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THE COAST NEWS
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MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
APRIL 3, 2015
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
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.com Demolition on the Encina Power Station will begin in 2018 and be completed by 2020. It is going to be replaced by a lower-profile power plant. Photo by Ellen Wright
RANCHO SFNEWS
Amended power . com Encinitas man shot and killed plant is 35% shorter than Public addresses Watermark environmental issues approved plant A makeshift memorial emerges outside the townhome where Sheriff’s deputies shot and killed 56-year-old Gary Kendrick on March 27 in the Village Park neighborhood of Encinitas. See the full story on page A3. Photo by Aaron Burgin
By Ellen Wright
By Bianca Kaplanek
DEL MAR — A multifamily complex proposed for the southeast corner of Jimmy Durante Boulevard and San Dieguito Drive was criticized, mostly for its density and lack of sufficient parking, and supported for its potential diversity during a March 26 scoping meeting. As they entered City Hall Annex — and several times throughout the evening — the approximately 30 attendees were told by Planning Manager Adam Birnbaum the purpose of the meeting was to focus on what needed to be studied in the environmental impact report. “This is less a dialogue about the project,” he said. “There will be many other meetings for that type of dialogue. “Tonight is an overview and what are the issues that need to be addressed in the environmental document,” he added.”We don’t even know what the project looks like right now.” Known as Watermark Del Mar, the development will include 48 units in a variety of sizes and floor plans on the 2.3-acre site. They include studios and one- to three-bedroom townhomes and flats ranging from 485 to 2,400 square feet. All will be built to “high-quality, for-sale standards,” Ann Gunter, of the Lightfoot Planning Group, said. Forty-one will be sold at market rate,
Resident Hershell Price expresses his concerns about changing the zoning from commercial to residential to accommodate Watermark, a multifamily development proposed for a vacant lot on the corner of Jimmy Durante Boulevard and San Dieguito Drive. Photo by Bianca Kaplanek
although prices have not yet been discussed. Seven units will be designated affordable. Four of those will be given to the city to remain in that housing category in perpetuity. There will be a single point of vehicle access off San Dieguito Drive into the gated project and an underground parking garage with 108 spaces. “You’ll see there’s no surface parking,” Gunter said, adding that
the subterranean garage screens parking from the public right of way, limits lighting effects from a big surface lot and provides flexibility to add units and spread them out to avoid “a big monolithic building that’s surrounded by a parking lot.” “It allows the units to have a little bit more character,” she said. Because the site is currently zoned for commercial use, several legTURN TO WATERMARK ON A17
CARLSBAD — The Carlsbad Energy Commission held an evidentiary hearing Wednesday and Thursday on a proposed power plant, which will replace the Encina Power Station. In 2012, the commission approved plans submitted by NRG Energy for a new power station to be built next to the Encina Power station, which is owned by Carlsbad Energy Center LLC, a subsidiary of NRG Energy. City officials opposed the project but had no jurisdiction, since NRG already owned the land and it was zoned for an energy plant. There were also no plans at the time to remove the Encina Power Station, which at 400 feet tall, has been an unpopular landmark in the community since the ‘50s. The closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in June 2013 changed the energy needs in Southern California. SDG&E offered to
purchase energy from the new peaker-style power plant if the approved 2012 project was amended. The peaker style power plant starts operating during peak hours of energy consumption. Mayor Pro Tem Keith Blackburn addressed the hearing to highlight how far the negotiations have come. “We were very opposed in the beginning and we’ve reached a very good agreement with NRG and SDG&E that I think is fair to all of us, and more importantly it’s very fair to our residents and the people who use our beaches,” Blackburn said. The state energy commission is getting close to amending the original proposal, which allowed a 139-foot smokestack. The amended project proposes a 90-foot stack. “This project will not have any significant visual impacts and will bring about an improvement in the visual project area,” TURN TO POWER PLANT ON A16