Kranz offers open dialogue on Housing Element Update

Residents have expressed concern about many aspects of the city's public outreach on the Housing Element Update: staff's pre-determined upzoning sites, the invite-only Upzoning for Fun and Profit party, the poorly-attended city workshops, the extremely dubious Peak Democracy survey site.

Council Member Tony Kranz has heard those concerns and is hosting a public forum to discuss the Housing Element Update.

Does GOP = BIA?

One of the big tests of the current city council will be its response to the Building Industry Association lawsuit over the city's implementation of state density bonus laws.

Earlier this year, the council belatedly responded to public pressure over staff's interpretation of density bonus laws, which residents felt had been overly and unnecessarily generous to developers. The council unanimously supported residents' positions on most of the issues.

The developer lobbying group BIA responded with a lawsuit.

The Building Industry Association of San Diego County is suing the city of Encinitas over recently approved changes to city development regulations, and the battle is expected to move into the courtroom in early 2015.

“We feel (city officials) are in violation of state law — all we’re asking is they adhere to state law,” Michael McSweeney, the association’s senior public policy adviser, said Tuesday as he discussed the lawsuit.

Community character advocates believe that the city is now implementing density bonus in accordance with state law and in the same manner other cities do.  If so, the lawsuit is on very flimsy legal ground and is intended to bully the city council into a settlement.  But then the city doesn't exactly have top-notch legal advice.

The BIA's Michael McSweeney is also on the Executive Committee of the county Republican Party that endorsed and supported Mayor Kristin Gaspar... which gives us a nice little laboratory experiment in a controlled environment. Will Gaspar reverse her earlier position on density bonus? Will she vote any differently on a possible settlement with BIA than her non-GOP colleagues?

Team Austin Bice Kook

Austin Bice was a San Diego State student from Carlsbad who died while on exchange in Madrid in 2011.

Public surprised to learn contract extension puts Ecke YMCA ball fields at risk

Surprise!

Encinitas resident and former coach Joe Corder said he recently learned that a clause in the city’s new contract with the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA means the Y could yank the Little League’s use of the fields with only 30 days’ notice.

City Manager Gus Vina confirmed the clause was added, but said it doesn’t mean the youth team will lose access to the fields anytime soon. The YMCA has only just started on what’s expected to be a 2½-year master planning process for the area, Vina said.

The organization has launched the planning process to explore ways to “expand and renovate” the YMCA, which is next to the playing fields area on Saxony Road, Ecke YMCA Executive Director Susan Hight said in a Nov. 7 letter to the city.

While the work is still in the early design phase, the letter said the agency anticipates the renovation/expansion project could ultimately “impact one or more of the ballfields.”

At Wednesday’s council meeting, Corder said, “This means goodbye to the Ecke fields.”

It's the YMCA's property; they can do with it what they want. But this seems like a matter of enough importance that the city should have brought it to the public's attention.

UPDATE: It's much worse! The city had the option to renew for 10 years without a termination clause and gave it away without public discussion!

Sore loser in SDUHSD election Barbara Groth goes off on bitter rant against successors

Read all about it at Del Mar Times.

Groth grew up in Cardiff, but married a doctor and now lives in Rancho Santa Fe.

Stay classy, Encinitas. Honey Boo-Boo on the Pacific.

11/19/14 City Council meeting open thread

The current city council has continued prior councils' practice of not providing written summary minutes of council discussion, but only "action minutes" which state the outcomes. Encinitas Undercover will provide a forum for observers to record what occurs at each council meeting.

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Beer Pong Kook