A controversial apartment complex proposed for the edge of the city’s Olivenhain community likely won’t win approval from the Planning Commission, but a final decision isn’t coming until next month.
Late Thursday night, after hours of public testimony and numerous technology troubles, commissioners agreed to continue debate on the item to their Aug. 19 meeting. That will be the commission’s first in-person, public event since the coronavirus pandemic shuttered City Hall last year.
It’ll also likely be when a new commissioner, representing the Leucadia region, will be joining the board, city Development Services Director Roy Sapa’u said. Currently, the Leucadia spot is vacant and Olivenhain representative, Bruce Ehlers, recused himself from deliberations on the apartment proposal, so only three commissioners were eligible to participate in Thursday Zoom meeting.
That was a problem because three people are required for a quorum and one of the three participants Thursday — Commissioner Susan Sherod — kept getting disconnected from the meeting. Sherod was out of town and her hotel internet connection turned out to be so poor that she ultimately ended up sitting in her vehicle and running the engine in order to have internet access. Ultimately just before 10 p.m., she asked to continue the meeting to next month, saying she needed to give her vehicle a break and she still had many unanswered questions.
“Personally, I don’t think I’m ready (to vote),” she said.
The latest development plans call for the Encinitas Boulevard Apartment project to contain 277 living units wrapped around a giant, six-story parking garage structure. The development is proposed to go on a nearly 7-acre site at Encinitas Boulevard and Rancho Santa Fe Road. Much of the site is visible from Rancho Santa Fe Road, but part is tucked behind the 7-11 shopping center on the corner. The main access route would be from Encinitas Boulevard via the private roadway McCain Lane, but two emergency access points with gates are proposed for Rancho Santa Fe Road.
The project, with its six- and five-story buildings, has faced fierce community opposition and Thursday was no exception. Nearly three dozen people spoke during public comment and almost every one of them opposed the project. Opponents said the project would severely impact area traffic conditions, make fire evacuation routes extremely unsafe, and was failing to comply with many city building standards, including hillside slope regulations.
Project developer Randy Goodson told the commission that the opponents were attempting to refight a battle that’s already been settled — his proposed site is among those that the city previously rezoned for high-density housing.
Because he’s including low-income housing within his project — 41 of the 277 units will be set aside for low-income people — he also qualifies for special exemptions from city standards under the state’s Density Bonus Law, he said.
Among other things, Goodson is seeking a height waiver, allowing the buildings to be up to 61 feet tall and up to six stories, rather than 39 feet tall and no more than three stories tall.
City planning staff and city-hired consultants told the commission that Goodson is entitled to some exemptions from city standards but he was asking for more than what he actually needed to build his project and that was grounds for denying the permits. The city’s consultants said Goodson could redesign his project to create something that was lower in height, but still accommodated all the apartment units he’s proposing to build, a position that Goodson disputed.
The planning commissioners said they had questions both about the city-hired consultants’ conclusions and about the fire evacuation route issues raised by residents. Sherod said she wanted the city’s consultants to provide more data about how the project could be redesigned so that it didn’t need to be as tall, while Commissioner Kevin Doyle said he wanted to hear from city fire officials about the evacuation route situation.
Both Sherod and Doyle indicated that they were likely to support city staff’s recommendation to deny the project, but wanted more information before making that decision.
Commissioner Steve Dalton said he thought the commission ought to vote on the proposal Thursday, so Goodson wouldn’t have to sit in limbo any longer.
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Debate on Olivenhain apartment development continued to August - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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