Downtown Encinitas school site the topic of meeting
By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer
ENCINITAS -- Houses, offices and a historical schoolhouse are part of a development plan proposed for the old Pacific View School campus.
After more than a year of committee meetings, Encinitas Union School District officials said Wednesday that they are ready to disclose their latest thinking about what to do with the Third Street campus that closed as a school in 2003.
The district would like to trade the valuable site for commercial property that could be a source of income for its instructional program, said Superintendent Lean King.
But before any swap happens, the city would have to rezone the property and establish conditions that may limit what a developer could build, he said.
At a 10 a.m. Saturday public meeting at Paul Ecke-Central School, 185 Union St., district officials and consultants will present an advisory panel's suggestions, which include:
# rezoning the site for a project that includes single-family homes, town houses, offices and condominiums on top of offices;
# covering no more than half of the property with buildings;
# restricting buildings to two stories; and
# keeping the historical schoolhouse, and possibly moving it, so that it becomes a centerpiece of the project.
read the rest of the story here
It seems to me that if the city is hellbent on increasing our density then maybe we will need a school in the downtown Encinitas area. Why not make it a really cool pre-school or daycare or something? Or make it an adult education campus? Or an alternative school with woodshop, ceramics, welding and autoshop? It would be a great location for a skate park.
Okay, it's settled. Let's build a skate park.
***I didn't go to the meeting today. Did anyone mention turning the site into summer beach parking? Remember, parking was all a big drama last year with the 101 Mainstreet Assoc.
There's a charter school, TIP Academy Encinitas (K-6), that's looking for a permanent site.
ReplyDeleteDoes the community think they could get approval to have them on the property? How would it be perceived by the local community and city?
It's a public school, their website states they're now at 159 students.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is the school board. The three pro TIP candidates that wanted to use the site for a school got creamed in the election.
ReplyDeleteThe first development proposal exceeded the specific plan by 50% and pissed of the residents because it was high traffic medical office at 90,000 sq ft.
This proposal is what the neighbors and residents want (assuming it can't stay as it is and the school board says it can't because it's excess and they need the money)
It is one of the lowest density developments along third street as far as that goes at 50% FAR. Most of the surrounding is at 60-80% FAR and some is at 100%+ FAR.
So the project is less dense than it's surrounding neighbors.
The issue is the school board. The three pro TIP candidates that wanted to use the site for a school got creamed in the election.
ReplyDeleteThe first development proposal exceeded the specific plan by 50% and pissed of the residents because it was high traffic medical office at 90,000 sq ft.
This proposal is what the neighbors and residents want (assuming it can't stay as it is and the school board says it can't because it's excess and they need the money)
It is one of the lowest density developments along third street as far as that goes at 50% FAR. Most of the surrounding is at 60-80% FAR and some is at 100%+ FAR.
So the project is less dense than it's surrounding neighbors.
Let's build another multi-million dollar athletic field and see if the Chargers will move there.
ReplyDeleteTIP Academy is a Charter school that EUSD was forced to accept and fund. There is no way the district could justify allowing TIP to use Pacific View as I doubt TIP can afford the fair market value of the rent. The district is better off selling the property. The district would also be better off if they got rid of Nancy Cunningham (Duke's wife) as she had already resigned and accepted a position at Rhoades before Duke got his hand caught in the cookie jar...The last benevolent act of Doug DeVore was to allow good ol' Nancy to withdraw her resignation once Rhoades made it clear that they wanted to stay away from her stink.
ReplyDeleteSomething strange about the TIP charter school. The fire chief's wife was running for the school board in favor of charter schools. Do charter schools have to pay rent to a school district. TIP is treated like a public school.
ReplyDeleteOf course there is always the vacant school site on Quail Gardens Drive that somehow is considered excess. As long as the good folks in Encinitas Ranch are paying for it, the school district should use it.
ReplyDeleteSchool board could also sell that very valuble site as well.
Go to the article on NCTIMES.com. click on the link to Oceanside begins search again for new city manager. Read the salaries that the city managers receive throughout the county, roughly $1.00 per citizen. That would place the city managers salary in Encinitas at aobut $65k per year. Seems to me he is over paid, no?? What is Phil Cottons salary?? Why is he earning so much more than the others, per person???
ReplyDeleteRSPB
This city seems to be short of ball fields according to Dalger. If so why isn't it going to made a b
ReplyDeleteall field, skate park, and swimming pool with night lights and regional soccer torunaments? It already has or had ball fields so it must be zoned for that.
I think the schools should teach about how kelp helps the beach, waves and ocean life.
ReplyDeleteAnd also to give the fake bikers who flick cig butts on the ground the stink eye.
Whatever greenpeace.
ReplyDeleteI think the schools should teach the students to tax the crap out of the baby boomer generation to repay the debt that they incurred and restore supremacy to the America.
Institute a flat tax and repeal all tax protection for the top 1% of America. Without such measures, we will have a revolution within 100 years. I dont want my grandkids to be fricken Compies. Compy societies dont work just read Animal Farm.
What a crock!
ReplyDeleteNancy gets to make 110K a year and she is totaly despised by her peers and useless to the district.
Encinitas Union School District is coddling and protecting a tax cheat and wife knowing partner of America's worst political criminal in history.
Are you kidding me! It's the biggest waste in Encinitas.
and a shamful mark on the district
What school board members make $110k per year? Are you fuckin kicking me or what?
ReplyDeletePlease Explain. She should be in jail with her husband.
What a croock of shit. Get Rid of Nancy crooked cuntingham.
ReplyDeleteShe is a part of the administrative leadership team that is teaching our children how to grow up to be honest hard working adults that contribute to our society.
ReplyDeleteNo, really, that's not a joke.
The joke is that Encinitas does not see the moronic irony in having her/crook in a position of guiding the next generation.
The district administrative staff make between 95k and 150k each.
The boead members get a stipend but are basiccaly volunteers.
Rest assured dear Encinitas parents, that your presious little ones are being taught by the best in the business.
Now that I saw Josh's photo in the Coast News, I think he was one of the people who spoke at the Council Meeting where they added a bunch more places where skateboarders can't skate.
ReplyDeleteI walked out into the parking lot, after Christy Guerin basically dismissed the fairly large group, after that agenda item was passed, despite all the skaters' comments.
I told them they should try to find out about using the old Pacific View site for skateboarding.
I think putting in another biz/residential complex is a bad idea, as the density is at the peak of what the infrastructure, including water and traffic measures, can support.
No rezoning without a public vote! They already have the mixed commercial and business properties allowing a higher building height! This is not what the people want. Was it already in the General Plan?
The Tip Academy is a pet project of Mark Muir and his wife. Need I say more?
ReplyDeletethe tip academy is a school for the white kids whose parents don't want them mingling with hispanic kids. its kind of like an end around play until they can get vouchers passed in this state so they can send their kids to a private school.
ReplyDeleteas for the property, the elementary district owns it so it isn't really a city deal, the night school idea is a no go because that is the sduhsd district.
projections for our community show lower overall student enrollment, this has caused both the high school and elementary districts to end up owning property where they thought they would build schools (la costa- a middle school + quail gardens - an elementary school)but now most likely will not be built.
the massive increase in property values in north county was not predicted accurately by the powers in the school districts (who could of known really) and we now can see that young families can not afford to move here in the numbers that were estimated years ago when those properties were acquired.
I support the idea of a skate park in Josh's name. Fund it by selling the quail gardens and Hall property. Keep the zoning per the general plan for both properties. No upzones.
ReplyDeleteNo rezoning without a public vote! They already have the mixed commercial and business properties allowing a higher building height!
ReplyDeleteWrong. Since the specific plans were adopted in downtown and Leucadia, building heights have been fixed at a max of 30 ft. 33ft for mixed use and affordable housing. Lower for single family residential.
No one has changed that or upzoned that.
No matter how many times you say it.
Be careful what you ask for on Pacific View re: no rezoning. The site currenty is zoned, spot zoned I might add, for Public-Semi Public. That zone and the .5 far allows for 62,000 sq. ft of medical offices. They are intitled to do that. They tried to develop 90,000 sg ft, but thaks to DEMA, and the vocal residents (all of which and burned.
Medical office development pays the highest traffic impact fees of all uses for a good reason. Why? because it generates the most traffic. The neighbors up here (me) do not want to see that in a mostly residential neighborhood,
We prefer a residential development with vairing diverse types from single family, townhouse,and lofts, at a density equall to or lower than the rest of the neighboorhood.
What the committee worked out is exactly that at a LOWER density (.5 FAR) than the surrounding residential uses.
I think we can all agree that we would like to see a school at that site like it is now, however what we would like and what is happening in all of our coastal areas (see Del Mar School) is different.
The school board has said sell, and it's their property.
should have been (all of which battled against it, It crashed and burned)
ReplyDeleteHow about just a public parking lot for overflow summer beach parking and downtown employee parking?
ReplyDeleteGood idea JP.
ReplyDeleteI bet the site could handle public parking and a Skate Board park. We could get the funding by selling the quail gardens property and a small bit of the Hall Property. We can easily sell off the portion of the Hall property that was tagged for a "Teen Center" and Pool area. Teens would rather ride in a skate park and swim in the Ocean.
Please be careful about wanting to sell any of the Hall property Remember Kerry Miller already talked to Costco about putting in a store on that property. Do we really want to take a chance that the whole property will be sold to developers. If it is sold piece by piece, the developers will have a field day, and I don't mean ballfield!
ReplyDeleteI like J.P.'s idea. Add parking and a skateboard park on that site. We have to continue to remind the Council that we are in charge, in spite of what they might think.
Every resident in Encinitas is part of the school district. Go to the district meetings and make the board know that the Pacific View property shouldn't be developed.
ReplyDeleteYes, we, the people, are the government. The school board is not for profit. That site should not be used for commercial and private residential development. There are GREATER values than money, money, money.
ReplyDeleteI also like JP's idea. A skate park and overflow parking for downtown. Second St. needs it, already! We do not need or want more traffic that would come with commercial development. I disagree with old guy on 4th about what it is zoned for, now. It is not zoned for commercial, but public, semi-public, as in a school.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the specific plan is not in congruence with the General Plan, which was to be like our Charter. Changes were made to the height limitations, for example.
The school district was fine with the City renting the property for about $1.00 per year. Now that the Mossy property is being developed, the Encinitas Union School District is on the bandwagon to develop, again.
ReplyDeleteIs this part of Nancy Cunningham's doing? The City already paid to pave over the playing fields at Pacific View, for the interim public works yard parking. That was $165,000, as I recall. This could be used for a skate area, to be closed at dusk, and overflow parking.
Great idea!
this is not about "profit" for the school district, this is to create a funding stream not subject to the whims of state govt. to enhance the educational program (art,science, p.e. specialists, etc.)for the community's (EUSD district) elementary school children; perhaps the community would prefer to pay a parcel tax to generate these funds? I don't think the neighbors will support a parking lot and skate park...would you want to live next door?
ReplyDeleteA summer parking lot is a good idea if it prevents parking meters from going in on the streets.
ReplyDeleteA school district should run schools not commercial development. Government shouldn't try to compete in the free market. and don't buy the "it will fund the extras," spin. If the extras are valuable enough for the taxpayers and parents they CAN ask for more from the parents and residents of the City. The thinking is already bad surrounding this. That is not going to be "extra" monies. It is going to be the taxpayer's money and should be utilized with the same care. It should fund the necessesities so that we don't have to hear that our school district can't afford basics.
ReplyDeleteKeep the ball field. Make more ballfields. Skateboard ramps are fine too. Do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteThe neighbors would rather have overflow parking, till dusk, and a skate area, maybe small ball park, than a big honkin development which would require a rezone.
ReplyDeleteThe property is zoned public and semi-public (whatever semi-public is), NOT commercial or mixed use. The bluff there would be weakened by underground parking. This is too close to our fragile bluffs. The school district should not sell the property for development, and should not become a commercial developer.
I'm so sick of hearing about revenue streams and surges. I'd like to see the goons who think they can rule our lives surge back into their deluxe McMansions in the sky. Don't make the traffic and density worse.
Our water infrastructure and quality of life cannot support this, or "Pacific Station," either.
City Council needs to get a grip and listen, learn, care about the little guy.
If EUSD (Encinitas Union School District) can afford to rent the property to the City for practically nothing, they can afford to lease it for the same amount for a skate park and a small community center.
ReplyDeleteIf EUSD can afford to pay Nancy Cunningham over $100,000 per year, plus ridiculous pension benefits, when she knew about the felony bribery going on, then it can afford to let us have a pocket park.
The City did NOT need to spend $10 million on the new Public Works Yard. That was a favor to Mossy, realtors and potential developers of Pacific View. Now that is a done deal. But developing Pacific View is not.
Let's write our City Council members, and EUSD and tell them SAVE PACIFIC VIEW!
School districts all over the state, because of shifting and declining wnrollment find themselves with excess property. The districts have an oblication to divest itself from excess properties for the very reason stated, they are in the education business not the development business.
ReplyDeleteDistricts divest themselves of excess property for two reasons, one to cut overhead, two to develop revenue streams to help the reamining schools and their students.
They are also a seperate governemnt entity from the city council with seperate electorial borders and elected officials.
The Naylor act (state law) determines how a district can sell exchange develop excess land.
Basically, the land has value obviously, and leaving it fallow, or a use that does not generate substatial revenue in the districts eyes is punitive to the other campuses and 8000 children because of retarding revenues that the district needs.
There are many uses that can go in a semi public public zoning and most of them are far worse than what is proposed which is very consistant and in fact lower density that the surrouding blocks.
I wouldbe afraid to top the rezoning because the alternative which is allowed under the current zoning is far more intense and not compatible with the neighborhood.
I wish the district would give a gift of land that is worth 6 million to 8 million plus (150 to 200 a foot is the going rate, more in that area) or that the city or a benevolent person would buy it.
But absent that the district wil use the money to benifit the district.
Little Dan Dalager was the one who talked to COSTCO about a store on the Hall Property - not Kerry Miller
ReplyDeleteAnonymous before last, you did not cite an example of semi-private. The school district is just that, a school district, not a property broker or developer. It should sell the City the property for a pocket park, at a very reasonable rate, just as the San Dieguito Water District sold its property, where the former public works yard was for $1,000,000. The SDWD is supposed to be a separate entity, too. And the SDWD lost a revenue stream from the rental of its public works yard to the City of Encinitas.
ReplyDeleteThese people are all public servants. There should be a public vote on this if there is to be any rezoning.
You are using fear to scare people. It's my way, rezoning, or a "much denser use, less compatible." You are wrong. There are other alternatives, and a skate park is one.
We can do this. Don't let anonymous "know it alls" set limits on our potential for increasing the quality of life for all of the residents here, for the greatest common good.
Greed should not continue to rule in Encinitas.
Two posts up,
ReplyDeleteI thougth Dan Dalager was all for the ball fields. Why would he try to put a costco in the hall property. WHat about the ball fields.
Can anyone explain this?
Top Goal- Get rid of the top crook Ms. Duke.
ReplyDeleteWhy should we pay more for her abuse of Public service? she discredits Encinitas and all of America.
Yeah, the argument that the school district can't depend on the State for a stable "revenue stream" is more jive talk from developers and their consultant accountants.
ReplyDeleteOur school districts are WAY too top heavy with the administrators making so much more than the teachers. The students are doing well on the national test scores, here. Don't let greedy "administrators," management, take away our rights to enjoy what we have worked and saved for. The highest value would be for a community area, for overflow parking, and some kind of pocket park, not for more revenue streams.
Nancy Cunningham tendered her resignation. That should not have been reversed. Rhodes School no longer wanted her.
ReplyDeleteThe old plans for Pacific View, under the former superintendent, Devoire, would not have come to fruition. Never was going to happen. Wake up bureaucrats. The general public should and does have a big say in all this. You are not private property owners.
The public owns this land. If it passes from one public entity to another, allowances should be made, reducing the price, as with the low amount the City was leasing the property for. None of the neighbors had complained about having the public works yard at Pacific View, either.
I called Dr. Lean King, EUSD, superintendent at the beginning of the 2005-06 school year and inquired about Mrs. Duke Cuningham's employ...I was told they were "very concerned" and could not do anything pending the investigation and we should all be cautious not to try the Cunninghams in the media. He also promised to keep an eye on the situation after I complained that Mrs. Duke was not suited be a leader in my child's school district. Since then a lot has come to light. The nice plea deal that Duke got spared Mrs. Duke from being charged with any crimes...then she got greedy, really greedy and tried to retain her ill gotten equity from the RSF estate. She is a dead weight to the district and is in no position to work for the benefit of children. She hasn't been accused of a crime (other than in the court of public opinion) and she hasn't been found guilty of a crime. I wonder if people started calling her number at the district office and started writing letters expressing their opinions would the Board of Education do anything...would Dr. King act? Maybe she can be shamed in to retiring.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the EUSD can be "shamed" into honoring the Pacific View site for the greatest common good, a small community pocket park.
ReplyDeleteEncinitas needs tourist dollars. We need something to draw tourists into our city past all the roundabouts. Pacific View School site is one of the highest so most prominent sites in the city.
ReplyDeleteBeacons beach is named form ther WW2 beacon on the hill. Lets replace the school with a new beacon that can be seen from the freeway. Perhaps the tallest building in the region.
We could put a cross on it and call it a war memorial or a surfer and start call us surf city. Why should Huntington Beach have all the fu? We could make the surfer a statue of Christy Guerin. She could probably bring in some Fed money.
Tourist dollars that's where it is at.
I don't understand why we need so much money to run this City. What are we actually getting for our dollars as it is? We pay top dollar to the CIty employees. We give Glenn Sabine free reign to sue anyone. We continue to build mansions and those get the City plenty of money from taxes. So, why are we so poor? I wish Jim Bond would get on with the independent audit he wanted years ago. Perhaps that should be suggested at the goal setting meeting by as many citizens that can attend. A Martin Luther King or Ghandi model seems about right now. We could take over a Council meeting by not letting them stop us at 3 minutes. Gather our collective minds and let's do it.
ReplyDeleteLast poster,
ReplyDeleteAre you out of your mind? What good will it do to close a meeting? These people will just have another one when you are not there.
If you really want to make a difference, start a recall committee and get the smucks out of office. Of course you will need suitable replacemnents. I don't think Ghandi or King are available.
I think you are a big bag of wind and no relevant action.
I don't think it was Dan Dalager who first suggested the idea of a Costco on the Hall property. This idea came up after the Cardiff folks sued the city and pushed the city manager and council agaist the wall. When the city's plan to quickly build a sport complex without doing an EIR was thwarthed by the Cardiffians, various plans were "floated" to spite the irascible residents in Cardiff. These included a Costco, a property swap with the Eckes, and selling part of the property for Condos.
ReplyDeleteDalager has maintained a consistent position in favor of sports field on the property. Still he is not happy about the EIR. Other people are still pushing for the Costco in order to gain a big, fat commission for brokering the deal. It is known that Paul Ecke III is still talking about a property swap. And always below the surface (both literally and figuratively) is the difficult problem of the documented contamination on the property that will have to be dealt with by whoever builds on this blighted terrain. Anything that does not keep the property as open space will be a betrayal of the citizens of Encinitas.
Costco is for yuppie fags.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the status of Nancy Cunningham? Will she face jail time? When will they ever investigate her 2002 employment at the US Department of Education where she was involved in millions of dollars of conputer contracts?
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