PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 920254PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
.com SERVING NORTH COUNTY SINCE 1987
VOL. 35, N0. 11
MARCH 12, 2021
SAN
Officials issue MARCOS -NEWS warning after . collapse bluff
INSIDE:
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State board approves plans for county fair. B1 Carlsbad airport court battle finally ends. A3
Visitors urged THE to use ‘utmost VISTA caution’ NEWS on beach
North County real estate a seller’s market. A7 Beachfront repairs draw state scrutiny. A14
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City planners accept Brother Benno permit
By Bill Slane
By Samantha Nelson
OCEANSIDE — After more than a year of review, the Oceanside Planning Commission has approved several revisions to Brother Benno’s conditional use permit at its industrial park location. Located at 3260 Production Avenue, Brother Benno’s is a non-profit organization that provides food and several other services to low-income and homeless people. The organization began operation here in 1991 under certain conditions that the city had approved for site operation. In 1993, the Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit (CUP) with revisions to several conditions related to Brother Benno’s operating procedures, including further review of the CUP if there were a reasonable amount of complaints regarding violations of the conditions. Those complaints have increased in the last several years and deal with Brother Benno’s clients’ trespassing on neighboring properties, loitering, littering and vehicle and tent camping. According to the TURN TO BROTHER BENNO ON A5
DEL MAR — The City of Del Mar, SANDAG and North County Transit District have cautioned the public to be wary when walking along the beach in Del Mar and North Torrey Pines State Beach following the most RANCHO recent bluff collapse. The collapse on SunSFNEWS day, February 28, occurred just south of 4th Street in Del Mar precariously close to the train tracks that run along the coastline. Officials cautioned the public Friday not to sit, stand or walk within 50 feet of the bluffs in
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FREE SPEECH OR HARASSMENT?
A Vista Superior Court judge granted two men’s anti-SLAPP motion against Carlsbad City Councilwoman Cori Schumacher during a March 4 hearing, lifting the public official’s restraining order against them and ending a legal battle to determine whether political speech rose to the level of harassment. Story on A7. Graphic by Jordan P. Ingram
TURN TO BLUFFS ON A12
Encinitas agrees to $11M settlement in Walker lawsuit By Jordan P. Ingram
ENCINITAS — The City of Encinitas has agreed to pay $11 million to settle a claim with Roberta Walker, the former executive director of Cardiff 101 Main Street who filed a lawsuit against the city after she was struck by a pickup truck while cycling in Leucadia, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney Ed Susolik. Just before sunrise on Dec. 8, 2018, Walker, a longtime cycling advocate, was riding her bicycle in a “sharrow” lane on North Coast Highway 101 when she was hit from behind by a truck headed southbound
ROBERTA WALKER’S condition continues to improve, according to her attorney. Photo via Tumblr/BeingBerta
near Phoebe Street intersection in front of the Leucadia Post Office. Susolik, attorney at Santa Ana-based law firm
Callahan & Blaine, claimed the sharrow, or shared bicycle lane, constituted a dangerous condition of public property, causing the acci-
dent, according to a written statement provided to The Coast News. Despite wearing her helmet, Walker was critically injured and briefly unconscious when the impact of the collision threw her a significant distance, as first reported by The Coast News. According to court documents and reports from close friends, Walker suffered multiple injuries — traumatic brain injury, fractured skull, spinal and facial fractures, nine broken ribs, a broken clavicle and sacrum, subdural hematoma and impaired mobility and cognition — and
was placed into a medically-induced coma. “Ms. Walker suffered catastrophic injuries...,” Susolik said. “Tragically, she will be suffering from the impact of those injuries for the rest of her life. The settlement will allow Ms. Walker to obtain the longterm care she will require to live comfortably with the care she needs.” Walker underwent several emergency surgeries in the trauma center at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla and later returned to the hospital for another operation to replace a TURN TO WALKER ON A8
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