PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92025 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
.com MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
VOL. 29, N0. 7
FEB. 13, 2015
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
.com THE VISTA NEWS
.com The Encinitas City Council emerged with a unanimous vote on three housing maps that will be analyzed as part of the city’s housing element efforts. Image courtesy city of Encinitas
Council finds RANCHO SFNEWS compromise, Housing Element moves. forward
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Go Fly a Kite
Mark Viguri, an employee of BrainStorm Products LLC based in Escondido, test flights a kite near South Ponto Beach in Carlsbad last week. BrainStorm Products is the largest kite manufacturer in the U.S. and provides kites to every state in the country. The company test flights all of their kites every week. Photo by Tony Cagala
Contract OK’d for street, sidewalk upgrades on Jimmy Durante By Bianca Kaplanek
DEL MAR — Street, sidewalk and drainage improvements along a southeast portion of Jimmy Durante Boulevard are expected to begin in about a week after City Council awarded a $1.6 million contract to PAL General Engineering Inc. at the Feb. 2 meeting. The project starts approximately 150 feet south of San Dieguito Drive and ends on Camino del Mar at the Del Mar Plaza/L’Auberge traffic signal. It includes construction of about 2,500 feet of new curbs and gutters, 16,000 square feet of sidewalks, 2,200 square feet of retaining walls, seven pedestrian ramps and 87,300 square feet of pavement rehabilitation. to upgrade the street, sidewalks and drainage along an approximately three-quarter-mile Wastewater and water main pipe- Work stretch of Jimmy Durante Boulevard and Camino del Mar is slated to begin the week of Feb. 16. TURN TO UPGRADES ON A15
Photo by Bianca Kaplanek
By Aaron Burgin
ENCINITAS — After a contentious start to another lengthy public hearing last week, the Encinitas City Council emerged with a unanimous vote on three housing maps that will be analyzed as part of the city’s housing element efforts. The council’s 5-0 vote at the Feb. 5 special session came after Deputy Mayor Catherine Blakespear, Mayor Kristin Gaspar and Councilman Mark Muir voted to move forward with map discussions that night with several conditions. One of those conditions was that city staff return at an upcoming council meeting with an item to immediately cancel the city’s contract with Peak Democracy, which powers the city’s online civic engagement plat-
form, eTown Hall. Gaspar and Muir on Feb. 3 had criticized the results of the city’s outreach efforts, which they said represented such a small and limited sampling of the city’s population that it was difficult to proceed forward with the information at hand. The housing element is the city’s first comprehensive overhaul of its housing and residential zoning map in more than 20 years, and will map out where an anticipated 1,300 units of affordable housing will be placed within the city. Voters are expected to vote on the plan in 2016. The plan will require the city adopt a new zoning designation that would allow upwards of 30 residential units per acre in order to satisfy the state TURN TO HOUSING ON A15