Seaside Ceremony : Solana Beach Takes Avidly to Life in the City

With a dash of drama and a gush of tears, this town became a city Tuesday.

The hour was 7 a.m., the setting a bluff-top park overlooking the sparkling Pacific. At a table flanked with flags, five soon-to-be-powerful people sat quietly, looking at once solemn and elated.

Nearby, television cameramen jockeyed for position. Celebrants--including businessmen with briefcases, joggers in sweatsuits and mothers toting babies--milled about, waiting for the momentous event to unfold.

Even the weather cooperated. The cool June gloom had departed, leaving a bright July sun to bathe the scene in the golden hues of summertime.

Suddenly, the famous five rose to their feet, and a hush fell over the crowd. Raising right hands, the recently elected leaders of Solana Beach vowed in strong, eager voices to defend the U.S. Constitution against enemies, “foreign or domestic,” and to do their very best to serve the public good.

A burst of applause and Voila! It was done. Home rule had become a reality.

“We have finally broken the bonds of the demon county,” Eddie Lewis, a vigorous incorporation supporter and 16-year Solana Beach resident, exulted after the ceremony. “Now we can control our own destiny.”

Champagne and a homespun version of “Happy Birthday” came next. Proud relatives and friends of the council members snapped photos, and Anne Omsted, a visiting dignitary from the city’s newly incorporated neighbor, Encinitas, paid her respects.

It was a festive occasion, marking the birth of San Diego County’s 17th city.

But some serious business was dispensed as well. Indeed, the early morning oath-of-office ceremony--repeated for a larger crowd Tuesday night--was strategically intended to bar the county from issuing any more building permits in Solana Beach, where bitterness about land-use decisions made by the Board of Supervisors runs high.

More than 50 builders--including the developer of a controversial Inn Suites hotel along the coastal highway--have requests for permits pending. An ordinance passed unanimously by the new council Tuesday morning slapped a moratorium on all residential and commercial developments not already under construction.

“Basically, we did it to put a freeze on things so we can take a breather and decide where we want to go in terms of planning,” Councilman Jack Moore said. Last week, community officials asked the Board of Supervisors to halt the issuance of building permits in the coastal town, but the board refused.

According to interim City Atty. Warren Diven, the building halt covers all projects except those that “are vested, meaning they have permits and have incurred substantial construction expenses already.”

Diven said he had not determined whether the 171-unit Inn Suites hotel in northern Solana Beach would be covered by the moratorium. But council members seemed confident that their action will--at least temporarily--block construction of the hotel, which is deemed too large a project for the site.

Although the council’s action imposed the moratorium for 45 days, members may extend it at any time.

In other action Tuesday, the fledgling council passed a plethora of nuts-and-bolts resolutions necessary to formally create the City of Solana Beach. Among their decisions:

- Margaret Schlesinger, the top vote-getter in the June 3 incorporation election, was appointed mayor by her colleagues. The other council members sworn in were Moore, Celine Olson, Richard Hendlin and Marion Dodson.

- County ordinances will remain in effect until the city comes up with laws of its own.

- City Council members will be paid monthly salaries of $300.

- Council meetings will convene at 7 p.m. on the first and third Monday of each month at Center School.

- Diven and an interim city manager, Gloria Curry, were appointed to guide the ship until a full-time staff is recruited.

- Curry was instructed to secure office space, develop a telephone system and obtain banking services for the new city.

At the evening session, which drew a standing-room-only crowd of several hundred, the formalities of cityhood continued.

Ray Lynn of the Solana Beach Chamber of Commerce was there to present council members with impressive marble name plaques for meetings and to instruct the audience, “Now it’s more important than ever that we shop at home.”

Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas) made a few remarks and provided the new municipality with state and national flags, and representatives from La Mesa and Poway read proclamations welcoming Solana Beach to the family of cities. Then, Supervisor Susan Golding, whose district includes Solana Beach, formally installed the new council members, who made speeches before adjourning for cake and punch.

But such administrative business paled beside the emotions of the day, which many Solana Beach residents had waited years to see. The resounding success of incorporation on June 3 marked the third time in 12 years the cityhood question had been before voters.

Finally, the four-square-mile city of 14,000 residents was set to step out on its own.

“It’s a new beginning,” Mayor Schlesinger said. “The euphoria is tremendous, but so is the responsibility. I know people will be expecting some major changes very soon.”

Gemma Parks, for one, was downright moved by Tuesday morning’s seaside ceremony. In fact, she cried through the whole thing.

“I’ve lived here for 30 years and my husband and I ran the first incorporation campaign out of our house,” said Parks, a veteran community activist. “I feel like the matriarch. So many people have moved and died since that first battle back in ’74.”

Eddie Lewis, a silver-haired retiree, also savored the occasion. Indeed, Lewis and a band of fellow incorporation proponents had proposed holding the ceremony at 12:01 a.m.

“We’ve waited so many years, I didn’t want to wait any longer,” Lewis said with a grin. “I couldn’t sleep after 3 this morning. I was afraid I’d sleep through the darn thing.”