Recap of Recent Leucadia 101 Streetscape Events

The iconic Leucadia Boulevard eucalyptus shown above will be the victim of a chain saw massacre if the 101 Streetscape project is implemented as proposed.

Planning Commission. The Streetscape plan, including the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and the attendant amendments, etc. went to the city Planning Commission on March 1. Shortly before that, the city staff posted the documents on the city website in such a way that reading them was impossible. The EIR alone was more than 1,500 pages. Any web genius who was able to download the docs couldn’t read them because they didn’t scroll properly. They also weren’t searchable. By the time the staff made the docs available in a readable and searchable form, only a few days remained for review before the March 1 meeting. I suggested that the city should postpone consideration by the Planning Commission. The staff refused.

At the meeting, the commissioners showed a cursory knowledge of the plan. I had sent them my point-by-point set of objections to it. I included details for an alternative plan along with four traffic-jam photos. The commissioners didn’t raise any of my points, nor did they ask the staff and consultants about them.

The commissioners asked softball questions. The staff and consultants were selective, evasive and deceptive in their answers.

The usual suspects from the Leucadia 101 Main Street Association were well-organized in their support of the plan. They outnumbered the opponents by a huge margin.

As everybody paying attention predicted they would, the commissioners rubber-stamped the staff’s recommendation to approve the plan and passed it on to the City Council.

Brenda’s Infamous Email. Newbie Development Services Director Brenda Wisneski posted a celebratory email the day after the Planning Commission approved the Streetscape plan. That the department she heads is called Development Services says everything anybody needs to know about the city’s direction. Here’s the email:

From: Brenda Wisneski <Bwisneski@encinitasca.gov>

Subject: PC Recommends Streetscape Approval

Date: March 2, 2018 at 3:08:31 PM PST

To: Karen Brust <kbrust@encinitasca.gov>

Cc: Roy Sapau <RSapau@encinitasca.gov>, Stephanie Kellar <Skellar@encinitasca.gov>, Anna Yentile <ayentile@encinitasca.gov>, Mark Delin <Mdelin@encinitasca.gov>, Laura Ferguson <lferguson@encinitasca.gov>

Hi Karen and Councilmembers (Blind Copied)

Good News!!  Last night, the Planning Commission unanimously approved the Leucadia Streetscape project.  We had 25 speakers.  Twenty speakers were in support.  Three indicated support, but were concerned with traffic overflowing onto Vulcan.  One asked for the item to be continued for additional analysis and one was opposed based concerns with emergency response time delays.

It was a tremendous team effort.  Anna Yentile introduced the project, Stephanie Keller orchestrated the staff and consultants behind the scenes, and Roy supported the Planning Commission. 

We are on schedule to present the project to the City Council on March 21^st. 

Have a great weekend

BRENDA WISNESKI

Development Services Director

505 South Vulcan Ave, Encinitas, CA 92024

760-633-2712 | bwisneski@encinitasca.gov

www.encinitasca.gov

It’s a rare thing that documentary evidence of the staff’s orchestration of events surfaces. Yes, Brenda’s post can be interpreted in different ways. It is at the very least suspicious that she announced the good news with two exclamation points to City Manager Karen Brust and five staffers, and blind-copied the five City Council members. She said “We had 25 speakers.” Not “There were 25 speakers.” She said “It was a tremendous team effort.” She cited staffer Stephanie Kellar who “orchestrated the staff and consultants behind the scenes.” She cited Roy Sapau who “supported the Planning Commission.” It’s hard to know what supporting the Planning Commission means in this context. Approval by the Planning Commission must have been presumed because Brust and Mayor Catherine Blakespear had already put the item on the March 21 City Council agenda.

Action by Opponents. Following the Planning Commission’s rubber stamp, two teams of Streetscape opponents distributed flyers to nearly every door west of 101 and between A Street and La Costa Avenue. The flyers awakened a sleeping giant. The plan is so monumentally stupid and has been in the works for so long that virtually nobody thought it would ever happen. The notice the City Council would hear it on March 21 jolted residents — especially those west of Leucadia 101 — into action. Brenda’s infamous email appeared and a raging debate ensued on the Encinitas Undercover blog, the Encinitas Votes Facebook page and the Nextdoor Leucadia page. The Leucadia 101 Main Street Association monopolized the floor no more. The battle had been joined!

But most Leucadians — let alone residents elsewhere in Encinitas — know nothing about Streetscape. When they’re told it would reduce Leucadia 101 from four lanes to two and pack the north end of the corridor with little roundabouts, they recoil in horror. They stand in utter disbelief. They simply cannot believe that anybody could seriously propose such a preposterous plan. They all dread traffic jams becoming more frequent and much worse than they already are.

City Council. Successive City Councils have been behind Streetscape since the then-council approved it on January 13, 2010. That plan included four lanes and five roundabouts. The current plan includes two lanes and six roundabouts. It’s testimony to the monumental stupidity of the plan that it’s taken eight years to get this far. It’s taken the ignorant-but-determined current City Council more than a year to get the plan on its agenda.

As expected, the staff and consultants were again selective, evasive and deceptive in their responses to the council’s softball questions. The fix was in years ago on approving the plan. The City Council’s hearing of the staff and consultants’ reports and their listening to public speakers was a charade. Anybody who pays attention to City Council meetings has seen similar charades dozens of times. The decisions are made long before the agenda item comes to the floor. The only surprise this time was that one council member voted against approval.

Ah, but there’s a rub.

California Coastal Commission. In February 2013, the then-City Council implemented a decision they had made a bit earlier. They illegally converted the two northbound 101 lanes north of Leucadia Boulevard to one lane. That rubbed the Coastal Commission staff the wrong way because it was, well, illegal. At the time, the staff said the commission would consider the whole plan when it reached them. The staff commented on the plan on March 29. They popped the celebratory Streetscape balloon. The staff affirmed the Coastal Commission’s mandate by saying, in effect, that the plan violates the provisions of the California Coastal Act of 1976. It would restrict beach access, it would increase travel times through the corridor, it would inhibit inlanders from getting to and from the coast, it wouldn’t provide enough parking. The CCC staff expressed its preference for the environmentally superior alternative that the city had passed over. That plan maintained four traffic lanes. The staff should also have mentioned that the proposed plan would increase greenhouse gas emissions.

In an irony that could not be more delicious, every objection the CCC staff made has been raised for years by the few Leucadia residents who have followed the plan. Ah, but of course the City Council, staff and consultants knew better.                                                                    

 — Doug Fiske