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Mathisen. Much of the land in the SRA in San Diego County is in Rancho Santa Fe, where residents already pay six percent of their property tax for protection from the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District. Other areas in North County being charged the fee include unincorporated parts of Escondido and Ramona. Since the fire prevention fee was first issued, San Diego Board of Supervisors has argued against it because the county already pays for fire protection in rural areas and that there is no guarantee that the money collected from the county will be spent on fire prevention work in San Diego. San Diego pays about $15.5 million annually for fire protection, $10.2 mil-
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the works. At its stakeholder meeting, the association prompted a discussion with business owners, city police officers, and city staff to identify concerns and cultivate ideas to improve the area. Attendees complained about the run down buildings, vagrants, and skateboarders pervading downtown and chasing away (or in the case of the skateboarders, running over) potential customers. Oceanside Police Department Resource Officer Steve Peppard emphasized to attendees that the department has beefed up its bicycle patrol units downtown and that safety in the area is a big focus. “You’ll be seeing a lot more of us downtown,” he said.
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Sandra Kopitzke, second from right, the musical director of the Star Theatre, talks about how the theatre is enhancing its façade and expresses hope that other businesses will do the same to brighten up downtown. Photo by Rachel Stine
Kern also said the city is hopeful that the Mission Avenue improvement project will provide a needed aesthetic and economic boost. The project, which will begin this fall, will widen Mission Avenue’s sidewalks by converting the street into a
two-lane westbound only street. Seagaze Drive will be converted to a one-way eastbound street. The city will be planting trees and placing chairs on the new sidewalks to encourage more pedestrians in the area, said Kern.
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Adam Birnbaum said while “something is needed there, clearly, the developers don’t want to be the ones that drive that decision.” “The best way to control traffic there will be a community decision, but the developers will be required to implement whatever the community determines is the best approach,” Birnbaum said. A commercial project known as the Riverview Office Complex was approved for the site in 2008 by the Planning Commission and Design Review Board but the owner decided not to pursue implementation, Birnbaum said. A formal permit application for Watermark has not yet been filed with the city. The goal of the open house was to garner community feedback and determine whether residents wanted residential over commercial. Before anything happens the property must be rezoned from commercial/office to residential. The city also has to create a zone density that will allow 20 to 25 units per acre. To mitigate for the higher density, the developer will be required to provide community benefits, which will likely include gifting the units to Del Mar
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Watermark Del Mar, a proposal from San Dieguito Land Partners LLC, is slated to include 54 one- to four-bedroom apartments and townhomes on the approximately 2.3-acre lot on the corner of Jimmy Durante Boulevard and San Dieguito Road. The developers held a community open house July 29 to garner input before applying for permits. Rendering courtesy of Maple Architects
Community Connections. According to a timeline presented at the open house, applications will be filed in August and an informal Design Review Board review is scheduled for January 2014. Public workshops are planned for October and November of this year and in February 2014, when the project design is 30 percent, 60 percent and 90 percent complete, respectively. Public hearings are tentatively set for February, March and April of next year. A draft environmental impact report is slated to be released for a 45-day review this November. “There was enough positive momentum to keep us moving forward with a residential project,” Scott said. “But we know we need to
keep working on it.” “It’s a good start,” Morrison said. “I like the concept drawings.” “In general I like the use,” Councilman Al Corti said. “I have some concerns about density and traffic but the EIR will figure those out. It’s a little premature. Right now it’s just pretty pictures.” “As long as they deal properly with the drainage off the hillside and potential traffic issues, I’m in favor of the project,” Earnest said. Emerson said he is confident the developers will use the community input provided. “They have genuinely been listening to us and not pushing us to swallow their ideas,” he said. “It’s been a very cooperative process.”
gram language as a result of Prop A. However, Murphy said the language change is “minor” and won’t affect its implementation. The coastal commission hasn’t responded to the city’s recent letter. However, Murphy said he doesn’t anticipate the coastal commission staff reversing its stance on Prop A again. “During recent conversations, we seemed to be on the same page as their legal counsel,” Murphy said. He added that the city is issuing building permits in the coastal zone that stay within the guidelines of Prop A. Prop A was drafted to eliminate the City Council’s ability to “up-zone” beyond height and density limits with four out of five councilmember vote. It also sets a maximum building height of 30 feet. Prior to Prop A’s June 18 special election,some weighed in on whether parts of Prop A would demand coastal commission approval. Earlier this year, the City Council ordered an impartial impact report on Prop A from the Orange County law firm Rutan and Tucker. The report said that for the roughly 80 percent of the
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here to prevent digital billboards from happening,” Byzak said. “We were concerned about alcohol advertising because we know it is directly connected to youth alcohol use.” The proposal partnered the city with CBS Outdoor to manage the billboards. According to Campbell, CBS would handle most of the advertising management as long as 15 percent were public service announcements and the remaining 85percent were commercial advertisements. More than 40 people attended the meeting, which featured multiple speakers and an opportunity for
lion of which is contracted with Cal Fire, according to Steve Schmidt, Supervisor Diane Jacob’s communications advisor. Cal Fire did not respond to Jacob’s request to exempt the county from the fee on those grounds. C u r r e n t l y , Assemblymen Mike Morrell’s and Tim Donnelly’s bills to repeal the fire prevention fee, AB 124 and AB 23, remain in the Assembly Committee on Appropriations. Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro’s AB 468 seeks to replace the fire fee with 4.8 percent charge on all property insurance policies throughout the state and remains in the Assembly on Natural Resources. The Howard Jarvis Tax Association (HJTA) is in the process of suing Cal Fire and the State Board of Equalization based on the claim that the fee is an illegal tax. The HJTA aspires
to have the fee repealed and have the state refund property owners for the fire fees collected. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Eugene L. Balonon, who is hearing the case, ruled this month that the matter can proceed as a class action lawsuit. Mathisen said that for the fiscal year 2011-12 billing cycle, 105,000 property owners statewide petitioned against the fee. About 15,000 successfully appealed, primarily on the grounds of the actual numbers of habitable structures and structures’ ownership. Bills will be sent out to property owners in the San Diego region from Sept. 25 to Oct. 4, according to the State Board of Equalization. Property owners can appeal the fee by petitioning Cal Fire for redetermination.
city that’s in the coastal zone, Prop A will need the go-ahead from the coastal commission. After the Rutan and Tucker report was released, the City Council’s argument against Prop A, which appeared with ballots, stated the different zoning rules could “increase, rather than decrease, development pressures” in the coastal zone.
create different zoning rulings in the city. Ehlers added that the city should examine why the Rutan and Tucker report was “so biased.” On Monday, Murphy said there aren’t plans to review the report. The cost of the report was $48,000, according to city records.
We didn’t change our stance. Prop A supporters were vindicated.” Bruce Ehlers Prop A spokesperson
Bruce Ehlers, spokesman for Prop A, said time proved Rutan and Tucker, as well as the City Council, wrong. Ehlers said the city recently reaffirmed what Prop A supporters have argued for quite some time: The initiative’s height limit doesn’t conflict with the city’s local coastal program, making an amendment with the coastal commission unnecessary. “We didn’t change our stance,” Ehlers said. “Prop A supporters were vindicated.” Among those vindicated, he said, was Sara Wan, a former coastal commissioner who wrote editorials to publications arguing Prop A wouldn’t
Joel Kuperberg, who coauthored the Rutan and Tucker report, said it was based on statutes cited throughout the document. As an example, the report cites the California Public Resources Code Section 30514 when referring to coastal commission certification. Kuperberg declined to comment on how that code section relates to Proposition A. Also, he was unsure if the coastal commission was consulted prior to the report being finalized. “I don’t believe we did — but I worked with another attorney, so I’m not sure at this time,” Kuperberg said.
attendees to ask questions. Nancy Holbrook, a resident of Vista, said she opposed the billboards entirely, and that the involvement of CBS Outdoor makes her think the proposal is not dead yet. “I am concerned that there may be some offer of money from (CBS Outdoor) to affect that Environmental Impact Report and I am not convinced this issue is dead,” she said. Holbrook added that the billboards are a safety issue for drivers on state Route 78 and a stain on the city of Vista. “These billboards are extremely distracting and anybody who reads the local news sees there is always a ton of accidents on highway
78,” she said. “It is also a blight and it is not the image the city needs to convey,” she said. According to the city of Vista website, the proposal would have likely been the second largest single revenue source in the city’s portfolio. Byzak said the billboards should be done in a way that satisfies the community. “I think there are ways to do it that meet everyone’s needs,” Byzak said. “The NCPC is not necessarily against the billboards themselves, but our approach from the beginning was to make the city officials aware of what was going on in the community,” Byzak added.