DEL MAR’S MAYOR HOPES FOR GREATER COUNCIL CONSENSUS
Gaasterland takes over with an eye toward compromise
DEL MAR
With a new City Council in place, Del Mar Mayor Terry Gaasterland said she’s hoping for more unanimity after a year of sometimes contentious division on the council.
“The one thing I will promise people is that I won’t stop when I have three votes for something,” said Gaasterland, entering her third year on the council and first one-year term as mayor. “I’m going to look to build that consensus, I’m going to seek the fourth and the fifth votes, and I will compromise and look for consensus. That’s the only thing that will bring us together.”
Before the Nov. 3 election, the council was split 3-2 on several key issues, with Gaasterland always in the minority.
One of the most divisive issues the council faced over the last year was how to add 175 more housing units as part of the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation, and how to fulfill past obligations to keep the city’s housing element in compliance. By several 3-2 votes over the past few months, council members moved along with a plan to upzone 16 parcels of land off Jimmy Durante Boulevard zoned as North Commercial to 20 residential units per acre. Del Mar committed to that upzone in 2013.
Gaasterland and City Councilman Dave Druker voted against the North Commercial upzone. They wanted to try to pursue a plan with the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) that would allow Del Mar to add housing without upzoning, even as the state housing department warned of the potential consequences of not following through with the North Commercial upzone, which now faces a referendum calling for its repeal, in a series of letters to the city. Those consequences include fines, litigation from the state attorney general or loss of local control.
After the election, the council majority has shifted.
Former Councilwomen Ellie Haviland and Sherryl Parks, who did not seek reelection, were part of that