We love Encinitas the way it is

A love letter from Aspen:

But the cool thing about Encinitas is that not much has changed. Surf culture is relatively timeless in terms of its dress, daily rhythms and attitude. All of my favorite haunts are still there. I got to have my grilled-fish taco platter at Las Olas, Curry Panang at Siamese Basil, the Ahi Wrap at Ki’s, and a soy latte and gluten-free muffin at the Pannikin in Leucadia. I even took Ryan into Cardiff Seaside Market not to grocery shop but to browse, to see the sesame-encrusted seared ahi in the gourmet deli, the fresh flowers, the beautiful vegetables and the amazing baked goods that somehow taste good even though they’re this-free and that-free.

See also Waves to Ride: A Better Mousetrap

Communications plan open thread

From our perspective, Marlena Medford is a smart, professional, friendly woman with a thankless task.

What's your reaction to tonight's presentation?

Kranz blocks underpriced land deal based on shoddy appraisal

The City of Encinitas has a history of shady land deals that enrich wealthy landowners and developers at the expense of the public, from the not-so-"turnkey" Mossy public works yard to the unremediated toxic waste at the Hall property.

Last week a much smaller, but equally ill-conceived and eyebrow-raising, land deal was on the council agenda.  An oddly-shaped, city-owned 0.2 acre parcel near Santa Fe and Lake Drive is surrounded by a developer property.  The developer wants to buy the property and merge it with the larger adjacent property.

The city's appraisal came in at $16,000, about $2 / sq. ft., reflecting its odd shape, lack of access, and unsuitability for building as a stand-alone lot.  Staff recommended, and the council appeared ready to go along with, selling the lot at this price... until Council Member Tony Kranz pointed out that it was ridiculous to sell for $2 / sq. ft. a property that would be worth $50 / sq. ft. when merged with the larger property.



Kranz having raised the uncomfortable question, the rest of the council agreed to ask staff to go back to the appraiser (side note: who pays a $2000 appraisal fee, more than 12% of the alleged value, to value an empty lot? Homeowners get appraisals valuing both land and structures for a few hundred bucks!).  No vote was taken on the land sale.

After a year when the city council's decisions consisted primarily of unanimously rubber-stamping City Manager Gus Vina's plans, it's nice to see somebody finally asking some questions and tapping the brakes.

Communications Plan

The city's new Communications Director has unveiled the Communications Plan.  There are two key new systems: OpenGov, which promises to give the public access to city financial data; and Peak Democracy, an online opinion-gathering tool.

If OpenGov delivers as promised, it will be an important and long-overdue step toward transparency.  For example, Mayor Barth stated in last week's newsletter that the city had already budgeted for five years of 10% annual increases in pension costs.  But to our knowledge, no five-year operating budget has ever been shown to the public, nor could we find any such document online.  If the city actually has a plan to pay for pensions as well as the Hall Park operations and debt service, that would be most welcome news indeed!

As for Peak Democracy, it claims to fairly engage the public by creating an online forum that requires commenters to be authenticated.  We suspect that its use will be dominated, just as council meetings are, by special interests and a handful of activists.  Online surveys get filled out primarily by people on mass e-mail lists when an issue comes up that affects their particular interest.  And the council's interest in knowing what the public wants would be more credible if the council hadn't spent the last year doing the exact opposite of what the public clearly and vocally wanted on so many issues: Desert Rose, Prop A, retaining Sabine, pronouncing Vina "excellent," hiring an expensive new Communications Director...

Lake Orpheus

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Leucadia flooding

How's it looking?

E-mail your pics & we'll post.  Other cool storm pics welcome as well.


"another poisoned oleander falls prey to the elements"

EUSD says Naylor Act doesn't apply to Pacific View; attorney who saved Del Mar Shores disagrees

North Coast Current:

A document released by the school district that was penned by law firm Best Best & Krieger suggests that because the school facility and its playground have been unavailable to the public for a period of more than eight years, they are no longer protected by the act, and this is the legal opinion that the school district will consult moving forward.

“Here, the Pacific View property has not been used for playground, playfield or any other recreational activity for the last eight years,” the legal opinion states. “Accordingly, by the plain language of the Naylor Act, it is inapplicable to the Pacific View property.”

Other observers such as Carl Hilliard aren’t so sure that the legal opinion gives the best view of the law and how it works. Hilliard served as one of two lawyers who worked to keep the Del Mar Shores school property in Del Mar from residential and commercial development in the mid 2000s.

“We invoked the Naylor Act and the school in Del Mar had been closed for more than that period of time,” Hilliard said. “And the Naylor Act applies to playgrounds and allows the city to purchase (a school property) at 25 percent of per market value, but it must contain a playground and if it’s not used as a playground then there’s a right for the school district to repurchase it.

The Naylor Act would require the district to offer 30% of the property to the city at 25% of market value.