Sunday, January 27, 2013

101 bike lane killed by state bureaucrats?

It looks like it. Coastal Commission letter to city:
As stated above, it is Commission staff's position that the proposed lane elimination on highway 101 requires both an LCP amendment and a Coastal Development Permit. Commission staff recommends that the City first process an LCP amendment for the comprehensive project, which may include roimd-a-bouts, reverse angle and parallel parking, and reduction of portions of northbound Highway 101 from two lanes to one lane, and then process a coastal development permit, which wil be appealable to the Coastal Commission, both due to partial location in the appeals area and as a major public works project.
At least we'll be generating lots of busywork for state and city government workers. Bureaucracy is stimulus!

13 comments:

  1. Meanwhile Oceanside is moving ahead with cleaning up their 101 corridor. Yet encinitas has their head so far up their ass they can't see at all.
    I wonder if Oceanside has crazy haters that will stop at nothing to keep it trashy?? Doubtful.
    Oh one last thing, has Oceanside gotten CC approval to make their 101 nice?? Hmmmm

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  2. Perhaps Oceanside has some competency in their staff, and they know how to work within their own general plan and properly observe the jurisdiction of the coastal commission.

    Regardless of what you want or don't want for the 101. Nothing productive is going to happen on 101 until Encinitas City Staff learns how to follow it's own rules.

    The "crazy haters" you are referring to, just saved the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the city had proceeded with out coastal commission permits and amendments. The city would have had to undo the project and redo it back to the original condition.

    The problem here is incompetent city staff listening to commercial interest before looking at their own polices.

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  3. Yes staff is incompetent. And heads should roll, the city council should fire everyone in planning. And where's Peder Norby in all this?? He's the 101 czar.

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  4. KLCC, join today. It's free, raving lunatics preferred !!

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  5. Peder Norby's contract as 101 Czar was modified to make him the facilitator of GPAC and ERAC. The city figured his work was done on the 101 Streetscape. When Norby was supposed to get a raise, too many people howled in protest, so his responsibilities were switched. Perhaps it's time to put Norby out pasture in Carlsbad.

    I see this failure by the staff as a pivotal point. Staff has run amok for a long time with permission of the old council majority. Rules were bent and regulations were misinterpreted. The new council has to bring this corrupted process under control and make it totally transparent.

    First order of business is to get rid of City Attorney Glenn Sabine, who has abetted the abuse with his legal opinions. Second is to crack the whip with City Manager Gus Vina and make him understand that he is responsible for instituting the cleanup. So far he has been playing the same old game.

    There are new heads in Park & Rec, Public Works/Engineering, Fire, and Finance. Human Resources and Planning are vacant. It's a good time to get the city back on course.

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    1. Sabine will never be let go, he knows where all the bodies are buried.

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  6. And Solana Beach will be done with their streetscape in 6 months. Meanwhile, encinitas goes back to the drawing board .

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  7. KLCC is right on track. Keep Leucadia crappy so we can get cheaper crack and prostitutes. Yea David Smith and the L word are doing wonders for Leucadia.

    Geeze- When you have citizens like that, who needs enemies!

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  8. The Sock puppets are out again, trashing people by name, without evidence, just "gossip" designed to defame, distract and discourage.

    The L101MA should have to open its financials to the public. I am informed that the City does have its financial records on file, and that a public information request can be submitted to review them. This public disclosure requirement is true of all non-profits that the City subsidizes. L101MA is heavily subsidized by the City of Encinitas; allegedly, only 7% its revenues comes from Membership fees? I would like to have that verified.

    It's likely that it's a member of L101MA that is trying to now trash David Smith. David's a good man, and we are very grateful for the Coastal Commission, as well as the City of Encinitas being required to follow its own General Plan, 101 Corridor Plan, and Local Coastal Program, all of which would require amendments, and a finding that "operational characteristic adequacy would not be negatively affected, appealable to the Coastal Commission, if one lane on a major roadway, main arterial, primary circulation element were to be closed to motorists, changing four lane Historic State Highway 101 to a 3 lane configuration.

    A dedicated bicycle and pedestrian lane is already planned along the east side of the highway along the railroad right of way all the way to La Costa, according to the Bicycle Masterplan Update, recently approved by the Planning Commission (on January 17). So the bicyclists will still be gaining a bicycle lane. Pedestrians going northbound and southbound generally use the west side of the highway, as that's where the businesses are, so the bicycles would have their rail trail Class 1 bicycle lane on the east side of the highway primarily to themselves, once it is installed.

    The Coastal Commission simply followed the law, and staff was informed it must do so as well. Lane striping (in some cases) may be exempt from CEQA (Calif. Environmental Quality Act) review, but NOT when it involves closing one lane on a primary circulation element. This is contrary to the City's own written procedure. Don't try to blame any individual for City's staff failure to be honest about City policy, and CEQA law. Glenn Sabine's head should roll. Any attorneys who are part of L101MA should be well aware of the legal requirements. Staff shouldn't have tried to shortcut due process of law.

    David Smith and many others are very concerned about slower emergency response time, additional cut through traffic, and reduced access to and from the beach, should one lane be eliminated. In Del Mar, roundabouts were voted down. Solana Beach was going to put them in, then decided against them due to cost concerns, and after public outcry.

    A few members of L101MA are trying to get something for nothing. A good alternative would be to take the $20 Million + that the Streetscam would cost, as well as for undergrounding so-called "pedestrian bridges," at least $16 million more, for 3 additional, after the $5.5 Million spent at Santa Fe, to Trench the railroad from El Portal to La Costa, where it's already trenched! Then we could do relatively inexpensive at grade crossings, as in Solana Beach. We could have a beautiful linear park. In Solana Beach, when the train was trenched, nearby property owners also had to pay a special property tax assessment, as the value of their properties was significantly elevated. Also local artists could be inspired to contribute to artwork installed along our own "linear park," along the highway, as in Solana Beach.

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    1. Something for nothing? Adequate street lighting, sidewalks and road safety features should be in place to benefit not only every business district but every resident and business in Leucadia and visitors as well. Currently, they are NOT, yet for whatever reason a few in the neighborhood prefer to obstruct these improvements for as long as possible. (But what else could be expected from a handfull of locals who despised the improvements at Leucadia Blvd enough to erect a sign there upon it's completion saying "Send This Junk To Disneyland"?) The Streetscape is on public property, not private. The 20 plus years many locals have invested in acheiving these things along with ample public input is about to finally be implemented with plan 4A and it will be beautiful, retaining and enhancing Leucadia's best features and creating a safer route for cars, bikes and pedestrians.

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  9. Because people like our laid back beach town atmosphere, and want to "Keep Leucadia Funky," has nothing to do with the "keep it crappy" attack of sock puppet haters, here, posting, always anonymously.

    Leucadia Blog had to stop anonymous posts, because of these same sock puppets and their viscous, personal attacks. Most people who love our beaches, appreciate and respect the Coastal Commission. Developers usually don't like the Coastal Commission, because they like to be the ones calling all the shots, colluding with staff, and our former corrupt Council.

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    Replies
    1. Talk about the skillet calling the kettle black....

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    2. Hey, it wouldn't be undercover if most bloggers here weren't anonymous. (But lets face it, they might as well put their real pics as icons anyway.)

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