Vote NO on Measure U!
If you agree with me: 1) tell your friends 2) make a yard sign 3) tell more friends…
Measure U is a terrible deal for Encinitas and a wonderful give away to developers.
Ask yourselves “what does Encinitas get” and “what do the developers get?”
Encinitas gets two law suits resolved and fulfills its twenty year obligation to have a Housing Element (long overdue due to atrocious leadership)- just look at defeated MeasureT.
Developers get: to build 30 units per acre, developers get to exceed 30 feet and go as high as 42 feet; developers get 65% lot coverage, developers get reduced setbacks, reduced parking requirements and profits galore.
Where and what are the developer’s concessions to the City?? Merely the requirement to build 15% low or moderate housing units among the 85% high profit market rate housing. What a terrible deal!
Will Measure U house our: returning students, downsizing seniors, police, firemen, nurse’s assistants, and teaching assistants, not to mention the teachers in our community…what about the service people who help us every day at the drugstore, supermarket and other stores?
15% affordable housing will not serve these residents. And, do not forget the Builder’s Menu of Alternatives that the City Council enacted this summer so as not to have to put it into Measure U. Encinitas Municipal Code ch. 30.41.080. You can find it with great difficulty at the City’s website.
This new zoning code chapter complements the developer’s desire NOT to build the affordable housing by providing 7 alternatives to actually installing affordable housing.These are now law in Encinitas and available for every project including the dastardly “fee in lieu” for less than R-30 developments.
Remember the City’s terrible history of building affordable housing, just 66 units over the past 5 plus years, isjustpathetic.
Presently, Prop. A limits new buildings not to exceed 30 feet in height without a vote of the people.Measure U allows a building height to 33 feet with a flat roof and up to 37 feet with a pitched roof.
Plus height may go up 5 more feet for elevator and mechanical equipment. So, 37 feet plus 5 feet is 42 feet in height!This terrible Measure U scheme also allows for 65% lot coverage and only 20 feet between houses.
And, because the City considers Prop.Aa “constraint” to the City’s ability to comply with State law, it will “take actions to ensure that future Housing Elements can be adopted in a timely fashion will be taken” - what does that mean?? The City is aiming to undo Prop. A- your right to vote on upzoning.
It isnot Prop. A that is constraining the City, rather it’s terrible policy, staff’s total disregard of citizens input, and the City’s refusal to work strictly within State requirements, relying instead on the developers wish list we see in this Measure U - let’s take look:
During the many hearings and committee meetings we demonstrated with real examples of what can be done,we showed:
Residential 30 units per acre tasteful and locally designed buildings that do not exceed thirty feet tall.Ignored.Despite this proof of concept the City gave the developers up to 42 feet!
We proved that there are elevators that require only 28.5 feet to service three stories made by Otis Elevator.The City staff rejected this fact and gave the developers up to 42 feet!
We offered the decision of the California Supreme Court in the recent case of BIA v. San Jose (2016) wherein in upholding San Jose’s requirement of 15% affordable housing the Court said:Cities have broad latitude in provide healthy housing for its citizens.The Court further recognized the advantages of inclusionary zoning proclaiming that the social science demonstrates that everyone wins.
Despite all this: the architectural proofs, the elevator, the California Supreme Court case, the City gave the developers everything they wanted and residents merely got 15% inclusionary housing for all our seniors, returning students, municipal employees, police, firemen, nurses and the people who support us every day.
Look at Measure U v. Measure T that you voted down 66%-34% just two years ago:
Measure U is even worse than Measure T. The City even changed the way height can be measured in R-30 zoning to allow measuring from an increased pad height instead of the natural grade per the developer’s wish list.
Measure U is very unfair to certain communities. In fact, it’s so unfair that one council member voted against putting Measure U before the voters at all – and the overburdened community is not even in her represented district.
Leucadia gets the brunt of the new housing and traffic congestion. Capri Elementary school will be over run and getting kids in and out of there will be an even greater nightmare than it already is. Cardiff skates on Measure U, along with Olivenhain that escaped. New Encinitas and Old Encinitas got off relatively easy. In short- it is just disproportionate, but don’t breathe a sigh of relieve yet – remember the 2020 Housing Element is around the corner.
Consider the hanky panky that removed City owned lot L7 on Quail Garden Dr. from affordable housing. Measure U removed lot L7 but changes the zoning from R1, one house per acre, to a more valuable builder’s dream of R3, three units per acre. This property according to the Mayor was the only property that could accommodate 100% affordable housing.
Late in the game, properties by Clark St. in Leucadia were substituted for lot L7 requiring the Clark Street area to absorb 375 new homes and eventually overwhelm Capri School not to mention this micro community itself. If for no other reason, vote No on Measure U to protect this neighborhood.
Sadly, whatever happens with Measure U- we are obligated to do this Housing Element all over again in 2020. According to Mayor Blakespear, the 2020 housing plan will require 1,000 high-density units, plus what hasn’t yet been built by then, (plus density bonus)-- so Olivenhain, Cardiff, and New and Old Encinitas: you will be in the cross hairs come 2020.
If you think you escaped high-density? Think again: Measure U aims to kill your Prop A protections. Two short years from now when the State-required map is due for the 2020 plan, the 1,000 unit high-density map will be drawn by the City Council, staff, and developers – not you the voters. Measure U seeks to kill your Prop A protections.
Let’s not choose bad policy and poor planning just to pass a plan. We are talking about thousands of additional car trips a day on our roads, fewer parking spaces for those cars and many, many, more people in our town.
As such we deserve an intelligent and thoughtful Housing plan that serves the citizens of Encinitas not the developers. As of today, September 21, there is no other plan except this bad one.
I want to urge you to tell yourneighbors to vote against Measure U.
Signed,
Peter Stern