PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
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VOL. 31, N0. 33
AUG. 18, 2017
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
Hit-andrun leaves woman with severe brain injury
Housing element with . 2-story limit doable, says THE VISTA consultant NEWS
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By Aaron Burgin
ENCINITAS — San Diego County Sheriff’s investigators are asking for the public’s help in locating the driver of a Mercedes-Benz, who struck a bicyclist on Coast Highway 101 in Leucadia on Aug. 11 but did not stop. Meanwhile, friends and family are pouring out support for the woman struck by the car, who suffered a severe brain injury during the incident. Deputies responded shortly after 10 p.m. to the intersection of North Coast Highway 101 and Basil Street, where a 30-yearold woman on a bike in the southbound designated bicycle “sharrow” lane was hit by a car, according to sheriff’s Cpl. Brenda Sipley. The driver did not stop at the scene and fled southbound. A family friend identified the victim as Stephanie Berger-McKenna, a marathon runner who had just left Pandora Pizza with her husband, who was following behind her on a skateboard, when the vehicle, which investigators identified as a white or silver ‘90s model Mercedes-Benz, struck her and drove off. The family friend, Tammy Livingston, said that Berger-McKenna was transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, where she has undergone two surgeries — one to remove a portion of her skull to reduce swelling and the second to remove a blood clot discovered following the first surgery. Friends have set up a website updating followers on Berger-McKenna’s progress. The website has already been visited more than 20,000 times since Aug. 12 and friends have posted dozens of photos and
By Aaron Burgin
ed. “That proposed change would be a major problem.” A left-turn lane from southbound Camino del Mar onto eastbound Del Mar Heights Road will be added. The bike lanes through the intersection of Carmel Valley Road and Camino del Mar will be painted green for added visibility and delineation, similar to what was done on Camino del Mar and Jimmy Durante Boulevard north of downtown. A multiuse path varying between 8 and 10 feet wide will be built on the west side of Camino del Mar from Fourth Street to Carmel Valley Road. Allen said he thought that addition is “waste of resources.” “We should leave that
ENCINITAS — Encinitas can develop an affordable housing plan that limits buildings to two stories and less than 30 feet in height and satisfy its regional housing mandates — but they’ll have to make some concessions to get there. This was the word from RANCHO a report authored by a citySFNEWS hired consultant who unveiled his findings at a recent housing element task force meeting. Encinitas, one of the few cities statewide without a certified housing element — the document that outlines the city’s plans for meeting regionally mandated affordable housing goals — has struggled to find a plan that would pass muster with voters. Voters rejected the city’s most recent attempt, Measure T, after critics said it would lead to buildings that were too tall and out of scale with the community’s character, among other things. As a result, the city now faces several lawsuits that are asking a judge to compel them to adopt a housing plan without a public vote. Dave Barquist, a consultant hired by the city to answer the question of whether the city could develop a housing plan that capped building heights under the limits set by the voter-approved Prop. A, said it’s doable. According to the report, if the city’s housing plan required sites to be developed at a minimum of 30 units per acre and eliminated sites that produced less than 16 units per acre, the city could draft a plan that results in fewer sites than would have been needed in Measure T. The removal of the smaller sites would reduce
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Dogs Have Their Day Encinitas Community Park was the place to be last weekend for man’s best friend as Cardiff 101 and the City of Encinitas hosted the 12th annual Cardiff Dog Days of Summer, which featured rescue groups, pet adoptions, live music, dog contests, kid activities, food trucks and more. Photos by Morgan Mallory/Cardiff 101
Del Mar road improvements finally get go-ahead By Bianca Kaplanek
DEL MAR — A street and sidewalk improvement project designed to improve safety in the southernmost portion of the city finally got a green light. Council members at the Aug. 7 meeting approved a revised design proposal for Camino del Mar between Carmel Valley Road and the Del Mar Heights Road/ Fourth Street intersection. Initial plans presented more than a year ago eliminated a free-right-turn lane from westbound Carmel Valley Road onto northbound Camino del Mar and one northbound lane on Camino del Mar in an effort to slow traffic and make the area safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Residents from Del Mar and the surrounding communities opposed TURN TO HIT-AND-RUN ON A7 those changes, saying they
Plans to improve traffic in the south end of Del Mar include adding a left-turn lane from Camino del Mar onto Del Mar Heights Road. Photo by Bianca Kaplanek
would worsen traffic that is already backed up during peak commute times. There was also a recommendation to remove a leftturn-only lane from northbound Camino del Mar onto westbound Fourth Street. According to the approved plans, those elements will remain as is, a decision residents seem to appreciate.
“Thanks for agreeing to maintain the continuous drive-through lane from Carmel Valley Road onto northbound CDM,” Allen Hall wrote in an email to the city. “That is an important feature that needs to be maintained. “I am also satisfied that the new proposal does not include lane reductions for northbound CDM,” he add-
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