In an ironic twist the "Right to Vote Initiative" creators want the fresh, new city council to adopt the ordinance on Tuesday without a public vote.
The council can decide to send the "Right to Vote" to a special election on June 18, 2013.
Valuable links:
The Encinitas Right to Vote
Quick link to the Right to Vote PDF page
Impact report of the Initiative The (Executive Summary begins on page 21)
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| A page out of the Impact Report |
*blogger's note - I encourage the city council not to adopt the "Right to Vote" Initiative on Tuesday night and let the voters of Encinitas decide for themselves in an election this summer.
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ReplyDeleteI encourage the City Council to save the City Millions of dollars by adopting the initiative.
ReplyDeleteThe initiative only does two important things.
It changes approval for up-zoning from our approved general plan from Council to Citizens.
It establishes a height limit of 30 feet- with variances approved by the voters.
I see this as a know brainer. If this passes, Encinitas quality of life and property values sky rocket.
Lets pass it and move on!
Council needs to focus on getting the Density Bonus Law repealed.
I understand how this sounds like a good ideal. But if you read the initiative it takes away property rights from us. The new max height will be 30' everywhere and could be a flat roof. This includes neighborhoods with current max height of 22' or 26'. Also, the initiative resets how we are to measure the bottom of building heights to "natural grade". If your home was created by adding dirt to raise the pad height or flatten for development, you may lost your ability to add an addition or any structure. This effects almost all homes. Here's the best/worst part, bc of State Density Bonus Law (which is not going away) the developers can use a concession to keep the base building height at whatever the approval has for new pad heights. Therefore, the "natural grade" is not an issue. Please do not support.
ReplyDeleteMs. Peace - The intitiative does a lot more than those two things. It is ironic to me that the spririt of the initiative is to express caution when making land use decisions yet the proponents seem to want this thing adopted without any discussion of the potential impacts? It is a no brainer to me that we need to figure out exactly what the initiative is likely to do and then, and only then, should we vote on it.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever heard the term. Developers are Liars and don't really care about the community, they only care about making profit?
ReplyDeleteWhelp, we've heard the lies, are hearing the lies, and will continue to hear the lies from the Lying developers.
Developers will do ANyTHING for more profit. Including 4 or 5 stories, or pay off future council members, or lie to the neighborhood or at public meetings.
As long as the profits are to be had, Developers can not be trusted.
Vote yes on the initiative.
I agree and will be voting YES. The sooner the better. I can't wait to hear from the Council members as well.
ReplyDeleteIf they are opposed to this initiative, the oppose my views on Encinitas and I will not be voting for them in the next election.
Is the initiative really going to put the screws to developers? Let's be smart about this and really understand what the initiative will do and to whom. Last night, even the attorney for the proponents acknowledged that the initiative repeals the current portion of the code that allows natural grade to be replaced by finished pad height for purposes of height measurement. By repealing that portion of the code a large number of homes in Encinitas will be rendered non-conforming overnight. This will have real impacts for those residents. Ironically, it will not impact a developer because a developer can invoke density bonus law to get around the new height limitation. Isn't this worth talking about?
ReplyDeleteIs it possible we are napalming the city to get the developers but the developers are the only ones wearing gas masks?
ReplyDeleteI watched last night.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear people ALL agree to a vote on up-zoning.
It is also clear that the other measures in the initiative hurt ALL of us.
It will HELP developers. Density Bonus will NOT go away.
I can see more developers heading our way.... Wearing their gas masks.
Let's support a counter initiative that leaves in the right to vote for up-zoning and leave the rest out.
An open letter from a friend today with my response:
ReplyDelete"I am mostly a property rights guy. I consider your entitled to 3 stories buy right. Then however you or anyboby else figures out how to develope their property- that is up to you and your architect and perhaps you find a solution that nobody has considered? I feel (very)strongly
that entitlements should not be taken away. An interesting
filter: Discuss your real property value with an appraiser,
and consider highest and best use? 3 stories-right--? For a citizens inititave to take away your entitlements ---gets me stirred up.
I understand developers or anyone wanting to get the biggest bang for their buck. And I appreciate that work ethic. But the people next door to me were NOT entitled to build 3 stories high. The Leucadia Specific Plan plainly states a 3 story shall NOT go next to a one story. Next door did.
But that's not the sad part. our district is not big enough for 3 stories. Sure, other parts of town are for sure. Prior to the Specific Plan changes we were not allowed 3 stories. RTV is a return to that more sensible zoning. Perhaps it's a bad thing for other parts of town, so amendments to the RTV might be best, but at least RTV allows those who want to build higher to have it voted upon.
Where is the sanity of builing two 3 bedroom condos and four businesses on a 50 x 80 lot with only 7 public parking spaces (3 of which for customers only and 3 more for handicapped only)? Where is the sanity of tandem garages that are never used for cars outside of a loophole for developers to build? Where is the sanity of building a structure with inadequate parking that strangles itself AND neighboring businesses? Streetscape will NOT add parking spaces but take 200 away. (Don't worry, I'm 100% for Streetscape and believe the light infrastructure on the east side of 101 could add parking someday.) Streetscape claims to add 40 spaces on the west side, but guess what? ADA spots were not penciled in and there'll be at least 2 required on each block. That brings us basically back to the same amount of spaces we have now on the west side.
Currently, there are three stories allowed on 101. But is it fair to encourage these developers to build such when their track record is bankruptcy? Even the Lofts that has plenty of parking went bankrupt. Sensible people who have been interested in buying next door ask one question "Where am I supposed to park?" shake their heads and move on. That will be an even more meaningful question after Streetscape. A friend of mine bought 3 condos at Pacific Station for $450,000ea. Lucky for us he's out of town most of the time. Unlucky him they haven't sold. I happen to like PS inside and out; love Whole Foods and the other shops that went in. Appreciate the fact they added fairly good parking. Don't know how many condos are occupied, but if they all were, I think parking would be impossible. It's already tough at times to find a space to park and that's an increasing problem everywhere downtown each year. Proper parking is essential to a healthy business district and happy neighbors. High density bonuses allow a developer to build more by the incentive of requiring LESS parking.
When Gene Chapo was on the Planning Commission and the place next door was being considered, he asked "But are these 3 story structures what we want to see on every lot in Leucadia in the future?" You must think yes. I don't. At the risk of stirring up my developer friends, I stand by the majority vote of the citizens to decide what's right for Encinitas and being able to vote on what they want for their neighborhoods and business districts.
Fred
Shaffer, Kranz and Barth - do the will of the people.
ReplyDeleteI agree fully with Fred. Vote yes on the initiative.
ReplyDeleteSo the vote last night was good for Encinitas. Desert Rose would have won in court and we would have lost $.5 million fighting it at least. The lawyers all win, and the taxpayers lose. Thank you Tony and Teresa for making the hard but necessary choice.
ReplyDeleteThings that need to happen for Encinitas to improve:
1. Fire Gus.- He's the dip shit leader that let this development process get so screwed up, and has been spending all his time here figuring out how to get us in more DEBT to build a Regional Sports Park which will not only consume all the Capital Improvement General Fund Budget for the next 10 years, but will also sink our future finances when looking at the $1.5 million dollar annual operations budget needed to keep that mammoth Regional operation functioning. He could have also included in the staff report an analysis of having an alternate proposal to the right to vote initiative that had the voter responsible for upzoning and dropped the controversial sections such as 30 foot building hight.
2. Council needs to reign in that mammoth liability called the Regional Sports Park and figure out a way to reduce the budget and the ongoing operations liability. When will that open discussion occur?
3. When is the Council going to discuss the issue of Encinitas having some of the highest retirement benefits in the County? This is a huge problem left over from that idiot Jerome Stocks. Employee costs are way to expensive for our town on 60k and are robbing the citizens of tax dollars that should be spent on needed projects. Along with this item, the City needs to fire some serious deadwood in Parks, Planning and Engineering that have made very bad decisions over the last 10 years. Its not only wasting money, they consistently make bad decisions which severely costs Encinitas. We all know who they are... they've been at the City for over 10 years and have done things like cut down a totally heathy tree instead of the dead one right next to it.
4.Have a goal to build a coalition of similar cities throughout the state through the League of CA Cities and repeal the Density Bonus Law or put in a place a new law that returns full control of land use decisions to the Cities.
5. Look at areas of Capital expenditure that are good returns on investment. The Streetscapes will provide a positive business environment that will increase business and quality of life for the residents. As a result business sales tax, TOT, and property taxes would increase, The positives would end up paying for the costs of the project within 10 years.
6. Focus on getting numerous at grade crossing in leu of the stupid $6 million dollar grade separated crossings. Same argument as above.
Council needs to focus on the highest priority and get a staff that can focus on the highest priorities. Quite focusing on spending money on non-essentials and lets fix this town.
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