The Coast News, December 28, 2018

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VOL. 32, N0. 52

SAN MARCOS -NEWS

Solana .com Highlands project OK’d

Top 10

STORY LINES OF 2018

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‘Blue Wave’ crashes ashore in North County

The North County has been a reliable bastion of support for the Republican Party over the years, but as 2018 dawned, talk of changing demographics and dissatisfaction with the current presidential administration put the region’s political future in the balance. Nationwide, pundits predicted that a so-called “Blue Wave” would prove to be a repudiation of the Trump administration’s politics. North County became

DEC. 28, 2018

By Lexy Brodt

From a ‘Blue Wave’ to ‘green’ initiatives, from the grand opening of an airline to the closing of a psychiatric facility, North County saw its fair share of major headlines this year. Here are the Top 10, as voted on by The Coast News staff.

ground zero of the movement, as activists set their sights on the 49th Congressional District, where Darrell Issa had narrowly survived a challenge two years early. In 2017, protesters began the longest running demonstration of its kind as they picketed outside of Issa’s office for more than a year. Those protests paid dividends, as in one of the first victories of the “blue wave” movement, Issa announced his resignation in January. But the movement was just getting started. It took nearly a month DEMOCRAT MIKE LEVIN and his wife, Chrissy, celebrate on Election Night in Del Mar. TURN TO TOP 10 ON A10

Levin won a high-profile race to replace retiring Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican, in Congress. Facebook photo

THE VISTA BEACH — After NEWS

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SOLANA a total of eight hours of deliberation, view assessment proceedings and public comment, the City Council approved the Solana Highlands revitalization project at a Dec. 17 hearing, albeit with a number of conditions. The project proposes bulldozing the current Solana Highlands apartment complex and constructing 260 units — 62 more than what RANCHO currently exists on the site — and 525 parking SFNEWS spaces on the 13.4acre lot off of Nardo and Stevens avenues. Thirty-two of those units would be reserved for low-income senior residents. The council voted unanimously to approve the project, with now former Councilman Peter Zahn absent. The approval process involved certifying the project’s final environmental impact report, approving its development review permit, structure development permit and vesting tentative parcel map, as well as its affordable housing plan, density bonus, waiver of development standards and a related fee waiver. The hearing began on Dec. 5, but after five hours of deliberation and public comment, the council opted to extend the hearing to Dec. 17. In the meantime, staff were able to address unanswered questions and pending concerns posed by council members and residents at the Dec. 5 hearing. After many residents opposed the magnitude of the project during the first round of public comment, the staff report clarified that “State Law provides no authority for the

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