JULY 8, 2016
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T he C oast News
Del Mar lowers drought response level By Bianca Kaplanek
DEL MAR — Council members opted to follow state and local recommendations and agreed to reduce the drought response to Level 1. Last month, when staff suggested the change based on increased water supplies due to winter storms and Carlsbad’s desalination plant going online, Councilman Don Mosier called the move “premature” and a “big mistake because … two-thirds of the state is still in a drought.” “You’re undoing a good program,” Mosier said at last month’s meeting in an effort to convince his colleagues to leave the response level unchanged. “This community’s adapted to using less water, and I think we should continue to do that.” Councilman Dwight Worden agreed with Mosier’s arguments as a matter of policy. “But as a regulatory matter it doesn’t feel right to me,” he said. “We’re going to be out power washing the sidewalks while we tell people we’re not lifting the restrictions on other things.”
Mosier and Worden worked to create a compromise resolution, adopted at the July 5 meeting, which lowers the drought response level but urges people to continue voluntarily conserving water by following measures adopted during the Level 2 response. “This means that residents and businesses will be encouraged to minimize outdoor landscape irrigation to two days per week,” the staff report states. The decision was based on the fact that Southern California remains in a drought, water storage reservoirs statewide have been depleted and Del Mar’s per capita water use remains among the highest in the region. Beach showers have been turned back on and public landscaping that is distressed will be irrigated. The city will also begin power washing sidewalks for health and safety reasons. The state water board has permanently prohibited practices that waste potable water, such as wash-
ing cars with hoses not equipped with a shut-off nozzle, using non-recirculated water in a fountain or other decorative water feature, overwatering lawns and causing runoff and watering within 48 hours after measurable precipitation. Irrigating ornamental turf on public street medians and serving drinking water other than on request in restaurants are also not allowed. Mosier said the adopted resolution was crafted “to stay in step with the San Diego County Water Authority.” “And enforcing Level 2 restrictions could be challenging if the region is at Level 1,” he added. “So the best compromise was to encourage continuing water conservation as if Level 2 were still in place, but only enforce violations of the state restrictions that were not rescinded.” City staff members will prepare and implement a public education program to update residents and businesses on the status of water-use restrictions for Del Mar.
Encinitas adopts budget By Aaron Burgin
A jury rules against Tri-City Healthcare District in its eminent domain lawsuit against a former partner in the development of a 57,000-square-foot medical office building. File photo
Tri-City loses lawsuit against medical office building developer By Aaron Burgin
OCEANSIDE — A jury recently ruled against Tri-City Healthcare District in its eminent domain lawsuit against a former partner in the development of a 57,000-squarefoot medical office building. The jury awarded Carlsbad-based Medical Acquisition Co. $19,763,700 against TriCity Healthcare District for eminent domain, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and also denied the district’s counter claim of conflict of interest by the company. The office building has sat vacant for nearly two years, the result of an estranged partnership between the healthcare district and MAC, a vestige of the tenure of former TriCity CEO Larry Anderson that has resulted in the lawsuits between the parties. Tri-City sought to void the contract it had with MAC in a 149-page lawsuit that alleged the hospital’s former CEO Larry Anderson and board president RoseMarie Reno had illegal conflicts of interest with MAC. MAC in turn
countersued Tri-City for interference with its development rights, arguing that the hospital district illegally blocked them from completing the project. The jury found for MAC on all issues after a month-long trial, awarding MAC $2,933,700 on its interference claim, and valued the building taken by TriCity in eminent domain at $16,830,000, which was the amount that MAC claimed in the lawsuit. The jury also found no conflict of interest as claimed by Tri-City, and ordered the district pay MACs attorney fees. “It was a long time in coming,” MAC president Charles Perez said. “We did everything that was asked of us and never felt we did anything wrong. Now all we want is for the community to be served by the building as it was intended, and to be paid for the value we contributed.” The hospital and MAC in 2011 entered into a complex development agreement that called for MAC to lease district land for 50 years and build a 60,000-square-foot comTURN TO TRI-CITY ON A21
ENCINITAS — Encinitas’ 2017 budget will include funding for the Leucadia streetscape, an at-grade railroad crossing at Montgomery Avenue and a neighborhood park in Leucadia, but will eat into the city’s reserves to accomplish the tasks, city officials said. The City Council voted on June 22 to adopt the $79.1 million operations budget and an additional $26 million for capital projects. The city estimates it will bring in $91.8 million in revenue, meaning it will use about $13.3 million to cover the shortfall. With about $62 million in reserves, however, the city will still have just under $49 million if the projections hold, officials said, which are above the council’s minimum reserve levels. The adopted operating budget will continue to maintain the current level of services provided to residents and visitors to the City of Encinitas without increases in fees or to the number of full time equivalent employees of the City,” the city said in a news release. Among the capital projects that the budget will pay for are the first phase of the long-awaited North Coast Highway 101 streetscape, the at-grade crossing at Montgomery Avenue, a proposal for a park at the intersection of Olympus and Piraeus
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streets, and safe school route improvements in all of the local school districts. Some of the other expense increases in the budget would cover current labor contracts and benefit obligations as well as the San Diego Regional Opening Doors pilot project aimed at ending veteran homelessness in Encinitas and for additional overtime for Sheriff’s deputies.
Demolition on the vacant building, which used to house the Talone Meat Market in Escondido, begins this week. Photo by Tony Cagala
Demolition begins on building ravaged by fire By Steve Puterski
ESCONDIDO — City crews began demolishing an abandoned meat packing facility this week after a four-alarm blaze scorched the former Talone Meat Co. building last week. The inferno broke out before 9 a.m. on June 30 and took the efforts of more than 90 firefighters several hours to extinguish. Police blocked off access to the building, which sits on the intersection of Washington Street, Hale Avenue and Interstate 15. One crew remained at the scene throughout the night in case embers sparked another blaze, Escondido Fire Chief Russ Knowles said last week. The cause of the fire, meanwhile, is still under investigation. Calls to the EFD were not returned as of press time. Knowles said last week investigators may have trouble determining a cause due to the danger of the collapsed building possibly making it too dangerous for fire officials to walk the grounds inside the building. He said the building had no power, which may rule out an electrical fire. Four transients were apparently inside the building before the fire broke out, Knowles added. Rumors swirled about two transients being caught inside the building during the fire, but Knowles said another pair of transients accounted for the two people. Knowles said it was possible other people were inside the building, although crews must sift through the rubble to locate any possible victims. However, he said fire officials were not alerted to any other individuals other than the four transients inside the building at the time of the fire.
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