PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
.com SERVING NORTH COUNTY SINCE 1987
VOL. 34, N0. 7
FEB. 14, 2020
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
Final no for STRs .com on panhandle lots By Samantha Nelson
Lovers run the Cardiff Kook ENCINITAS hosted the pre-Valentine’s Day Cardiff Kook 5K run on Sunday, Feb. 9. The run, which started and ended under the Encinitas sign, included a costume contest and a kissing booth. The costumed participants included, above right, Cupids Chloe Galland and Cooper Hines, as well as a quartet of mail order brides. Courtesy photos
Carlsbad starts work on FY 2020-21 budget By Steve Puterski
CARLSBAD — The city has begun its Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget, although the efforts were delayed for months after the resignation of former City Councilwoman Barbara Hamilton in October, according to Deputy City Manager Laura Rocha. Rocha and Roxanne Muhlmeister, the city’s finance manager, now take on an effort to wrangle a budget of $296.9 million, which is expected to grow slightly for the next fiscal year, Rocha said. The city finishes its public outreach and taking feedback on Feb. 14, but from previous surveys and workshops, the staff has identified the three top priorities for next year. “What we heard council say is the three focus areas we’d like to have larger ini-
tiatives around are growth management, traffic and homelessness,” Rocha said. “It gave staff a way to develop their initiatives and prioritize their initiatives.” Last year the City Council approved a change to start the public outreach and discussion in the fall. However, with Hamilton’s resignation and the council voting not to conduct its goal-setting until after the March 3 special election, the budget process was pushed back, Rocha said. She and Muhlmeister, though, are confident the city will start the new process this fall. The two updated the council at its Jan. 21 meeting and the initial priorities totaled seven. Those included the aforementioned three plus parks and open space, public safety, sustainability
and economic development, Rocha said. From there, the staff whittled the priorities to three, although Rocha said the other four are important avenues for the continuous investment. “This was our checkin with them to see how we should be prioritizing some of our programs next year,” Muhlmeister said of the Jan. 21 presentation. City departments, meanwhile, are currently preparing preliminary budgets, Rocha said, which will be turned over to senior staff in the coming weeks. Last year’s $296.9 million budget was a 7.5% increase plus the hiring of 42 new staff members. Last year’s operating revenue was about $291.8 million, while the General Fund operating budget was
$166.8 million, with estimated revenue of $170.5 million. Rocha said she doesn’t expect nearly as many hiring requests for 2020-21, but said some departments may request a couple new positions. “I believe there will be a lot fewer position approvals,” she said. “I think obviously our budget will go up. Costs go up, there are new state mandates and we always keep an eye on the pension. Revenues at this point look steady. There has been steady growth in both our sales tax and hotel tax.” As for the timeline, the council will conduct a workshop on April 14 followed by the preliminary budget on May 19 and adoption on June 23. The fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30.
OCEANSIDE — City Council decided to continue prohibiting short-term rentals on noncomforming panhandle lots without any exceptions at its Feb. 5 meeting. The city first approved its short-term rental (STR) ordinance to begin regulating STRs in June. In its infancy, the ordinance prohibited STRs on nonconforming panhandle lots, which are lots that do not meet the city standards set forth in its zoning ordinance. In December, council directed staff to prepare an amendment to the STR ordinance that would allow certain hosted STRs on these lots to be considered by council. According to Planner Shannon Vitale, staff identified six registered STRs that were operating prior to the STR ordinance taking effect. Of those six, four were hosted and two were not hosted. The amendment would have allowed the four hosted STRs to apply for an administrative conditional use permit (ACUP). Those applications would have been considered by planning, fire and transportation staff to determine if the impacts of allowing the STRs to continue operation on the surrounding neighbors would be too great. John Taylor, a resident who lives by one of the short-term rentals that would have been eligible to apply for the administrative CUP had council
approved it, said that it wasn’t fair to make an exception for a smallTHE number of residents. VISTA “We certainly all can’t NEWS have an STR,” Taylor said. “Nobody should have an STR in a nonconforming easement.” Taylor said three of the lots have easements that would not allow for more than one car to pass at a time, which would be a
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RANCHO Nobody SFNEWS
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should have an STR in a nonconforming easement.” John Taylor Oceanside resident
risk to public safety. Councilwoman Esther Sanchez agreed, noting the ACUP would be likely rejected for those properties anyway with that being the case. Deputy Mayor Jack Feller pointed out that there might be others with STRs that the city doesn’t know about due to the high amount of panhandle lots that are unaccounted for in the city. Council approved to continue prohibiting STRS on nonconforming panhandle lots 3-1-1, with only Mayor Peter Weiss opposed. Councilman Chris Rodriguez recused himself from the vote.
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