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. Sorry for the late posting.
The meetings are getting shorter and shorter at a time when much should be accomplished. GASpar is too busy running for the Board of Supervisors. She doesn't have time for small town politics any longer. Her mind has already left the building.
ReplyDeleteNow we are renaming portions of streets after people. When will the nonsense stop?
I hope they ask the other people on the block if they want this change.
DeleteThe American Legion asked Gaspar about renaming the street for one of their members who died this year. About 1000 people attended the services for the Marine Colonel.
DeleteThe council voted to change the name. Very smart move by the council. Where could they get a 1000 votes for themselves in the upcoming election.
Gaspar has done nothing of significance as council person or Mayor - now her handlers have her poised to make a run for County Supervisor. She is like her sand/rocks demo; only she is smoke and mirrors. She is merely a shill for special interests, who realize you can put anyone into office given you throw enough money into it. The handlers are having her lay low until the very last minute - you don't want to expose her liabilities, which are a total lack of practical competence.
DeleteGASpar has added zero to time on council and as Mayor. She is in bed with the developers and will smile at the citizens and lie to their face.
DeleteI hope this broad moves on from Encinitas politics. I can not stand to hear her nasal toned high pitched voice any longer. I wish she would learn to blink every now and then. Her eyes are extremely scary looking.
Good riddance GASbag.
Gasbag may be a Stepford wife!
DeleteYeah. F Street has such a pretty ring to it.
ReplyDeleteObviously, your mind is in the gutter 4:38.
DeleteI don't think of F Street that way.
Please go on, just how do you think of F Street?
DeleteAsk Councilman Tony "the king" Kranz.
DeleteFerenge?
DeleteRename 101 the tony kranz king's highway. Vulcan and San Elijo can be renamed Catherine the Great Blakespear imperial road.
ReplyDeleteLisa just claimed we have $10M in the bank!
ReplyDeleteWhoopee! Now we can turn down the Mizel money and fix our streets! Throw in flood control on the 101, while we're at it.
Right, Lisa?
Turn down the Mizel money? Oh, no. Where would the community groups get the extra thousand or two thousand dollars for their projects. The Mizel money goes to about 30 different groups which put on shows or to the Heritage Museum where they teach young'uns how to make a corncob doll, and give $5000 to Julian Duval to build the new convention/exhibition hall on quail gardens.
DeleteThe patch job on El Camino real is terrible. Give it two years at the most before potholes open up..
ReplyDeletePotholes on the side streets. Pruim isn't doing his job.
Pruim was a loser at Carlsbad and about to be fired and is a loser here.
Deletehttp://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/government/years-of-defying-state-affordable-housing-law-gets-encinitas-sued-again/
ReplyDeleteLook At this sorry excuse of journalism. The Kook of Cradiff even makes an appearance in the comments section.
These developers are like a nazi propaganda machine.
back to the basics.... I don't want to live in an Encinitas that looks like hungtington beach, I will be voting no on increasing the density and height of proposed landuse zoning.... NO on the housing element update!!!
ReplyDeleteInteresting how NO ONE has ever cited the 'State' edict for forcing low income housing (unconstitutional) into our neighborhoods? Obviously the specific law will have been forced down our throats by Cultural Marxists (please go to You Tube and type in Cultural Marxism and look for Miley Cyrus for a 101). This law can obviously be over turned and likely that is the fight that we will have to take on. No one wants a Section 8 mom living next door with 3 unfathered teenage sons looking for 'fun' in the hood every night after you've gone to sleep.
Delete2:35- Section 8 and the HEI are entirely separate from one another. I also think it's a bit prejudiced to think just because someone is a single mom with 3 kids that everything will go to hell. I know plenty of single moms ( one has to wonder where the father's are?) and their kids are great.
DeleteI do think that you are right about lobbying the State, which is where this B.S. is coming from. We have a State lobby person. Perhaps he can get together with other lobbyists and put some pressure on the State. That really is the only way this law is going to be changed. And, the time is ripe for change. As we can read many cities besides us do not like this law.
8:28pm Thanks for bringing this sorry excuse for journalism to our attention. Please read Maya's take on our community trying to stave off urbanization attempts by our planning dept.
ReplyDeleteIf after reading her claptrap reporting and you feel motivated, please email her with your opinion on her developer centered take. She must have been fed this story from the pigs trough of the BIA, our very own Meyer, and who knows who else.
She sure as heck didn't talk to anyone in our community before writing her bs article. The Voice of San Diego should have known better . Where was her editor? Unless The Voice of San Diego has been taken over by the same influences we are fighting here in Encinitas, there is little excuse for Maya's article being allowed to b e published as it was.
Please, if you are motivated, email her and let her know how far off the mark of truth she has strayed.
I believe we are and have been a welcoming community for years. What we don't need is the city council putting it in writing and advertising all over the globe to come to Encinitas.
DeleteThis is yet another ill conceived dream of Shaffer and her merry little troops. She so desperately wants to be recognized and appreciated, but this is not the way to do it.
My suggestion would be to rethink this and leave well enough alone.
Maya did meet with various citizens and did talk with others by phone. She chose to ignore them all and relay totally on David Meyer. Her article is very close to what Meyer has said at several public meetings. She ended up dissing the citizens of Encinitas.
ReplyDeleteI just read her article. WOW is all I can say. Sensational journalism at its finest. Question for anyone. I was under the impression that the developers could get around D.B. by paying the city a certain amount of money instead of building low income housing, (which is a joke in Encinitas to begin with.). Is this true, or does anyone know?
ReplyDelete10:38, no.
ReplyDeleteInclusionary housing policy says 1 in 10 units must be affordable, or an in lieu fee can be paid instead. The money goes to low income rent assistance, effectively sudsidizing rent for low income families anywhere in the city.
But the affordable units under density bonus do not have a similar in lieu fee option for the developer.
I am confused 10:47. How much is this in lieu of fee, and how does it get to low income renters? Thanks for clarifying my lack of knowledge on this.
ReplyDeleteNot sure how the amount is calculated. Others may be able to shed some light.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, the money goes into an account that the city manages. Low income renters can apply for assistance. I believe there are qualifying criteria, and a sliding scale monthly subsidy based on income, number of people in the family, etc.
What I haven't seen is a comparison of the relative effectiveness of building units vs. in lieu fees on affordable housing. Which is more effective and efficient at creating affordability? I don't know the answer, but I'd like to.
313pm. The in lieu fees don't come close to the value of the units that are being allowed to be sold at market rate. This is a huge giveaway to developers. I believe the in lieu fee is about $325,000 for a million dollar property!
ReplyDeleteAllowing these developers to skate by with not fulfilling their granted permits to build should not be rewarded with in lieu fees. There should be no in lieu fees. WTF is going on here?
Paying a half assed charge so they can cram another million dollar property into their projects is being rewarded???????? And failing to fulfill the permits with which they were granted to build is not being penalized but rewarded. This stinks to high heaven!
No more in lieu fees! Make the builders fulfill their permits as they were intended. This stinks. Fire the Planning director and senior planners starting with Manjeet. I would like to think the other senior planners are only following orders but they could be just as guilty of betraying our community as Manjeet is.
What horseshit. The in-lieu provision of the inclusionary ordinance has been a part of the ordinance since inception long before Manjeet and most of the current planners were hired. Direct your ire to the council.
DeleteSee my post below. Hope this helps.
DeleteEncinitas
ReplyDeleteCity
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Posted by San Diego Real Estate News on Wednesday, January 8th, 2014 at 10:45am.
The Encinitas City Council recently voted 4-1 to raise the in-lieu fee of Lennar’s planned 28-unit development on Normandy Road by over $280,000. These additional funds will be put into an account used by the city to purchase and allocate homes as affordable low-income housing.
According to city regulations, developers in Encinitas must sell or rent 10% of new homes built to individuals or families eligible for housing assistance. For developers who prefer to not include the required affordable housing, they can instead pay an in-lieu fee to be used for providing housing assistance and options to those in need. In this instance, Lennar’s 28-home development would require two low-income units be built.
In the past, city officials calculated this in-lieu fee by taking the difference between all condo and sold low-income Encinitas home for sale throughout the previous year, a method which would have required Lennar to pay $178,640 per low-cost unit they declined to build. Instead, the Encinitas City Council agreed to calculate the fee based not on the sale price of all condos, but only of those comprising of approximately 1,500 square feet - the recommended size for affordable family housing. This equals out to a total cost of $319,000 per unit, or an additional charge to Lennar of $140,360 for each of the two in-lieu fees.
At the meeting, the director of community development for Lennar, Geoff Smith, encouraged the Council to retain the old method of calculation as it was in place when the planned housing first went in front of the city. Councilman Tony Kranz argued that since the project isn’t vested, Lennar isn’t locked into the lower fee structure.
City Council members supportive of the new fee-calculating structure emphasized that the new method will continue to apply to future developments, but that they reserve the right to alter it as the Council sees fit. Councilwoman Kristin Gaspar cast the lone vote opposing the fee increase, citing that raising the in-lieu charges for the already-planned development sends the wrong message to citizens and businesses operating in the community.
Many local residents support Lennar’s increased in-lieu fee, citing that Encinitas already offers advantages to developers compared to other area cities. While the community requires 10% of new development to be allocated for low-income purposes, nearby Carlsbad and other North County locales require a more substantial 15%.
"The Encinitas City Council recently voted 4-1 to raise the in-lieu fee of Lennar’s planned 28-unit development on Normandy Road by over $280,000. These additional funds will be put into an account used by the city to purchase and allocate homes as affordable low-income housing."
DeleteHow many houses in Encinitas are they going to be able to buy for $280,000?
Lennar's Fiore development was selling at $1.5 million. The city could buy 18% of a house. This was a density bonus meaning more market rate houses. The two affordable houses were never sold to a low income family. Instead, the developer sold the affordable houses to another developer. Oops, said the city, we goofed and didn't watch the developer.
Delete8:35 PM
Delete"How many houses in Encinitas are they going to be able to buy for $280,000?" One, it's $319K not $280K (not that large of a difference I know). Two, since they used equivalent condo sales they aren't factoring in land costs just cost of construction. Three, the irony is that due to a recent court ruling, Lennar could have applied the two DB units (which were built) to fulfill their Inclusionary Zoning requirements and not paid any in-lieu fee.
Don't let's forget that our in-lieu fee was based on some San Diego Union table for condo prices. Except we're in an expensive coastal town and the in-lieu fee was not for a condo...so...you know. More developer-friendly favors from our City.
DeleteThese in lieu fees have been misused in that in cases, such as with the Boathouses property, developers are subsidized by the City.
DeleteThis subsidization was orchestrated by a group of developers, and their cronies setting up a non-profit, then using City in-lieu housing funds, totaling over $800,000, to pay the Board of Directors, including DeWald and Norby to purchase the property and to continue to rent out already existing affordable housing. So NO new affordable housing was created with approximately $831K from the City's coffers. This was with Barth's blessing, as well.
GASpar loves the developers.
ReplyDelete"the irony is that due to a recent court ruling, Lennar could have applied the two DB units (which were built) to fulfill their Inclusionary Zoning requirements and not paid any in-lieu fee." If this is correct, then it will definitely encourage developers to only build density bonus projects, in Encinitas.
ReplyDeleteThis is because the DB affordable units, in the past, have been in addition to, not instead of inclusionary housing. As another commenter pointed out, the DB units MUST be built. Inclusionary policy allows "in lieu" fees, instead of actual affordable units. In lieu fees have been misdirected, including, we're told, to help create (through later fired consultants) the failed (and misleading) original draft document for the Housing Element Update.