Volume XV, Issue 41
www.solanabeachsun.com
Oct. 6, 2011 Published Weekly
SB denies condo project ■ Local student spends memorable summer in Paraguay. Page 9
BY CLAIRE HARLIN STAFF WRITER The Solana Beach City Council voted 4-1 on Sept. 28 to deny a building permit for a proposed four-unit, 10,413-square-foot Eden Gardens condo project, a controversial plan that could prompt the council to revisit the city code altogether as it relates to condominiums. The detached condo project, which would be built at
823 Vera St. and shared between four owners, previously came before the council in October 2009 and was denied, without prejudice, based in part on a building height that exceeded the maximum 25foot City allowance. Since then, architects have reduced the size and tweaked the design of the two-story project, which contains a subterranean garage basement. The proposed
building height is 25 feet, down from 30 feet, and the square footage was reduced by about 1,300. “It just doesn’t seem like it’s enough,” said Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner. “There’s only one house larger in the neighborhood still … I find that the bulk and mass is still too large.” A number of residents at-
SEE CONDO, PAGE 6
PHOTO: CLAIRE HARLIN
SB firefighters publicly apologize to city manager
Rail Trail comes Alive ■ Sacred Craft expo celebrates surfboard builders. Page B17
■ Etiquette consultant minds her manners. Page 10
This boarded-up 784-square-foot house on Vera Street has been condemned since the 1990s.
Isabelle DiLiberti hangs with Steam Powered Giraffe, a group of singing robots, Oct. 2 during the Arts Alive on the Solana Beach Coastal Rail Trail event. See page B16 for more. PHOTO: JON CLARK
BY CLAIRE HARLIN Staff Writer About 15 uniformed firefighters accompanied Solana Beach Firefighters Union President Eric Phillips on Sept. 28 at the city’s regular council meeting to publicly apologize to City Manager David Ott for circulating a letter accusing Ott of endangering the public by trying to reduce fire staffing. Concern arose over discussions between city officials and firefighters, who were asked to come up with possible reductions to help meet an $800,000 shortfall. A plan to decrease firefighters’ overtime pay — which accounts for nearly $400,000 in annual expenses — by
not sending in replacements when an officer is on leave or out sick was brought up but never proposed. The firefighters’ “hit piece,” as Mayor Lesa Heebner described it in a public response, was sent to community members and press on Aug. 17, a day after the fire department ratified a budget agreement with the City that in no way included staffing reductions, Heebner said. Meanwhile, another letter was circulated by an anonymous “retired employee,” who alleged Ott was trying to spike his own retirement package — a claim Heebner said was “preposterous.”
SEE APOLOGIZE, PAGE 15
Del Mar welcomes chicanes as traffic-calming measure
■ Local man among the world’s most-traveled. Page B1
BY CLAIRE HARLIN STAFF WRITER If you aren’t familiar with chicanes, you soon will be if you travel through Crest Road, between 15th Street and Amphitheatre Drive. But if you drive that route to bypass traffic on Camino del Mar, these traffic-calming structures may make you think otherwise. The Del Mar City Council voted on Oct. 3 to ap-
JOHN R. LEFFERDINK
619-813-8222
prove an encroachment permit application that would allow Crest Road residents to build three chicanes, which look like half-circle or triangular pop-outs in the road. Built of stone and filled with foliage, the chicanes create extra turns in the road, narrowing it and forcing drivers to give way to opposing traffic. Some residents say the chicanes have been a topic
of discussion for 34 years, but it wasn’t until 2008 when the council approved a traffic-calming plan for Crest Road, which included the four chicanes. One has
SEE CHICANES, PAGE 6 The chicane on Crest Road between 15th Street and Amphitheatre Drive PHOTO: CLAIRE HARLIN
Nobody WOWS clients
like we do! www.johnlefferdink.com
ANGELA MEAKINS-BERGMAN
LISA KELLEY
CONNIE SUNDSTROM
858-405-9270
858-880-5242
858-334-8114