San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
ENCINITAS COUNCIL CANDIDATES DIVIDED ON ISSUES
Streetscape plan, low-income housing are biggest topics
Encinitas City Council candidates seeking to represent the city’s northwestern region are split over the Leucadia Streetscape project, plans for low-income housing and the recent establishment of a homeless parking lot in the city’s mid-section.
During an online-only voter forum Thursday, the two incumbents backed the long-proposed overhaul of Leucadia’s portion of Coast Highway 101, a project commonly known as the Leucadia Streetscape. They also supported a recently opened parking lot for homeless people who are temporarily living in their vehicles and said the city is taking the right steps now to create more low-income housing.
Their two challengers said the millions the city is proposing to spend on Streetscape could be put to better use to resolve much more pressing issues like Leucadia’s flooding woes. On housing issues, they said the city is caving into developer demands and disregarding existing residents’ concerns. And, organizers of the new homeless parking lot project aren’t providing frequent, sufficient data about its use, they said.
This will be the first election that voters in the city’s northwest region will be electing City Council candidates via a district-based representation system. In District 1, a region that includes northern Leucadia and parts of New Encinitas, two-term incumbent Tony Kranz is running against Alex Riley, a retired San Diego lifeguard who works in the outdoor media industry.
In District 2, an area that includes the city’s core downtown area as well as southern Leucadia, appointed incumbent Kellie Shay Hinze is running against Susan K. Turney, a business development consultant.
Due to San Diego County Health Department restrictions on public gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, the Encinitas/leucadia Town Council-sponsored candidate forum was a pre-recorded, online-only event. At the start, League of Women Voters moderator Lois Martyns acknowledged that there was a definite downside to not being able to attend the forum in person, but said that one benefit is that voters can watch it whenever they like. To view the forum, visit https:// tinyurl.com/encinitas-forum.
The differences between the incumbents and their challengers were evident on many issues, particularly ones related to housing and transportation. Both Riley and Turney said that they felt current crop of elected officials had failed the city’s residents and were prioritizing outside interests over residents’ concerns.
Riley said the city should focus on lowering the railroad tracks through town rather than prioritizing the Streetscape project; should promote full-scale flood control measures rather than “Bandaids”; should require developers to include more parking places in their projects; and should “push back” against the state on low-income housing construction requirements.
“I feel that high-density projects should not be wedged into our residential neighborhoods,” he said, later adding, “if there’s going to be lawsuits, I want to be on the side of the residents.”
Turney said her 15 years of being a citizen activist has taught her that City Hall needs more oversight and she’s recommending that the city re-establish citizen advisory boards to improve the city’s relationship with the community. Encinitas also ought to focus on long overdue projects to eliminate Leucadia’s flooding problems, rather than the costly Streetscape project, she said.
“Streetscape is not going to address systemic flooding,” she said, later adding, “We shouldn’t proceed with Streetscape at all until the most basic of our needs are covered.”
The incumbents both said they were proud of what the city’s done and the direction it’s going, particularly when it comes to transportation projects.
Kranz noted that construction on the El Portal pedestrian crossing under the railroad tracks will start soon and said he’s pleased Streetscape is moving into construction after 15 years of planning. He said the two challengers are wrong when they say Streetscape won’t improve flooding conditions, saying it will provide a “huge improvement” to the city’s infrastructure.
“The city is headed in the right direction,” he said. “It’s on sound fiscal footing in spite of the pandemic economy.”
Hinze said the city has made progress on low-income housing issues, particularly when it comes to the creation of an ordinance that makes it easier to build small secondary structures known as “granny flats.” She said she likes what the city has done so far to make it easier to get around by walking or biking, but said she’d like to see more improvements and Streetscape will help with this. In her closing remarks, she said she’s enjoyed serving on the council, but believes there’s been an “erosion of civility” locally as well at the national level.
“Vote based on hopes, not your fears,” she said.