A settlement has been reached over a housing project in Encinitas that the City Council rejected in November.
The developer of Encinitas Boulevard Apartments filed a lawsuit against the city, and not long after, the State Attorney General issued a warning to Encinitas about its rejection of the project, saying the disapproval violated state law.
The Attorney General’s office said in a letter that by rejecting the proposal, the city violated its obligation to create more fair housing.
The developer was already planning to resubmit the proposal, which is now set to go before the City Council on June 8. Under the terms of the settlement, the total number of units will be reduced from 272 units to 250 units, but the number of units set aside for low-income residents will increase from 41 to 50.
Encinitas has a habit of going to great lengths to avoid the building of more homes. City leaders and residents have for years argued that more homes would change the city’s character.
In 2020, Encinitas tried to exempt itself from the state density bonus law, which provides incentives for private developers to create affordable housing. Developers can increase the size of their developments in exchange for including a certain number of affordable housing units.
In years prior, the city has faced multiple lawsuits over trying to get around this law by creating policies that would make it harder for developers to consider it as an option.
The Encinitas Boulevard Apartment project will be near the Encinitas Boulevard and Rancho Santa Fe intersection in the Olivenhain neighborhood.
Just great. Social engineering thugs from the state eliminating citizens ability to control their own neighborhoods.
It’s about time that coastal elite cities take on their fair share of increased housing, especially low income.
Wow — the above two comments really show the split in perceptions here. As an Encinitas resident who wants more affordable housing so people like my daughter could afford to move back here if they wanted, I am chagrined at VOSD articles that seem to indicate everyone in Encinitas is against affordable housing, including the city council and Mayor Blakespeare. I don’t pretend to understand all the nuances, but I know the council has had to try to abide by both state law and city law (such as Prop A) and there are folks like the above who are pushing in both directions of “community character” and “take on our fair share.”
Repetitively pushing the narrative via headlines such as in the linked article above about the density bonus law that all Encinitas wants to do is avoid building housing is misleading. If you actually read the article it says the effort was in the works to make a plan that would have been exempted from state law because it would have provided for more housing than state law required. I’m just tired of all the headlines seeming to paint my city one way.