Encinitas Takes Step to Ease Building Ban

The City Council, taking a major step toward lifting a building moratorium imposed in October, has approved the creation of an innovative land-use planning system designed to place decision-making authority on many new projects in the hands of the community’s neighborhoods.

The novel planning approach involves the establishment of five Community Advisory Boards (CABs) that will conduct initial reviews of proposed developments, a task normally shouldered by city staff members or a planning commission.

The CABs will have five members appointed by the council and will represent each of the five distinctive communities that were merged to form the 26-square-mile City of Encinitas, which incorporated in June.

“The goal of this system is to force the developer to pay attention to the needs of the community,” Councilman Gerald Steel said. “I think this approach will enable the community to decide and control just what’s built in their individual neighborhoods. And that is the very reason we incorporated in the first place.”

The new system, believed to be unique among San Diego County cities, was unanimously approved by the council Monday night and should be up and running by February. That’s good news for the long line of developers waiting to build in Encinitas, because the system should free many projects from a moratorium that has halted construction throughout the community.

After officially taking the reins from county supervisors almost three months ago, the City Council immediately imposed a sweeping ban that snared hundreds of projects and prohibited any applications for building permits. Only schools, single-family homes and remodelings of existing dwellings were exempted.

The moratorium was designed to enable the council to establish stricter development rules that would hold builders to a standard higher than that formerly permitted by the Board of Supervisors. In addition, council members wanted a lull in the building while they review the city’s general plan, a document that had been routinely amended by supervisors to permit increases in building densities.

The construction ban is not due to expire until August. Once the CABs are functioning, however, the council is expected to allow some projects to move forward. A council hearing to decide which projects will be permitted to proceed is scheduled for Jan. 5.

“I expect there will be a limited lifting of the moratorium once the CABs are up and running,” Mayor Marjorie Gaines said. “Those projects that are in the pipeline and just awaiting some final action will probably be processed.”

But the moratorium likely will remain in effect in some areas of the city, particularly those where zoning has been changed by the county to allow objectionable building densities in the past eight years, Gaines said. The council may continue to ban building in those areas until a new general plan has been drafted, the mayor said, a process that will extend well into next year.

In addition, a ban on the issuance of sewer permits in the Cardiff area, where the waste water treatment system is seriously overburdened, may remain in effect, continuing to stall would-be builders there.

The community advisory boards are based on a concept discussed by several council members during the incorporation campaign. Growth and irresponsible planning decisions made by county supervisors were the two key issues propelling the cityhood measure to victory, and civic leaders agree the CAB system is the best way to give residents a role in the development of Encinitas.

“The whole idea behind incorporation was that people were unhappy with decisions made by a body that didn’t care about our area,” Gaines said. “Our objective with the CABs is to give the maximum amount of input possible to the people who live in the various neighborhoods of Encinitas.”

The CABs will represent the communities of Olivenhain, Cardiff, Leucadia and “old” and “new” Encinitas, divided generally by El Camino Real. The boards will have final say on minor construction projects and will make recommendations to the planning commission on larger developments. All of their decisions may be appealed.