Commentary from the Publisher: ‘Trust me, vote Yes on Prop A’

The idea for Prop A started many years ago when an obviously pro-development City Council reigned in Encinitas. 

Proponents of Prop A didn’t trust the City Council to preserve the character of Encinitas. Today we have a different City Council and many would like to think a better one — a council we can trust.

The fact that many of the council members were in favor of Prop A prior to last year’s election, and have since come out against Prop A, erodes my confidence and trust.

Also, who knows what the council will be like in 10 years?

The council recently struck down the 4/5 majority council vote necessary for major up zones. They or a future council could just as easily change it back.

Prop A makes it a law that any major zoning change in our General Plan be put to the vote of the citizens. This eliminates the “trust me” factor.

We need to vote Yes on Prop A.

A lot of money is being spent to get people to “Vote No on A.”

They call themselves nice names you can trust like “Encinitas Hope.”

Take a look at just some of the contributors to the No on A campaign and ask yourself: Can I trust these people to keep our Encinitas community character as it is?

Here are a few:

National Association of Realtor Fund — $8,250; Encinitas Town Center, LLC/Ecke — $7,500; Gary Levitt Real Estate Development/Sea Breeze — $1,500; Douglas Harwood (Developer/broker) — $2,500. Encinitas Town Center/Ecke — $10,000; North County Taxpayers for Responsible Government $2,500 (This is the group that supported Stocks and Muir for the last election and sent out the “We Love Encinitas” mailer during the last election.)

I tell you, if these people say vote No on prop A, it is very clear to me I need to vote Yes!

There is a lot of misinformation going around.

I heard that at one point, one of our City Council members said that if Prop A passes we won’t even be able to remodel our kitchens without a city vote. That is ridiculous.

It is also being said that the California Coastal Commission will have to ratify Prop A, causing delays and all kinds of other mischief.

This has been determined to my satisfaction to be completely untrue.

This misstatement of fact has the effect of making the passing of the initiative seem more complicated/costly. The fact remains that the California Coastal Commission has absolutely nothing to do with the initiative, which was stated as fact in $39,000 Rutan and Tucker report commissioned by the city. This is a big deal.

How can we trust this report, if they got this part wrong?

Consider this: The co-author of Prop A, Bruce Ehlers, is a former Encinitas planning commissioner with deep routes in Encinitas and I trust him.

He has told me that when he goes over the language of the initiative, really drilling down, no one has been able to dispute validity of Prop A. He said, “If there were a fatal flaw, I would want to know. I would be the first to admit it.” I believe him.

The pro-developer forces are adding to the confusion. Don’t be fooled.

Trust me and vote “Yes on Prop A.”

Jim Kydd, Publisher