Did anyone attend the first Leucadia streetscape workshop at Oak Crest Jr. High school? I wanted to go but had a prior commitment. Any feedback/thoughts?
I will definitely be attending this one: Community Participation Workshop #1 – Part B: Saturday, February 23, 2008 8:30 am – 1:30 pm at Encinitas City Hall; This workshop includes a walking tour of the project area (participants will be bused back and forth from City Hall to North Coast Highway 101) then regrouping at City Hall for presentations and brainstorming sessions with participants.
Residents lay groundwork for Leucadia improvements
Yes, I did and it was fabulous! There was a great turnout and an excellent presentation from a consulant for walkable communities. This is going going to be a VERY good thing for Leucadia!
ReplyDeleteDitto 11:03
ReplyDeleteI'd say around 200 people showed up and most participated in the process of speaking, writing and logging their votes for what they believe to be Leucadia's foremost essential needs. I noticed that restoring the canopy and burying the tracks ranked high amongst the crowd. But the final tallys from that meeting will be good to see.
It's reassuring to know that Peltz has a good track record locally and abroad.
The presentation was impressive with numerous "before and after" samples displayed on a large and vivid Powerpoint screen. I was glad to see a few council ladies and several staff members present.
I usually don't like change, but the cookies and snacks served were just at unhealthy as the food I was served in the same room at Oak Crest 40 years ago. But it's good to know that Peltz didn't have to work the crowd with carrot juice and mushroom burgers to win anyone over. (No matter how much better that would have been!)
Rick Smith of Leucadia Glass had valid concerns that all the samples shown were areas with businesses on BOTH sides of the street (compared to ours with basically one side of the street). I think as we get deeper into this process we'll get a better idea of what options will present themselve for the East side of the Hwy.
Thanks to all who could and did take time out to attend.
It was very encouraging to see the level of commitment evidenced by those wishing to keep Leucadia "funky" while embracing the need for public improvements along the 101 cooridor through coastal Leucadia. Not a Nimby in sight, it was clear the Leucadian renaissance is well underway.
ReplyDeleteSome of you missed a great workshop meeting.
ReplyDeleteThe presentation was inspiring and the community participation was ample, valuable and appreciated. Great power point presentation.
If you missed the first workshop, and care about Leucadia, go to the Saturday walkabout.
David Pultz and his team and the city want your opinions. He want to design what we want. We are very fortunate that his firm is helping us.
The possible concepts are very intriguing.
February 21, 2008 8:39 PM
Didn't see the "Screw the specific plan!!!" guy there.
ReplyDeleteExcellent workshop, Excellent Consultant Team, and I am confident we will produce an excellent end product.
ReplyDeleteNow down to the meat. We definitely need some intersection control at Grandview Avenue. I hope they look at an all way stop or Roundabout. Ugly unsafe signals are the anti-rural look that I don’t want. Plus signals have the highest level of fatalities of any intersection control. A signal would be the worse choice.
I think a roundabout at La Costa Avenue/HW101 and La Costa Avenue/Vulcan Avenue is definitely a great idea and would do wonders to control speeding and I5 traffic from clogging our local roads.
The final plan will be amazing and will be the future example the consultants use for a walkable economically prospering mainstreet Environment.
why not hold the meeting at Central School, which is in Leucadia?
ReplyDeleteThe community room at Central School is currently undergoing renovations.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me is that all development in the past 50 years has been designed for cars. More traffic, bigger roads, wider streets, more lanes, more EVERything, and guess what happened? Areas like this are deserted. People don't lke going to places that look like that, and they don't like to spend their money there, either. Now the mindset is, opps, we made a big mistake. Statictics show fewer lanes and slower speeds means less accidents and flow of traffic is improved considerably. Trees and green plants make people relax and want to hang out. This isn't earth shattering news, but it was a relief to hear it come from the speaker at the workshop.
ReplyDeleteAll through the meeting all I could think of was we wouldn't all be sitting here if that Redevelopment plan had passed. We wouldn't have been looking at the pretty power point presentation. We would've been stuck with the kind of planning and look that would've driven people away. I hope the former boosters of a RDA think about that. They were sitting right there in the room.
I am glad that Leucadia is getting a GOOD consultant. That sure did not happen in Cardiff, and now locals have spent the last year attempting to redo something that the City should never have spent the money on in the first place. (IMHO) Congratulations to whoever found out about this firm, and hired them. Looks good to me, although I am no expert. It will be fun to see the old and new Funky Leucadia.
ReplyDeleteI was there and excited that the consultant team was indeed listening and competent (unlike the paid shill schmuck who presented a bunch of subjective nonsense the night before at the 4 hour long council meeting.)
ReplyDeleteThe workshop last night was run expertly and the participants were dedicated, sincere and enthusiastic. What an opportunity for a positive experience.
It was clear that some of the participants were a bit too literal and struggled with brainstorming or envisioning. Yet, the design team is obviously familiar with this kind of limitation. It seemed that participants were not stifled, yet we all didn't have to suffer with bombastic time wasters either.
Dr. Lorri- Sell your place in Cardiff, it's not going anywhere, Leucadia is THE place to be now!!! We are going to make Cardiff eat our dust!! And after our streetscape project is complete OUR property values will increase 100%. You can get on the bandwagon now or be left behind, the choice is yours!!!
ReplyDeleteLeucadia is the place to be!!!
I would suggest that we keep the positive energy flowing and not revisit the RDA discussion. It is not healthy to continue to harp on "those people". Let's all work together to give great input, so we get great output.
ReplyDeleteThey seemed very polished and appeared to be organized, and good listeners.
ReplyDeleteThis is a little long, so just skip it if you don't like my input, okay?
I heard that the presentation was given before, by the same people . . .???
Peltz's firm designed the Santa Fe Roundabout, where the Jacaranda Tree, we hope is still "holding on," cost $15,000. Wish some of the $231,000 consultant fee would go to actual trees, plantings.
I asked Mike P why he didn't get a consultant fee for designing the Santa Fe roundabout? The money, there, was to design. JP, what's your or a friendly architect's opinion about the AMOUNT of the design/workshop fee being paid to the consultant? What do our staff engineers do on a project like this? Just curious.
Roundabout spin abounded. Someone raised his hand and said, "NO ROUNDABOUTS." Then the Peltz guy (or was it the speaker, Ron?)said, what about [yes] Roundabouts as a topic? So people were putting colored dots under different topics, posted on the wall on big white sheets ~~~
I saw all the "usual suspects," ha ha. It's funny, because the former RDA guys wanted roundabouts. One of them put all seven of his orange dots, in a row, on yes on roundabouts, I noticed. No harm, no foul, right guys? But we were asked to use only one dot per topic.
Turns out one of the workshop hosts, the slide show guy, did the Birdrock roundabouts. The gentleman next to me said under his breath, "It's all about roundabouts." Seemed to be a pro-roundabout bias, to me. I really don't see how there could be room on the east side of the highway for the roundabouts, with the RR track complication. But what will be, will be.
I got to ask Mike Peltz some questions, beforehand, and he seemed quite personable. The focus of this project is not going to include burying the tracks. That is pie in the sky. There is no budget to do anything except DESIGN that part of Leucadia that borders Old Encinitas, from A Street, to North Court, on the South end of the Pannikin.
There is also no budget for any crossing except possibly Santa Fe. The rest are promises, promises, electioneering . . .
I do, we do want beautiful drought resistant flowers in the medians, and the canopy restored. I just feel that we could have had the new environmental committee hold the workshops, and put the consulting fee into trees and plantings. $231K COULD go a very long way.
My opinion is that the big turn out was an excellent sign, community involvement. We all do care what goes into our back and front yards, Bob, including the front yard of our businesses.
But the people that went are hoping it's not more pre-election spin.
Change is in the air, I wish the businesses the best, with the flooding.
In the Reader, and on Turko files, KUSI, were stories about how the RR tracks are causing flooding in North County. NCTD, with Jerome on the Board, is being fined. We taxpayers pay the fines.
Sediment is running off the tracks, including onto No. Coast Hwy 101, this violates the law, as the NCTD changed the grade; the tracks had been elevated, and more dirt than ever is running down with the water; hence the orange sandbags. They match the giant "barriers" on the unfinished roundabout on Leucadia Blvd.
We need a drainage ditch along the east side of 101, above ground; at the expense of NCTD.
The City, through commissions or committees should directly host these workshops; the money needs to go for sustainable growth, living things, not more and more consultants, or more and more cement, as in widening the road at La Costa, more lawsuits, more cars, and more unfunded pie in the sky pre-election plans for RR crossings, etc.
The City spent most of our "wad" on the library, and the three five million dollar fire McMansions, the first one sleeping two to four men, a shift?
City is not worried, because it keeps raising permitting fees, and proposes to raise taxes on a June 3rd ballot. More and more sand, whether we need it or not. People who want to rent out a room for a week will be treated like a hotel. City wants an extra 10% tax, on top of yearly $150.00 permitting fee. The words "three or more units" are being crossed out, which unfairly impacts the "little guy" homeowner.
Please think very carefully about voting for more taxes. This ballot proposition is a bad move on the part of Council, I feel, before election, for the City to play into the hands of the sand lobbyists, and development proponents.
Lynn, The City Council just appointed Steve Aceti, a sand lobbyist to the new Environmental commission. The votes were 4 to 1 with only Teresa Barth rejecting his bid.
ReplyDeleteLynn-
ReplyDeleteYou could have summed up your thoughts as bitch, bitch, bitch.... with no positive suggestions.
I hope you realize there is a large percentage of residents ( a majority) that love roundabouts and we are not developers…. Your comments are classic Lynn, and we all know them by heart.
Lynn,
ReplyDeleteWhile $231,000 is a substantial sum of money, I think it will be well spent for consulting on this project. I don't think that we should just go out and put the money into tree plantings. Can you imagine?
You have to invest in smart people who go out to the community like they did, and then they will design something that works for Leucadia.
Also, my understanding is there is money being budgeted for improvements, not just design.
Lynn
ReplyDeleteYour comments would be less lengthy if you stated truth only and did not make things up.
Lynn- Is there anything going on in that head of your's other than mindless tripe?? You want to put a drainage ditch in Leucadia?? A drainage ditch... A FUCKING DRAINAGE DITCH??? You are more crazy than I ever dreamed possible. But let's go with this idea for a minute... Where do you want said ditch?? How long is the ditch to be?? How deep is the ditch to be?? Once the water drains into the ditch, where does it go?? Who is going to clean the ditch when plants begin to grow.(Assuming they are non-native plants which must be removed at all cost, whereas native plants that begin to clog the ditch will be left to root!!!
ReplyDeleteLynn, it's late and you give me nightmares, so I'm going to log off and hopefully I'll be able to sleep deeply without awaking in the middle of the night with frightening thoughts of a DRAINAGE DITCH IN LEUCADIA!!!
Actually, there is a drainage ditch in Cardiff along the railroad on the west side of the tracks that begins in Carpentier Park, is daylighted and then goes under Chesterfield. If an engineer had ever placed a gravity fed ditch in Leucadia on the Railroad property to address our drainage problems, it would have worked 10 times better than the 5 million dollar (24" pipe) system we got. The city should have hired Lynn.
ReplyDeleteThe drainage ditch in the railroad right of way is no big deal. But the City has enough dead brains on their own-No need to hire Lynn.
ReplyDeleteAll she would do is go around and bitch, bitch, bitch....
I don't think I have ever heard a productive comment from Lynn that was clear and logical.
They should build a concrete drainage ditch that we can skate during the dry season.
ReplyDeleteHey, Fred is correct about the drainage ditch in Cardiff along the railroad. The ditch works very well. In fact, it runs much further north from Carpentier Park and was expanded and improved when the double track was put in a few years ago. No drainage problems here.
ReplyDeleteIt's a simple idea that should be carefully considered before being rejected.
let's put that big drainage ditch right in front of Pannikin. They don't do much for the community and thousands and thousands of mosquitos every summer will add to your enjoyment of the over priced coffee.
ReplyDeleteRe / 8:38
ReplyDeleteYes JP! How about a mile long half-pipe with a gradual 20' tilt (so there's not a drop of rainwater left for mosquitos to generate in) and a statue of Shawn White at the Carlsbad end (but with his hands posed appropriately).