Judge Rejects Suit Over Lack of Cheap Housing : Migrants: Encinitas doesn’t exclude low-income families, judge rules in migrant workers’ case.

A Vista Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against the city of Encinitas by six North County migrant farm workers, ruling that the city’s zoning laws do not exclude lower-income families, officials announced Monday.

Judge Ronald L. Johnson ruled that the housing element of the city’s general plan conforms to the requirements set by the state and is not discriminatory, according to Encinitas City Manager Warren Shafer.

The decision, which was handed down last Wednesday, was the final chapter in a two-year battle over whether the city had purposely enacted housing legislation to exclude the thousands of migrant farm workers who labor in the fields that dot North County, he said.

“We were hoping for this outcome,” Shafer said. “They alleged that our land-use process made it impossible for people to find low- and moderate-income housing in our city. And that simply isn’t true.”

“It’s not the end of the story,” said Claudia Smith, a lawyer representing the nonprofit California Rural Legal Assistance, which in the fall of 1989 had filed the lawsuit on behalf of the migrant workers. “We’re going to appeal the decision,” she said Monday.

The lawsuit alleged that Encinitas purposely has stymied plans to build low-cost housing for migrant workers and other poor people within its city limits, preferring to keep a more gentrified atmosphere on its residential streets.

The workers named as plaintiffs in the suit include three homeless day laborers who have been driven from several hastily constructed rural encampments in recent years, including one situated over a former city dump.

Although the other workers named in the lawsuit have jobs at Encinitas nurseries, their salaries, none more than $1,200 a month, force them to live in rundown structures such as converted garages--often in view of newly built luxury homes and condominiums.

Specifically, the suit alleged that the housing element of the city general plan is inadequate, and that city zoning makes such low-income housing unfeasible. City officials also often made permits set aside for low-income ventures available for other construction such as single-family homes, the suit said.

Smith said Monday that, despite the judge’s ruling, the state Department of Housing and Community Development has found the housing element to the city’s general plan out of compliance with state law.

“The judge may have ruled against us,” Smith said. “But the state still says that what the city is doing in terms of low-income housing is simply inadequate.”

Smith said the nonprofit group actually filed two lawsuits against the city, which eventually reversed its stand on one housing issue, exempting low-income housing from building caps.

Shafer said the judge recognized that Encinitas had other issues to balance in its efforts to provide housing opportunities for its residents.

“They (CRLA) wanted us to build more apartments,” he said. “But the judge realized that this must be done in a balance with other things such as protection of wetlands. It doesn’t make much sense to provide low-income housing at the expense of the environment.”

But Smith warned the city not to celebrate yet.

“The city had better watch out for legislation that went into effect this year,” she said.

According to the law, she said, local governments that fail to meet state housing standards are subject to a different set of housing rules--which allow for some low-income projects to override a city’s zoning, density and other restrictions.

“The way we see it,” she said, “the city has left itself exposed.”