Encinitas has hit the pause button on exploring its options for building a city-sponsored, low-income housing project.
At a special meeting last week, the City Council agreed to not take any action on the conclusions of a new report produced by the recently formed, city-organized Encinitas Affordable Housing Task Force. That decision came at the request of Councilmember Bruce Ehlers, who expects to be sworn in as the city’s new mayor Dec. 10.
“I don’t want to do anything binding tonight,” Ehlers said, noting that most of the current council will be departing next month.
In addition to having a new mayor in December, Encinitas will have two new council members — Jim O’Hara and Luke Shaffer.
The three men all ran together on a slate advocating that Encinitas shift its stance and start fighting back against state housing mandates. These state requirements, which aim to increase California’s supply of low-income housing, have resulted in a host of new, privately funded development projects in Encinitas that are massive in size and don’t offer much, if anything, in the way of new, low-income housing, the three men say.
Area low-income housing advocates also have said they would like these projects to contain more low-income units than their developers currently are proposing.
In order to meet state requirements regarding its supply of low-income housing in the coming years, Encinitas recently had been exploring building a city-sponsored housing project and setting aside all its units for low-income people. The site that was initially proposed for this project — a property known as “L-7” in city documents — is a nearly 9.4-acre, city-owned property that straddles the 600 block of Quail Gardens Drive. Purchased decades ago, it’s mentioned in the city’s general plan as potential parkland, but it has also been proposed as a city maintenance yard and even a library location over the years.
The plans to put housing on the property generated intense opposition from neighboring homeowners, so the council established the housing task force this summer to explore other options. The conclusions of the 13-member group’s newly released report were up for debate during the special council meeting.
Using a 100-point ranking system, task force members had reviewed 20 potential alternative sites and designated several as high-ranking options. Those sites are the city’s public works yard on Calle Magdalena, the City Hall property on Vulcan Avenue and the North County Transit District’s parking areas. All of them would face significant challenges as future housing sites because they already are used for other activities, the new report notes.
Ehlers said he plans to bring up debate on the report’s conclusions at a future council meeting, but mentioned that this will occur months from now, once the council has a full contingent of members. After Ehlers is sworn in as mayor, the new council will need to determine whether to appoint someone to fill his current council spot or to hold a special election. In the past, Ehlers has supported electing, rather than appointing, new council members to vacant positions.
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