From the inbox:
The idiots constructing the park on the Hall property have totally blocked water flow into the protected wetland that runs the length of the canyon. Months ago, they permitted tons of red silt to flow into the wetland requiring legal restraint. Now they have blocked it up. I wonder what the penalty is for destroying a protected wetland.Residents of the Composer District are known to be agitated by the regional sports park with 90-foot stadium lights being forced upon their quiet, residential neighborhood. Still, this issue merits immediate investigation.
I have lived on the canyon for nine years and have never seen the creek dry...until today.
Abe Ordover
The Community Input Map, which the city paid to have made, shows a retention pond that would have utilized this natural asset. The city council made sure that this would neve be seen by future generations. They understood that "if we don't build more soccer fields, we will have to build more jails." That map has been hidden by past city councils. Now we have six to seven sports fields that will be soaked with pesticides, tons of buried toxic soil, that will be there forever. The lies of the past council are inexcusable concerning this issue.
ReplyDeleteThank you for noting this travesty. Will our new, open council acklodledge the deceit of their successors?
The council, or now the gang of five, have no thought of protecting the environment.
DeleteThere are good arguments that sports are an important way to help youth stay out of trouble; however, will low-income Encinitas youth get to even use these fields?
ReplyDeleteAs usual, it is a bunch of hidden agendas and lies to make it SOUND like this project is in the interest of Encinitas citizens.
The biggest issue is the regional sports complex is gobbling all the City tax dollars, so there is no money for any other project. Now or in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis $60 Million dollar sports park is costing the average tax paying family in Encinitas over $10,000 just to construct and over over $100 dollars per year to maintain.
The regional park will cost the Carlsbad, Solana Beach, and Rancho Santa Fe residents living 50 feet from an Encinitas resident, NOTHING, ZERO, FREE.
Our City Council was so stupid to build this park without a agreement from the surrounding communities for financial contributions. Another boondoggle from Jeromse Stocks. Almost as bad as his 35% increase in every City Council members and City Employees pension in 2005.
That guy was the devil for the financial stability of Encinitas. And we will pay for centuries for his misdoings.
If the City Council as smart? They would be looking for ways to reduce the cost of regional sports park. Both Construction and Operations cost. I would recommend, letting the YMCA manage the park. They are way more competent than our jacked up Parks and Recreation department and always will be.
A few grammar corrections were needed for the perfectionist bloggers.
DeleteThe biggest issue with this sports complex is it is gobbling all the City tax dollars, so there is no money for any other project. Now or in the future. This $60 Million dollar sports park is costing the average tax paying family in Encinitas over $10,000 just to construct and over over $100 dollars per year to maintain.
This Regional Complex will cost the Carlsbad, Solana Beach, and Rancho Santa Fe residents living 50 feet from an Encinitas resident, NOTHING, ZERO, FREE.
Our City Council was so stupid to build this park without a agreement from the surrounding communities for financial contributions. Another boondoggle from Jerome Stocks. Almost as bad as his 35% increase in every City Council Members and City Employees pension in 2005. That guy was the devil for the financial stability of Encinitas. And we all will pay for his misdoings for centuries.
If the City Council was smart (big ?) They would be looking for ways to reduce the cost of regional sports park. Both Construction and Operations cost. I would recommend, letting the YMCA manage the park. They are way more competent than our jacked up Parks and Recreation department and always will be.
The YMCA is mostly populated by college and high school kids, volunteers, and people who want to give back the community.
DeleteThe Parks and Recreation Department is run by City 'professionals' under the leadership of Gus Vina. A number of them are getting 6-figure salaries, yet the college kids at the Y are doing a better job. And what does that tell you about our City staff?
They suck.
DeleteAs much as I'd like to see the city retain more money by being thrify, if the city just spent $290,000 planting 101 5 gallon trees on 101 in Leucadia, I doubt they'll be looking for any corners to cut on the costs of the Hall Park or little else. That's $2,871 per tree. Just wished they would have asked Gil Forester or Mark Wisnewsky for a bid.
DeleteI rather trees verses more facilities.
DeletePass the word.
Maybe the Coastal Commission, of whom Council is in defiance or fear of, depending on the situation, should be alerted immediately.
ReplyDeleteA shame that it has come to this. This neighborhood is called Cardiff Glen. Originally the surrounding neighbors brought a lawsuit against the developer of the former greenhouse property, and the result was the Coastal Commission required the creek bed be protected as wetlands.
ReplyDeleteAfter the city bought the adjacent Hall property, a long legal battle of ten years ended up at the Coastal Commission. The city hired consultant Susan McCabe to lobby the CC. The citizens lost, and Jerome Stokes claimed that the long fight cost the city over $1 million. We can thank Council members Stocks, Bond, and Dalager for ignoring the contamination and uncontrolled runoff without daylighting the creek across the Hall property and building a large retention basin for bio-remediation.
City Manager Gus Vina compounded the problem by lobbying the county Department of Environmental Health very hard to minimize any mitigation. Then he pushed forward very quickly the questionable borrowing to start the park construction before the new council was installed.
I'm dubious that the new council will be of any help here. It's under the thrall of Vina. We can take back some control from misguided councils by voting YES on Prop. A. We also need an initiative to make the council submit to the voter for approval any kind of borrowing for major projects. Right now three council votes can use Lease Revenue Bond to borrow money.
Where was Barth during this hall park discussions? How did Barth vote during each of the important issues- park cost? Park design? mitigating hazardous waste? Funding to build the park? Thank you for any insights.
DeleteBarth wasn't on the council for the early important decisions. She voted NO with Maggie Houlihan when the city appealed the Planning Commission denial of the park design. The park design was approved 3 to 2 by Stocks, Bond, and Dalager.
DeleteHowever, after Gus Vina came aboard, her gyroscope seemed to go out of control and she lost her bearings. She followed his every cue, even the reckless financing scheme he concocted. She could have voted NO, but chose not to in order to "get along." It was a show of feckless leadership.
A resident in the area should call the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.
ReplyDeleteCall the Coastal Commission. They can take legal action against the city. In the original suggestions for the park was daylighting Rossini creek which would have eliminated a soccer field. Stocks and the rest of the council didn't want that to happen.
ReplyDeleteBelieve multiple calls to the Coastal Commission could get the best traction.
ReplyDeleteIn the 70's I spent half my spare time in Cardiff. Me and a high school buddy built a tree house in Rossinni Creek east of Verdi St. Can't imagine the architects of the park cutting off that natural flow to that long verdant creek. Hey, maybe if it dries up, they can make a mile long, 5 story affordable housing project there with a 1 mile slide all the way to Jack in the Box for 99 cent chicken sandwiches. yummmmmm Naw, that's thinking way to far ahead.
ReplyDeleteI meant way too
ReplyDeleteDear Friends,
ReplyDeleteWe are reaching out to everyone we know in Cardiff:
Rossini Creek went dry this weekend. The cause is almost certainly the Hall Property construction project, where there is a large pit immediately upstream from where the creek begins.
The fish and the latest batch of tadpoles won't survive long. The frogs are already coming up to houses seeking moisture.
We are asking people to call the City of Encinitas on Tuesday, 5/28, to urge them to act quickly to repair the damage and restore the creek, if it can even be done. Whatever can be done, it must be done right away.
Here are numbers to call:
City of Encinitas: 760-633-2600
Mayor Teresa Barth: 760-633-2620
Dep. Mayor Lisa Shaffer 760-633-2622
Engineering Services 760-633-2770
Parks & Rec. 760-633-2740
Please file a complaint with the following:
ReplyDeleteSan Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board
9174 Sky Park Court Suite 100
San Diego Ca 92123
Phone: 858-467-2970
Eric Becker- EBecker@waterboards.ca.gov
Laurie Walsh- LWalsh@waterboards.ca.gov
Chiara Clemente- CClemente@waterboards.ca.gov
thank you for taking the time to post the number. I just called. It is a shame that Mayor Barth and Lisa Shaffer approved of the city raiding other accounts of money and increasing the city debt to build this environmentally flawed project. There is waste buried on site that I think is a threat to the community and the city is in my opinion cutting corners to save money............much like the did with the Shoddy work at the library that cost taxpayers an additional 600K. Only now lives of residents and nature may be at risk. Interesting that Mayor Barth told KPBS that the demographics are changing in that seniors are the fastest growing group. Why are we spending 60 million on a park that threatens the environment if families and kids are decreasing in population?
ReplyDeleteBecause the city council individually and as a whole have no common sense.
DeleteAlso call the Coastal Commission. The developer, in this case the city, may not have followed the EIR and permanently altered the stream flow.
ReplyDeleteAnd which of you Cardiffians used a backhoe to unblock the dam?? None of you....all talk no muscle.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for taking the law into our own hands under almost any circumstance imaginable, but we should also demand the government fix what it broke.
DeletePlus I don't have a backhoe.
It is a very serious matter that our City is disregarding water quality and environmental laws.
DeleteWhy should citizens have to point out to them the laws that they are breaking, report them to authorities, and point out violations that they commit within their own code? Don’t they know their own jobs, and don’t their layers of supervisors, starting with Gus Vina, expect them to follow them?
How many days before this wetland disappears completely? This should be criminal.
It is criminal. Unfortunately, city officials are turning their backs on protecting the environment. It starts at the top. Desert Rose was the beginning.
ReplyDeleteFirst, a citizen cannot use "a backhoe" to unblock the creek. The laws are specific.
ReplyDeleteWow. So, 44 acres of about 200 houses would have been better? Or shopping malls?
ReplyDeleteSo, how was the greenhouses better for water quality? How would have >200 houses or an expanded shopping center be better for traffic or noise, etcetera?
ReplyDeleteIf the complaints of the neighbors were more reasonable, they could have gotten more traction.