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Health & Fitness

Why the New Encinitas Network Asked You To Reject the new General Plan 2035 Draft

'Why' we believe the new General Plan 2035 is perhaps fatally 'flawed' and 'How' New Encinitas had been targeted in a documented 'pre-determined' outcome.

Background: August of 2009, the city of Encinitas staff formally asked the Encinitas City Council for a million dollars to ‘update’ the city’s general plan.

On May 11 of this year, the staff and a hired Berkeley firm MIG, which specializes in social marketing and outreach. They began their ‘update’ to the Encinitas City Council by reminding City Council, “The City of Encinitas began the ‘update of its General Plan’ in early 2010 primarily to strengthen existing policies and to address recent court cases and state law or guideline changes.”

For 25 months the New Encinitas Network has kept close tabs on this process, participating in 90% of the ‘process’ because back in August of 2009, the City Staff had already identified the two commercial corridors for targeting in adding a mixed-use overlay to property heretofore only commercial, meaning to satisfy a State of California Commission for Housing and Community Development, that was determined to force the City to determine ‘where’ 2200 multi-family homes could be located in Encinitas.

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The Beginning; On August 19, 2009, at a City Council meeting in the middle of the traditional family vacation time, stated under ‘General Plan Scope of Work’ part of the million dollars was for; “ (The) Focused evaluation of the potential for development of uses such as; multi-family housing and mixed-use (residential/commercial) development (with) renovation and modification of existing older shopping centers as mixed-use developments:”

Therefore, it clearly appears to us there was a predetermined outcome for this new General Plan 2035. As far back as 25 months ago, the commercial corridors of El Camino Real and Encinitas Boulevard were already targeted for ‘redevelopment’ as multi family housing as mixed-use development on existing shopping centers. You can look it up on line.

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Yet, when Planning Staff was asked 19 months later by a dozen Network ‘Focus Group’ members, in June 2011 ‘how’ the two commercial corridors were identified/targeted for the 2200 multi-family units, staff answered (on video) that the ‘idea’ of building low-income housing on shopping centers had been generated by the ‘public’ in a ‘workshop’. It seems a contradiction?

After the City Council agreed to fund the ‘update’, the ‘process’ was out of their hands and the Encinitas ‘Interim’ City Manager, Phil Cotton, unschooled in Planning or Engineering, was responsible for oversight and making sure that City Council directions were implemented.

This oversight, judging by the final ‘draft’ product of the new General Plan 2035 released on September 1, 2011 (two weeks ago) was negligible at best and at worst virtually non-existent.

This ‘draft’ being, described this past May 11 to the City Council, as an ‘update’ of a documented General Plan created and accepted in 1989,’ the ‘update’ was touted as the simple, “strengthen(ing) of existing policies and to address recent court cases and state law or guideline changes” turns out to many who are reading the surprising 1,100-page document to be beyond a ‘power grab’, some of the informed public and even the Encinitas City Council members are stunned to find a completely new General Plan, that holds very little resemblance to the original of 1989 document and has been described as accurately we believe as a “Nanny-State Magna Carte’ not only targeting the two commercial corridors for much-intensed density, but also calls for allowing traffic levels of service to degrade while reversing the polarity of the two corridors ‘moving on from the automobile’ and calling for El Camino Real to literally be turned into a pedestrian-first social gathering collector, rather than it allowing it to remain the 8  lane ‘prime arterial’ that generates tens of millions of dollars each year, literally funding our public safety, senior and recreation programs among much else.

If you want to celebrate, "celebrate City Council caution!”

Playing Keep-Away Finally, the staff created a ‘calendar’ for the ‘celebration’ of what they continue to describe as ‘community created’ General Plan 2035 rather than an expedited review by the same City Council that agreed to fund an ‘Update’.

This ‘Calendar’ allowed Staff to release and promote their ‘draft’ to the public for five more months before it would be vetted by the folks actually elected to make decisions on behalf of the citizens of Encinitas, the City Council. Staff’s plan ended on Wednesday night, September 14, 2011.

Free will, freedom of choice, personal expression, private property rights; reasonable use of taxpayer dollars; much of what makes living in Encinitas so different and so enjoyable are taken away from citizens in this ‘draft’ that has been repeatedly described as ‘totalitarian’ in nature.

What happened?

Over the summer, staff made the decision to eliminate several planned hearings in their ‘Calendar’; eliminating ‘updating’ of the Encinitas City Council in September. A brand new City Manager wasn’t aware of the change. Only the public prevailing through City Councilperson Kristin Gaspar returned City Council oversight and control of this expensive General Plan 2035 process.

In fact, it was only through the viewing of a video of the May 11, 2011 ‘update’ and the verbal and power-point description of the Summer and Fall 2011 process ’Calendar’ demonstrated that the Staff had arbitrarily decided to eliminate ‘updating’ the City Council without their knowledge. 

In fact, the September 14  Encinitas City Council meeting last week only happened at the insistence of the City Council; the Staff ‘calendar’ called for the almost non-stop ‘celebration’ of an unvetted new general plan for four to five more months prior to a true legal public hearing; including six ‘information only’ meetings with the Planning Commission in October and November 2011; skeptics wonder at the ‘Calendar’ circumventing the normal public hearings of their General Plan by the Planning Commission this Fall noting that any other private ‘developer’ would, without question, be normally and legally submitted to.

What Now? Now through public intervention, the Encinitas City Council finally has had a chance to evaluate the new ‘draft’ General Plan 2035. The staff only made it halfway through their presentation Wednesday, September 14, 2011 when the council finally had had enough and interrupted the presentation and retook control of the ‘process’.

Why?

Twenty-five months and way over a million dollars invested and the Staff was making it clear last Wednesday that they had no intention of allowing a public hearing on the ‘draft’ general plan until January or February 2012.

Mayor Jim Bond, Deputy Mayor Jerome Stocks and the catalyst for revealing just how far the Staff wanted to continue controlling the ‘process’ and document itself, Councilwoman Kristin Gaspar deserve kudos and are all truly owed a debt.  

Councilwoman Gaspar in particular did her due diligence and participated in a good dozen extra meetings with Staff and stakeholders and was key in forcing the new General Plan into its public release last week.

While there will be a ‘Celebration’ Monday night, September 19th, 2011 ‘honoring the process’ that targeted New Encinitas and excluded so many of the ‘true’ stakeholders, it is clear, that the citizens of Encinitas, as a whole, should be celebrating the City Council, our elected officials, regaining control of this process; otherwise, Staff generated creation of a Public Health Commission to potentially take public control of what food is healthy and what is not, (banning fast food and drive-thru dining?) the creation of mobile health clinics, a citywide tool lending collective; controlling vending machine food offerings and the location of 2200 low income housing units and we quote, “ the conscious and deliberate creation of gridlock during peak AM and PM hours” along the two commercial corridors.

‘Why’ was the level of traffic service projected to be allowed to degrade from level ‘D’ to level ‘E’, ‘gridlocking’ New Encinitas morning and night? The Staff contractor, Daniel Iacafano answered, ” for the particular reason of ‘improving’ pedestrian, bicycle (riding) and transit.” (On video)

The ‘draft’ calls for the altering of the fundamental operations of the two commercial corridors that generate up to one third of the City’s annual income.

Literally, a General Plan improving pedestrian use at the exact expense of the City’s income stream?

And, when cautioned by the very business owners and commercial property owners who were clearly excluded from the ‘process’ of creating this new General Plan 2035, Staff was adamant that there would be no budget for evaluating what the possible damage to the two income streams by fundamentally altering the function the El Camino Real and Encinitas Boulevard. (On video)

One final note: the ‘process’ is built upon public workshop participation; this allows Staff to organize comments and control access to the City Council and Planning Commission. Ten public workshops aren’t equal to even one Planning Commission Public Hearing; in the latter case, Planning Commission Hearings which are broadcast citywide and allow everyone to see and hear the issues for themselves; clearly the public workshop method is partially responsible for this resulting ‘draft’ being so far a field from an actual ‘Update’.

Celebrate City Council caution; they have demanded a large ‘disclaimer’ be attached to the Staff and MIG’s ‘draft’ to clarify the fact that neither the City Council nor the Planning Commission; those elected officials representing the public and those legally appointed to advise them, are the ones who vet this process and new General Plan.

In Conclusion: Over the last two years many people have asked me ‘why’ I left the old Chamber of Commerce to come over the hill and create the New Encinitas Business Network.

This ‘draft’ is an example of ‘why’.

I left the old Chamber of Commerce, where I had been a board member on two occasions, six years the first time and five years the second, because the Chamber President and Executive Board refused to allow the Chamber to represent paid chamber members I believed were being abused by the City in the introduction of a traffic median that had never been revealed property owners during the public notification process. Henry’s, now Sprouts, is still profitable because I left the old Chamber to represent business owners.

Why’ didn’t the old Chamber weigh in on this conflict? Because they received money from the City and were afraid that if they actually represented paid members that they would be ‘cut off’ from City dollars.

When these business owners were abandoned by the very group that they had paid hard earned dollars for representation, I decided I needed to create a group without financial ties to the City of Encinitas that could truly represent New Encinitas business owners, service providers and commercial property owners.

Now, 28 months later, 25 of those closely monitoring the ‘process’ used in creating this ‘Draft’ General Plan I cannot help but point out that my old friends at the old Chamber of Commerce were appointed to the General Plan 2035 Advisory Committee that signed off on this ‘Draft’ and never let the business owners, property owners and residents of New Encinitas that this plan targeted the two commercial corridors for incredible increase in density and a significant potential jump in daily traffic counts from the current 41,000 trips a day up to 63,000 trips a day.

Perhaps because the Network does not seek nor receive money from the City of Encinitas, we were not allowed by Staff to formally represent New Encinitas, we do not regret our decision to cut our ties to the old Chamber, nor potential city purse strings because we have had no conflict in representing not only New Encinitas but we have been able to warn the other four communities about the potential danger to the City's income stream.

A special thanks again to Councilwoman Gaspar, who went over and beyond the call of duty and Deputy Mayor Stocks' actions last Wednesday night to help return this new General Plan process to the control of elected officials.

We hope you will join us in our public oversight.

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