BUSINESSES WANT BROTHER BENNO’S PERMIT REVOKED
Owners say Oceanside center is overwhelmed, issues are increasing
An attorney representing more than 100 tenants in the Oceanside Industrial Park around the Brother Benno’s Center asked the city to revoke the center’s conditional-use permit this week because of increasing problems caused by homeless people.
“The business owners feel like they are not being heard ... their issues are not being addressed,” said Andrea Contreras, a San Diego real estate attorney. “The uses here are no longer compatible.”
Complaints about Brother Benno’s, on Production Avenue in the San Luis Rey Valley, reached a previous peak in 2019. In response, the Oceanside Planning Commission
formed an ad hoc committee that investigated and, after a lengthy public process, recommended a number of changes implemented in 2021, including increased security and a better system for identifying clients.
The changes were effective for a while, but now the problems have escalated again in the industrial park around the center, property managers told the Planning Commission on Monday. Homeless people use drugs, leave trash, fight, defecate, urinate and threaten people in public outside businesses near the center, they said.
“Our tenants are fed up,” said Jonathan Peacher of the Investors Property Management Group, which has 110 tenants in the park. He asked the commission to hold Brother Benno’s accountable for the problems.
Several people said Benno’s provides a much-needed service, but homelessness is a regional problem that continues to increase and the center is overwhelmed.
“Brother Benno’s is good people, but they’re not prepared for the situation,” said Tyler Stemley, a lifelong Oceanside resident employed as a commercial real estate agent with Colliers International.
“There’s an unacceptable number of large, intimidating and dangerous people,” Stemley said.