From: Diane Langager
To: Kathy Hollywood; Brenda Wisneski
Subject: Fwd: Proposed development, 510-514 La Costa Ave. Date: Thursday, August 02, 2018 6:34:49 AM
Attachments: image001.jpg image001.jpg
Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message:
From: Nortons <[email protected]>
Date: August 1, 2018 at 11:22:27 AM PDT
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Cc: Diane Langager <[email protected]>, Council Members <[email protected]>
Subject: Proposed development, 510-514 La Costa Ave. Reply-To: Nortons <[email protected]>
Dear Mr. Vurbeff,
Because of the proposal for a large housing development (46 new units!) for 510-514 La Costa Ave. which is now before the City managers, we're following up on our late April email to and reply from Diane Langager (below) regarding the Housing Update. To put the current proposal in context, we did a rough count on the number of residences that presently depend on La Costa Ave. for egress/ingress: 52. So, we ask that all involved in this decision, please consider that adding 46 new residences would nearly double that figure and the number of vehicles utilizing this narrow 1/2 mi. stretch of La Costa. We believe this is a big problem with definite environmental impacts!
By way of background, we -- and other neighbors off of La Costa Ave. (we're at 283) who share the northern boundary of David Meyer's previous development, the old Barratt property -- still live daily with the poor
decisions made by the developer and City regarding the highly
questionable/illegal(?) elevated pad heights. At our back fence, the pad height of the two two-story houses are five (5) feet above our property, not a pleasant view to say the least! Because of our prior history with this developer AND our stated concerns (in April email, below) regarding the ever-increasing traffic on La Costa Ave., we want to express our major reservations for approving this proposed huge housing development. We specifically take issue with the following statement embodied in the Legal Notice of Environmental Review and Comment Period:
RESULT OF THE
PROJECT: The Draft EIR concludes that the project would not result in significant environmental impacts with the incorporation of mitigation measures for...and traffic circulation.
As daily walkers and regular drivers along La Costa Ave., we are
particularly aware of the high traffic flows AND major safety issues on this 1/2-mile stretch from 101 to I-5. We are seeing, at a dizzying pace, proposals for very substantial developments all along this very short stretch of our two (2) lane road. La Costa Ave. west of the I-5 is already heavily impacted by both commercial and private needs; for instance, because of the popularity of South Ponto Beach and increasingly bad traffic on I-5, on summer afternoons, westbound La Costa Ave. frequently gets backed up for almost 1/2 of this stretch! We hope the City will
consider the very negative traffic and general environmental (Batiquitos Lagoon?) impacts of this proposed project.
Doubling the number of cars potentially using this stretch of La Costa Ave. to get to and from home exponentially adds to the perilous walking and driving conditions from the extremely unsafe Vulcan Ave. intersection (sadly, to be further exacerbated by the future housing development at that intersection) through to Sheridan Ave., the southern part of which already is a conduit to I-5 and eastward for many homes. It's already difficult, and often unsafe, for those of us who have houses on the cul-de-sacs on the south side of La Costa Ave. to get out onto the road and later safely turn into our cul-de-sacs. Unfortunately, the reduction of the speed limit from 40 to 35 mph has had virtually no impact on the excessive speeds attained along this stretch.
In sum, we ask the City to carefully consider the significant impacts on traffic conditions, i.e. nearly doubling the vehicle use, and specifically, the safety of established neighborhoods, before approving projects in this seemingly endless push to fully "build out" every parcel of land in our wonderful city! With some appreciation for the pressures on the City re: affordable housing, we strongly encourage further study of the impacts on this residential 1/2-mile stretch of La Costa Ave. with serious consideration of significant reduction of houses in this proposal and other future
developments along La Costa Ave. Of course, appropriate traffic flow and control measures must go hand-in-hand with any future developments, e.g., the Vulcan/La Costa Ave. intersection!
We look forward to your reply and the City's actions. Sincerely,
Steve and Meg Norton
P.S. Given the substantial number of potentially impacted homeowners, we believe it would be prudent for the City to organize a meeting to further
discuss this possible development once you've coalesced all of the written inputs.
Forwarded Message
---From: Diane Langager <[email protected]>
To: Nortons <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2018 2:33 PM Subject: RE: Housing Update
Mr. & Ms. Norton: This is to confirm receipt of your comments; they will be made a part of the Administrative Record for the Housing Plan Update 2018.
Regards,
Diane Langager
Diane S. Langager Principal Planner
Development Services Department
505 South Vulcan Ave, Encinitas, CA 92024 (760) 633-2714 | [email protected] www.encinitasca.gov
From: Nortons [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2018 11:05 AM To: Diane Langager
Cc: Council Members Subject: Housing Update
Dear Ms. Langager,
We're sorry for this late but short note regarding the ongoing Housing Update and legal proceedings.
As my wife and I live at 283 La Costa Ave. (one of the small cul-de-sacs off La Costa Ave. near Anderson's Nursery), we feel it is necessary to strongly express our biggest concern over any very significant
development in our area, i.e., the already very heavy traffic on the narrow stretch of La Costa Ave. between I-5 and Coast Highway!
We know that any expansion of that stretch is virtually impossible, given the engineering challenges, the high cost and -- as something very
important to us and all our community -- the preservation of the Batiquitos Lagoon and its environs, in this case, the very steep south shoreline!
Based on what we've seen in the way of the proposed up-zoning in our immediate area, we believe it's simply inappropriate for the City to cause considerable increased traffic flow on this small stretch of La Costa Ave. via the suggested housing developments. Even with the much improved road situation because of the new ped and bike lanes, our daily walk to and from the beach (especially at the Vulcan intersection) is already an extremely dangerous experience because of high traffic flows, excessive speeding AND far more inattentive drivers.
Thank you in advance for taking our concerns into consideration as you and the City Council move forward with your very difficult task. Again, we're sorry for these late comments but hope they are useful.
Sincerely,
From: Diane Langager
To: Kathy Hollywood; Brenda Wisneski
Subject: Fwd: opposition to 510-514 La Costa Ave Development Date: Thursday, August 02, 2018 6:34:11 AM
Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message:
From: Doug Wierenga <[email protected]>
Date: August 1, 2018 at 12:37:17 PM PDT
To: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>
Subject: opposition to 510-514 La Costa Ave Development
Mr. Vurbeff and Miss Langager,
I share very similar perspective to Steve and Meg Norton who are
immediate neighbors sharing our back fence. Their words echo my own (or vice versa).
We ask that all involved in this decision, please consider that adding 46 new residences would nearly double that figure and the number of
vehicles utilizing this narrow 1/2 mi. stretch of La Costa. We believe this is a big problem with definite environmental impacts!
By way of background, we -- and other neighbors off of La Costa Ave. (we're at 325) who share the boundary of David Meyer's previous development, the old Barratt property -- still live daily with the poor decisions made by the developer and City regarding the highly
questionable/illegal(?) elevated pad heights. At our back fence, the pad height of the two two-story houses are five (5) feet above our property, not a pleasant view to say the least! Because of our prior history with this developer AND and concerns regarding the ever-increasing traffic on La Costa Ave., we want to express our major reservations for approving this proposed huge housing development.
We specifically take issue with the following statement embodied in the Legal Notice of Environmental Review and Comment Period:
SIGNIFICANT ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ANTICIPATED AS A RESULT OF THE
PROJECT: The Draft EIR concludes that the project would not result in significant environmental impacts with the incorporation of mitigation measures for...and traffic circulation.
particularly aware of the high traffic flows AND major safety issues on this 1/2-mile stretch from 101 to I-5. We are seeing, a lot of proposals for very substantial developments all along this very short stretch of our two (2)
lane road. La Costa Ave. west of the I-5 is already heavily impacted by
both commercial and private needs; for instance, because of the popularity of South Ponto Beach and increasingly bad traffic on I-5, on summer afternoons, westbound La Costa Ave. frequently gets backed up for almost 1/2 of this stretch! We hope the City will consider the very negative traffic and general environmental (Batiquitos Lagoon?) impacts of this proposed project.
Doubling the number of cars potentially using this stretch of La Costa Ave. to get to and from home exponentially adds to the already dangerous walking, biking and driving conditions from the extremely unsafe Vulcan Ave. intersection through to Sheridan Ave., the southern part of which already is a conduit to I-5 and eastward for many homes. It's already difficult, and often unsafe, for those of us who have houses on the cul-de-sacs on the south side of La Costa Ave. to get out onto the road and later safely turn into our cul-de-sacs. Unfortunately, the reduction of the speed limit from 40 to 35 mph has had virtually no impact on the excessive speeds attained along this stretch. I’m glad the speed was adjusted downward, but it doesn’t seem to be enforced or monitored.
Before making any decisions, I’d encourage you to spend an hour or two observing traffic between 101 and highway 5 on La Costa at either 745a to 9a or 345p to 5p.
I also might encourage you to re-open the topic of paving a sidewalk along here. During the process of re-striping La Costa with different walking and biking and driving “lanes”, we were told a sidewalk is 10 years out in the plan. Hard to believe we are considering “cramming” more homes in, but still no topic of adding critical and basic safety infrastructure. The
sidewalk will be much cheaper than a lawsuit if someone were killed. We look forward to your reply and the City's actions.
Sincerely,
Stephanie and Doug Wierenga 325 La Costa Ave Doug Wierenga Principal Cerebral Connections Direct 408.884.3851 http://www.linkedin.com/in/dougwierenga