PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92025 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
.com MAKING WAVES IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
VOL. 29, N0. 13
MARCH 27, 2015
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
.com THE VISTA NEWS
.com Beginning April 1, a 25 miles per hour Senior Zone will go into effect on Saxony Road in Encinitas. Photo by Tony Cagala
RANCHO SFNEWS
Rachel, Rylan, Delaney and Dylan Goddard, along with their dad, Andy, show they support leaving the boardwalk where it is. Photo by
Bianca Kaplanek
Supporters walk the planks to save the boardwalk By Bianca Kaplanek
DEL MAR — More than 150 people attended a March 21 rally in an effort to convince the California Coastal Commission to change a March 11 decision to move a boardwalk currently located on the perimeter of an ongoing wetlands restoration project along the San Dieguito River. “The Coastal Commission, in my humble opinion, got it wrong,” Coun-
ty Supervisor Dave Roberts told the crowd. “And I have asked that they reconsider their decision. Factual information was not provided to the full Coastal Commission and they need to relook at this issue.” The 1,200-foot structure was built in 2007 by volunteers at a cost of about $354,000. Funding came from donations and San Dieguito River Valley Coastal Conservancy and
transportation grants. Officials from Del Mar, Solana Beach, the San Dieguito River Park Joint Powers Authority, the San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy and the 22nd District Agricultural Association, which governs the Del Mar Fairgrounds, want the boardwalk to remain where it is. They say it is an educational and TURN TO BOARDWALK ON A15
O’side asking for more information on interchange plans By Promise Yee
OCEANSIDE — Community input is being gathered in spurts by Caltrans for the redesign of the Interstate 5/state Route 78 interchange. Initial public and work group meetings were held in January. Councilman Chuck Lowery is among those who would like updated infor-
mation on the project, and expressed concern about closed work group meetings that do not allow public input. “No public meeting has been scheduled since one in Carlsbad weeks ago, though I’ve been asking for months,” Lowery said. “This seems to be a top secret disaster.”
Lowery is not alone in his point of view. Former Oceanside councilwoman Shari Mackin also spoke out against the closed work group meetings in a letter published in The Coast News on March 20. In the editorial she said there is a community feeling of “deceit, secrecy and surprise.”
“The public is not notified when the ‘community working group’ meets so they can ask questions or offer insight, only given the results of the ‘meeting’ — this is not transparency,” Mackin wrote. Expanding the interchange is a necessary first TURN TO INTERCHANGE ON A15
Senior Zone to go . 1 into effect April
com
By Aaron Burgin
ENCINITAS — The speed limit along a stretch of Saxony Road will be lowered to 25 miles per hour beginning April 1, as the city’s first “senior zone” will go into effect, city officials said. The city has placed electronic signs on both ends of Saxony warning motorists of the imminent speed-limit change, which the City Council approved in January in response to calls from the community to make the heavily traveled road safer for pedestrians. The speed limit change encompasses a section of Saxony just north and south of the Magdalena Ecke YMCA and Seacrest Village, a large retirement community a few blocks north of Encinitas Boulevard. “We are trying to give
motorists ample time to prepare for the change, and I think we will see a residual effect of drivers starting to slow down in advance of the official change,” said Glenn Pruim, the city’s public works director. The speed limit change is part of a series of actions the city is taking to improve the safety of Saxony Road and Quail Gardens Drive, two busy north-south streets in the city that are at the center of a hub of cultural, educational and environmental organizations, including the Heritage Museum, the San Diego Botanic Garden, the Magdalena Ecke YMCA, Seacrest Village, the Encinitas Union School District’s new farm lab and the Leichtag Foundation, whose headquarters are TURN TO SENIOR ZONE ON A17