A popular Olivenhain farm that its supporters call “life-changing” and “pure magic” will receive the city’s third agricultural permit so it can legally continue hosting summer camps, the Encinitas City Council decided Wednesday.
However, Sugar Sweet Farm on Fortuna Ranch Road can only offer its goat yoga sessions as a free activity to friends and family members; it can’t advertise them or charge people to attend, as it previously has done, because that would violate city codes, city planning staff said.
“We’re really grateful to have this opportunity to find clarity,” and restore peace to the neighborhood, Elizabeth Sugarman, who co-owns the 2.65-acre farm with her husband, Shawn, said just before the council’s decision.
The council’s vote was 4-0, with Councilmember Joy Lyndes absent due to family medical leave, to deny a permit appeal filed by the farm’s next-door neighbor, Gary Filips.
Filips has intensely opposed Sugar Sweet Farm’s events, particularly the goat yoga classes. He started filing complaints with the city several years ago, and has accompanied his paperwork with videos he has filmed over a fence, showing what he contends are illegal classes and other events. Several young yoga participants told the council Wednesday they were horrified by the yoga class videos that Filips showed, saying he filmed them without their permission.
As they voted to deny Filips’ appeal, council members said they strongly supported having Sugar Sweet Farm in Olivenhain, but wanted to add some permit conditions to prevent future conflicts with neighbors. Those conditions included that the farm will:
- Receive up to six code enforcement visits in the coming year to check permit compliance.
- Limit the number of guests visiting the property to 40 at any one time, including camp volunteers and paid employees.
- Obtain county health permits for selling food at a planned, temporary food sales stand.
- Follow city limits on the number of large and small animals allowed on the site.
- And limit operations to daylight hours.
“I don’t see why they shouldn’t be granted this permit,” Councilmember Marco San Antonio, who represents the Olivenhain area, said before the vote.
He said he believes agricultural operations are “inherently in Encinitas’ DNA,” especially in Olivenhain. Founded by German immigrants in the 1880s, Olivenhain takes its name from a combination of two German words — one for olive and one for grove — and its original settlers were farmers.
Mayor Bruce Ehlers, who also lives in the Olivenhain area, strongly agreed that Sugar Sweet Farm should get its permit, and said the permit should include a provision allowing the farm to host the summer camps as an accessory use, but said he didn’t consider goat yoga to be a farming-related activity and was supportive of the paid yoga classes being banned. Ehlers also noted that the property has a long history of agricultural activity — it was previously owned by several farmers, including former TV weatherman and organic gardening enthusiast Loren Nancarrow, who did some of his TV broadcasts there and co-wrote several gardening books.
“I view this as a poster child, or the poster child, for ag permits,” Ehlers said.
Encinitas established its urban farm ordinance and permit system in 2016. Prior to Wednesday, the city had only issued two of the permits, including one for the weekly Cardiff Farmers Market at MiraCosta College’s San Elijo Campus. The permit system was designed to allow homeowners to set up small, temporary farm produce sales stands and engage in small-scale, agricultural activities, including raising animals and beekeeping.
Sugar Sweet Farm began the process of obtaining a city permit after Filips started filing complaints with the city about the farm’s events. After the city’s planning department approved the farm’s permit request last year, Filips appealed that decision and that’s why the issue went before the City Council.
Filips told the council Wednesday that he didn’t want the farm to cease operations. He said he just wanted it to stop hosting public events, particularly the goat yoga classes, thus reducing his issues with parked cars and traffic.
“I didn’t make the rules,” he said as he discussed city regulations governing home-based farming businesses. “I’m just trying to make certain they’re enforced.”
Elizabeth Sugarman said that her family and farm visitors have tried their best to get along with their neighbor, but she said he has repeatedly made false accusations against them and also tried to disrupt their events.
In a video shown during Wednesday’s hearing, she said, “We have the right to share our property with the community without harassment.”
Dozens of people, many sporting green shirts supporting the farm, packed into both the main council room and the overflow areas. Nearly two dozen people spoke in favor of the farm, including one neighbor who said she initially had concerns about the care of its goats, but now was going to help the farm install three-sided, roofed sheds for the animals. Other supporters included camp counselors and longtime farm volunteers, plus the parents of nonverbal, autistic children, as well as past and present city officials.
