Why You Should Care About the Update to the City’s General Plan 2035

On September 1, 2011, the Encinitas Planning Department released the draft of General Plan Update 2035 — the official document guiding the growth of our town for the next 25 years.

First a few facts about the General Plan Update’s history. 

An out-of-town consultant (MIG Inc.) created the General Plan at a cost $1.5 million.  Although the Encinitas City Council claimed to have conducted an extensive outreach program to get the New Encinitas community involved in the design of the plan (mostly vague postcards in the mail that did not highlight any of specific or negative aspects of the plan), it had little input from area residents. In fact, only one resident from our part of town was on the General Plan Advisory Committee.

So it is not surprising that the General Plan Update did not represent the view of the community, but rather, the distorted view of city planners, helped by a consultant whose pay was not contingent on the plan being accepted by the community.

So what’s in the General Plan Update that should make you concerned?

 1) 2,300 new multi-family dwellings: The plan recommends the building of 2,300 new multi-family dwellings (apartments and condos) citywide by converting existing commercial areas to mixed residential areas (ground floor being a business two 2 stories of apartments on top); and by allowing three-story buildings up to 40 feet tall. Encinitas still has a small town feel. This much construction will turn our town into a crowded urban center.

2) Most of the growth on El Camino Real: Three areas of the city, accounting for less than 5 percent of the city’s acreage, will absorb 100 percent of this growth: The El Camino Real Corridor (1,255 new apartments): the Encinitas Blvd/I-5 area (847 new apartments); and the Santa Fe/I-5 Interchange (180 apartments). Just a half-mile stretch of El Camino Real (from the 99c store to the Michaels’ mall) could be home to 3000+ new residents.

3) Honk if you like traffic jams: Many residents use El Camino Real and Encinitas Blvd to commute to work or as essential traffic routes throughout the day. However, the General Plan admits that traffic will get worse to the point of gridlock. The traffic along El Camino Real is already dense and boarders on  gridlock during peak rush hours. Allowing traffic to get any worse is unacceptable.

The proposed remedy the General Plan recommends to alleviate traffic congestion is to encourage residents to use their bikes and walk more by building bike lanes and walkways. This may be an honorable idea, but is not a good or practical one for commuters, shoppers, and the elderly. Traffic jams on El Camino Real also will encourage drivers to use adjacent road to El Camino Real, making these residential streets congested and unsafe.

4) Declining property values: To comply with the Regional Housing Need Assessment (RHNA) requirements, the city has to allow a certain number of low to extremely low-housing units. The only way developers can ever hope to make money under these circumstances is to push for maximum density and even density bonuses, which means even more low-income units. This will erode property values for homes near El Camino Real and throughout Encinitas.

That the final report is so misguided is not surprising-especially since the data used to create it was outdated. 

Here is just an example.

The population growth estimate for the next decades that was used for the General Plan Update was based on data collected before 2000, the year the latest population census was released.  This obsolete data predicted 15.2 percent population growth between 2010 and 2020, but the latest numbers found that growth was only 2.7 percent between 2000 and 2010. 

The point of this: the General Plan Update makes recommendations for land-use based on over-optimistic poulation growth projection. In fact, recent statistics show that the prolonged recession has caused a net migration out of California.

A short blog post like this does not provide room for commenting on the 1,000-page General Plan Update, which covers all aspects of life in Encinitas: land use, housing, resource management, parks and recreation, public safety, public health, noise, and more.  To sum it up, though, the plan does not address how the increased population will affect our schools, our public safety, or the overall wellbeing of the residents.

Many residents of Encinitas still do not know about the General Plan Update and how it will change their lives for the worse.  But the concerns of a few residents of New Encinitas have prompted the City Council to conduct a new outreach effort.

So there is still cause for hope. Please attend the December 14, 2011 General Council meeting where the new outreach program will be presented and voted on.

The plan is just a draft and has not been voted on by the Planning Commission or the Encinitas City Council.  Before it can be voted on, several commissions must review specific elements; then an Environmental Impact Report has to be prepared and submitted, and then the city must hold a public hearing.  At that point, the City Council can vote on it.

It is fair to say that this all process could take 12 to 15 months, if not more. No doubt the debate over the update to the General Plan will be a cornerstone issue in the general election campaign in 2012 for city council seats.

The business community along El Camino Real has overwhelmingly rejected the flawed plan. Even our deputy mayor, Jerome Stocks, who is well know for his pro-development stance, called the Draft of the Update to the General Plan, the “ugly baby” of the Encinitas planning department.

It is time for residents to tell the city to shelve the plan and not waste more money on an Environmental Impact Report. They have wasted enough taxpayer money as it is!

Visit our website at www.newencinitasresidents.com to find out more about the poorly designed plan will affect your life, and how you can make a difference.

Editor's Note: The opinions expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Patch.