a good idea for them, but to me, it sounds like an unintended consequnece of having those with conflicts of interest running the show!
Message from Encinitas city hall to the current citizens:
“Get lost. Move away. Die already. You’re easily replaced.”
“The General Plan Update will steer development and land use in Encinitas over the next several decades. As part of the General Plan Update, the Planning Commission was tasked with where to place 1,300 state-mandated housing units.”
What actions created the state-mandated units?
Good question: The intent was to distribute affordable housing throughout all California cities. Unfortunately, since these units are offered at market rate, they will not be affordable in Encinitas and in Coastal areas. Instead the State, through HCD and the RHNA allocation, dictates that a density of 30 units per acre or more needs to be demonstrated in the Housing element of the General Plan Update. Translation: higher density with buildings between 3 and 5 stories.
It goes like this: States dictates –>SANDAG allocates to 18 cities –>Encinitas has to plan for 1300 units of high-density apartments. State enforces it own laws and penalizes non-compliant cities. Great democratic process isnt’it? Little people of Encinitas get screwed with high density units and picking up the tab for the added infrastructure costs.
and where do the law makers live?
In their ivory tower in Sacramento.
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