Friday, November 6, 2015

Encinitas Smog bites the dust

San Diego Reader:
For the third time this year, another Coast Highway 101 building in Encinitas’ downtown is scheduled for demolition.

Encinitas Smog, at 682 South Coast Highway, has lost its long-term lease, says owner Alex Stanton. He expects to be out of business by next June if the property owner’s plans get approved.

The other two buildings — the former Villa Mar Motel at the corner of Coast Hwy. and West I Street, already demolished, along with the former Coast Furniture building at 850 South Coast Hwy. — will bring new mixed-use commercial/residential. None of the buildings were considered so historic that they were worth fighting to save.

The planned two-story, 30-foot-high structures will help push the changing face of downtown's ten-block length.

50 comments:

  1. Hospital looking good in white.

    No more salmon stucco from the 80's.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Smog joint had a lucrative location. The property was obviously "under utilized" by today's commercial standards. I suppose it can't be argued that a Smog facility contributed to the community character, but jam packing some tacky cookie cutter clap trap replacement won't add much either (except $ for the property owner). Watch for this trend to continue.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No more soulless cubular glass crap please.

    Build something with shape, character and personality. Something appealing and attractive. Nothing like Pacific Station, the ugliest building in Encinitas.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is no one going to point out the irony of closing a smog check shop to put something in that will likely result in more traffic?

    Less smog checking, more smog creating.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, it's a smog check only station which the state periodically requires older cars to use. Many repair shops can still do the normal smog checks. I will miss it as I take my car there when I have to do a smog check. But as the article points out, he doesn't own the property and it's up to the owner whether to renew the lease. That's the way it works in "these here United States".

      Delete
    2. That's the way it works if we just roll over, as you clearly enjoy.

      Delete
    3. 5:59 PM

      So now you want to dictate the specific use of private property? The smog station owner doesn't own the land. You want to force the property owner to continue leasing the land to the smog station, Comrade?

      Delete
  5. 5:31 Agree Pacific Station is the ugliest building in San Diego, not just Encinitas. Look at the council and the ugly buildings they are ok with. Dense doesn't have to be ugly, just north or Leucadia post office is an example of the Architect trying to give something appealing even while massive. With density (hated by all) should come higher design standards. Right now some really ugly heading for the heart of downtown.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The city planners housing element dialogue sessions being held at the library tomorrow have the same ugly buildings but with a twist. The draft zoning standards aren't discuss by the planners. Perhaps it's because the mixed use and multifamily buildings will be at least 48 feet tall with elevator shafts and with little parking. Included in the draft zoning ordinances is a 4/5 or 3/4 council majority vote to override Prop A.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. leave that for LA. My vision of Encinitas is more a sleepy "little" quaint but cool surf town. Developers are frothing to develop the crap out of it.

      Next election vote for low development pro quality of life. Example would be the opposite of $tock$.

      Muir and Gaspar have to go.

      Delete
    2. Kranz, Shaffer, and Blakespear are pushing hard to get this high density housing element approved by the voters. The three are not quality of life people. They are like parrots - It's the law, it's the law.

      Delete
    3. 7:46 PM

      I guess you didn't go to the first session in Cardiff on Thursday. These sessions are specifically to discuss the draft zoning standards and design guidelines. You may not agree with them but don't spread false information about them until you have attended one.

      Also, I'm afraid the days of '... a sleepy "little" quaint but cool surf town' are long gone for Encinitas with or without an updated HE.

      Delete
    4. 9:46 AM
      Then you should speak to the city planners on their presentations because the city website has the poster boards rehash of last year with nothing specifically detailing the zoning ordinances. The draft guidelines from the consultant are recycled also.

      Delete
    5. 9:53 AM

      I guess all that stuff on the boards about:

      What does zoning do?
      How would a floating zone work?
      What would the new zones regulate?
      Levels of zoning
      Transitions to single family zones

      The above are copied from the PDF's which are copies of the boards. Yes, there is some rehash as you can't expect everyone to have attended the previous sessions or even remember it all if they did. But you are wrong that there is "nothing specifically detailing the zoning ordinances". Also, if you had attended the Cardiff session you would know that copies of the zoning ordinance and design guidelines documents were available for people to peruse.

      I think your purpose is just to spread misinformation. People should attend these sessions and decide for themselves.

      Delete
    6. 10:21 AM
      How many copies were available for people to peruse - 20, 30, 100? Read the draft zoning standards on the city website. You will be shocked at the power given to the council and the planning director. The total height of the buildings at 48 feet and the reduction of parking that will push parking into the neighborhoods.
      Was that on the boards?
      Your purpose is to spread misinformation.

      Delete
    7. 10:29 AM

      Oh my God! The council has power??

      Any additional discretion given to council and the planning director will have to be approved by voters next November.

      But you aren't encouraging people to attend these sessions and give their feedback because then they might get a better understanding of what is being proposed. You'd rather have them not attend and remain ignorant. That's they way you want them.

      I, on the other hand, want people to attend and make up their own minds. For, against or somewhere in the middle. Let them know what you think not what 10:29 AM thinks (or what I think for that matter).

      It appears that the documents and poster boards are all online at:

      http://www.athomeinencinitas.info/documents/

      Delete
    8. 10:49 AM
      Does the city pay you for each person you can convince to attend these bogus city sessions?

      Delete
    9. 10:58 AM

      Thanks for proving my point.

      Halloween is over. You can try to scare people next year before the vote.

      Delete
  7. Better get active. Ecke/Myers will develop every piece of property to turn Encinitas into Huntington Beach. PE1 is turning in his grave.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am voting for any city council candidate that is low growth. I want to keep Encinitas the cool surf town with decent crowds. Not HB. or PB.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gawd spare us from another Keith Harrison travesty, like that out of character house, if it can even be called a house, across the street from the upper Moonlight Beach parking lot.

    I feel for their closest neighbors in their beautifully restored original beach cottage.

    Now we have to put up with that on main street? Occupy, Occupy, occupy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dubbed the Oreo house. Out of scale but excels at being ugly.

      Delete
  10. Perhaps he's turn it into his boutique hotel.

    ReplyDelete
  11. As we phase into more affordable electric vehicles we will no longer need smog stations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And that phase in period - 20 years?

      Delete
  12. The city stealth poster is very active here. I was at the Cardiff workshop. The same ol' stuff was being recirculated again. The new stuff was in binders. When I asked some questions about the Floating Zones, I was pointed towards the posters. I asked why changes in parking, height, and setbacks were not on the posters and was told it would confuse people. Really?. People were not being directed to the binders. The Floating Zone binder was 62 pages with the most important paragraph on the second to the last page. It was hardly a transparent presentation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1:44 PM

      It must be that when you have a closed mind all the posters look alike. I just reviewed all the poster from the first go round. While there was a few talking about preserving community character, none of the ones in the first round spoke about design guidelines and the new design standards for the 30 per acre floating zone.

      So I can only assume your goal is to try to discourage people from attending these sessions. What are you afraid of? The current posters do talk about the floating zones, setbacks, number of stories, etc. but posters aren't going to get into any detail, not now nor did they before. That's why the documents are there.

      Admit it. You just don't want people to attend these session and make up their own minds.

      Delete
    2. Exactly how do you propose we "make up our own minds" when the things people want to most know about are hidden from view? You sound like the worst possible kind of insider, paid to post here and keep the details we want to know about under wraps.

      No wonder the planning department is too busy to get their work done, per Murphy: they're too busy posting here,

      If anyone can actually locate the binder presentation on line, you win a prize. If you can locate the nugget under item K, you win another.

      Delete
    3. By the way, 2:13 is not FP.

      --FP.

      Delete
    4. 6:06 PM

      "If anyone can actually locate the binder presentation on line, you win a prize."

      How can I stand to lose the minute it took to find these:

      http://www.athomeinencinitas.info/wp-content/uploads/00_Encinitas-DGs-Book_10-30-15_low.pdf

      http://www.athomeinencinitas.info/wp-content/uploads/Attachment_1_Zoning_Standards_WEB.pdf

      By the way, I'm not staff or council. You appear afraid that people might actually support what is being proposed. If the situation is so bad shouldn't you encourage people to go see for themselves? But that risks people actually getting behind what is proposed. Better to keep them ignorant and afraid. I don't know whether you supported Prop A but that depends on involved and knowledgeable citizens. You, apparently, have little respect for your fellow citizens that they can't make up their own minds. Pity.

      I've never advocated that people support or reject what the city is proposing. All I've advocated is that people go and make up their own minds. But that's just to much for you. You're all for people being involved as long as it's people who agree with you.

      I forgot to mention that the posters from the first series of community meetings are located at:

      http://www.encinitasca.gov/index.aspx?page=403

      You can find them under the box titled "View Housing Concepts and Learn More About Housing"

      Delete
    5. 8:17 AM

      Really, now. You didn't explain how you managed to find that page on the city website if you started at the city home page.

      Delete
    6. 9:56 PM

      Since I've been following the housing element update for awhile now, I know to look both on the planning department's webpage and the At Home in Encinitas webpage. As you can see from the links above, the new documents are going to the latter under the Documents subpage (www.athomeinencinitas.info/documents/)

      By the way, you can get there from the Home page, it just takes a few extra steps either by linking to the department webpage or through the city projects section on the Home page. Either way is a few too many steps to my mind. There should be a one click link on the Home page.

      Also, if people attend the sessions they will receive materials that have the (www.athomeinencinitas.info) webpage URL printed right on them. Please notice that it's ".info" instead of ".gov" or ".org". Don't ask me why.

      So what is my prize?

      Delete
    7. 12:28 PM
      You win a big slice of humble pie. Don't eat it in one setting.

      Delete
    8. 1:39 PM

      Since you were shown to be ignorant and wrong, I guess not understanding what "humble pie" means should come as no surprise. I just look things up which anybody can do. That appears too much to ask of you, yet it doesn't restrain you from pontificating about things you don't know. Why anybody should listen to you is a mystery. Hopefully, they don't.

      Delete
    9. 9:23 AM
      You don't like humble pie?

      Delete
    10. 10:32 AM

      When someone like 6:06 PM (11/8) boasts "If anyone can actually locate the binder presentation on line, you win a prize." and then doesn't admit they were mistaken, it is them who don't like humble pie.

      Delete
    11. 10:54 AM

      Would you rather have sour grapes?

      Delete
    12. 11:02 AM

      I'd rather have people not try to mislead others.

      Delete
    13. 11:37 AM
      Then you need to correct your posts.

      Delete
    14. 11:46 AM

      I'll leave you to find a new playmate for your flights of fancy. Just stop lying.

      Delete
  13. Its the nicest smogs station for many miles and has been for years. We need more auto-motive related bisneeses along OUR 101. My car didn't pass the test there but did at Luecadia Shell but I still like the way it looks and th open space of their parking lot whitch is nicely landscaped.

    - Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Syl,

      Parking lot is "open space"?

      Really?

      Delete
  14. Sylvia, you are lucky to have had a good experience at that Shell Station with their current head mechanic. Review some others in our community who have not had a similar positive outcome on Yelp. He has been reported to the Bureau of Automotive Repair over his tactics in taking advantage and ripping some other local customers off. Perhaps he learned his lesson and changed his stripes since he was put on notice. If so, then, good. You apparently had a better outcome than others. I speak from my personal experience and what I was put through needlessly so this is not simply a rumor or gossip being shared here now.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Shell station is ditching its mechanic and repair services in favor of a hoped/for car wash, 3,000-foot convenience store, large alcohol sales area, and another pump to accommodate the expected bump-up in traffic. Just what a residential neighborhood should not have to put up with.

    Watch the city try to double down on screwing up the Leucadia Blvd/Orpheus intersection and send a ton more cut-through traffic into residential neighborhoods on both sides of Leucadia Blvd. Ah, the city never tires of drumming up revenue no matter what the cost to the community.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 5:57 PM

      "the city never tires of drumming up revenue..."

      So you're saying the city went to the property owner and encouraged them to expand their operation to drum up more revenue? That the property owner or station owner never thought of it themselves?

      Delete
    2. No...but the city is once again rubber stamping a project that compromises resident safety and damages community character.

      Property owners are free to ask for the moon. That doesn't mean our city should be their partner in crime.

      Delete
    3. Damage community character? Revamping that old station? Right. Drunks staggering around there all day and night because of alcohol sales? Not. Disturbing neighbors? What? Like firemen loosing sleep (next to the freeway) because of a car wash? That place will be a hell of a lot nicer, and there won't be as many dirty fingernails making change for you either. Any idea how much noisier a mechanic's garage is? Didn't think so.

      Delete
    4. How many of you people are in AA?

      Delete
  16. Be aware - City traffic department is restriping streets to include bike lanes that will remove parking from residential streets. This is all being done in the backroom. Nothing goes to the council so the residents can't voice their opposition.
    One street is Garden View east of El Camino Real.
    Once streets are striped for bicycle lanes then no parking bicycle lane signs are installed.
    The city also plans to decrease the lane widths on El Camino Real so they can add another 2 feet to the bike lane from Encinitas Blvd. to Leucadia/Olivienhain.
    If you are opposed to having the driving lanes narrowed on El Camino Real contact the city manager and council.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Garden View is hardly residential. There are no homes that front Garden View and its 40MPH. Do you mean Glen Arbor?

      Delete