Council wastes residents’ time for 10 hours until 2am

Encinitas city council

🌙 Ten hours. One night. Zero homeless grant applications.

🏛️ Council Meeting Recap – June 24, 2026

4 PM to 2 AM — and when the gavel finally fell, this council had spent $3.8M undoing a bike lane, blocked a free grant for homeless outreach, and let O’Hara argue about geology for 20 minutes. Summer recess starts now. Residents deserve one too.

💬 Quote of the Night:  “I think there’s a lot cheaper ways of dealing with anger [toward Catherine Blakespear] than spending $3.8 million of the people’s money to make the roadway less safe for bicycles. Holy cow, there’s no logic there.”
— Councilmember Lyndes on why Santa Fe Drive West redesign project exists.

⚡ SPECIAL MEETING — Santa Fe Drive West Design 

✅Vote: 4-1 (Lyndes dissenting). After a year of community meetings, surveys, and debate, the Santa Fe Drive West redesign is moving forward with Option 3 — and there’s actually a surprise upgrade: surveyors found enough right-of-way to add a westbound bike lane on the north side, something the community had asked for and staff thought was impossible. Credit where it’s due.

Option 3 includes:

Timeline: 100% design by October → bid in late 2026 → construction summer 2027.

The Coastal Commission sent a letter the morning of the meeting. Staff said it’s a routine part of the process. Lyndes wasn’t so sure — and asked pointed questions about what additional review might be required. Worth watching.

The room remains split. “Improve, don’t remove” advocates cited research showing women’s cycling rates rise significantly with separated protected lanes, a physics lesson on joules (car-bike collisions hit 40x harder than bike-pedestrian collisions), and a high schooler who said she won’t bike Santa Fe without protected lanes. Supporters cited emergency access, right-hook hazards at SDA driveways, and design consistency.

·      🌮 Food For Thought: The north-side Class 4 protected path is staying. The south-side separated lane is going. If the Coastal Commission determines this isn’t exempt from review, does the timeline hold?

 

⚡ REGULAR MEETING

Presentations

🌳 Parks & Recreation Month proclaimed — 328 acres, 20 parks, 41 trail miles, 33 beach acres. The department does a lot. 👏

👮 Sheriff Q2 Update — Crime Keeps Falling:

🎤 Oral Communications

·      🎂 Bob Austin turns 100 on July 23. Four deployments. 30 years military. He volunteers at the Encinitas Senior Center every weekday since age 85. Someone give this man a parade. 🇺🇸

·      🏕️ Buena Creek Navigation Center (BCNC) update: The MOU with Vista ends September 30 — city is seeking extension to December 31. The lease and operator agreement also end December 31. If BCNC closes, SD Rescue Mission apparently has a plan for at least 12 individuals. Full council update coming in the fall.

·      🌿 Cannabis near schools: Middle school teacher raised research linking dispensary proximity to increased teen use, lower graduation rates, and higher suicide attempt rates. Worth the council’s attention.

·      🙏 Karen Koblentz came to ask for mutual respect between council and community. A gracious moment in an otherwise sharp meeting.

📋 Consent — Items Pulled

·      Crossing Guard MOU ✅ Vote: 5-0: Finally back from May 27 — now includes a new crossing guard at Park Dale Lane & Village Park Way. Done. Whew!

·      SB 569 Opposition Letter ✅ Vote: 4-1 (Lyndes dissenting): The bill preventing cities from repurposing state-funded bike lanes was amended between agenda publication and the meeting, removing several of the original concerns. Council continued opposition anyway. Lyndes suggesting shifting to “oppose unless amended.” The others did not agree. 

🏘️ Ocean Bluff Subdivision Appeal: ✅ Vote: Appeal Denied 4-1.

27-lot single-family subdivision on 7 acres. Planning Commission approved it 4-0. Neighbors appealed. State law required approval absent a factually-supported health or safety finding — and none materialized.

O’Hara got fixated on the difference between a “bluff” and a “slope” for 20+ minutes despite both the city’s expert and the developer’s rep explaining the distinction. When that didn’t yield a basis to deny, he tried to impose extra conditions. The City Attorney cautioned against it. O’Hara tried to pressure the developer into agreeing. They wouldn’t — except to discuss tree placement, which was already in the landscaping plan. Then he voted no anyway, without explanation.

·      🌮 Food For Thought: State law and the City Attorney were clear: no factual safety finding, no basis to deny. O’Hara voted no anyway. Does he owe the public an explanation for what he found that everyone else missed?

🌱 Sugar Sweet Farms Permit: ✅ Vote: Permit Clarified 4-0. Long-running neighbor dispute over what counts as “commercial” activity at a local farm. Permit conditions clarified. Shaffer recused (past volunteer).

💰 Planning & Engineering Fees: CPI-Adjusted ✅ Vote: Unanimous. Planning and engineering development-processing fees and the outdoor dining right-of-way usage fee increased by the CPI for the past year. A full fee reassessment is underway and comes back to council in August.

🎓 Youth Commission: ✅ Vote: Appointments Unanimous At nearly midnight on a school night, 12 applicants interviewed. 9 members appointed to the Youth Commission. The next generation is in the room. 👏

🛹 Skate Feature Committee: ✅ Vote: Appointments Unanimous 13 applicants, only 1 from Parks & Rec. Council adjusted the composition accordingly: 11 public members, 1 Parks & Rec commissioner, Councilmembers Shaffer and San Antonio. Committee formed and ready to roll. 

🏕️ Homeless Grant: Council Says No to Even Applying: ✅ Vote: 4-1 (Lyndes dissenting). Despite staff working heroically to show that Encinitas’s existing outreach model fit within the grant’s framework — and the San Diego Rescue Mission confirming confidence they could operate under it — Council voted 4-1 to deny staff permission to even apply for the state Encampment Resolution Funding grant. Lyndes was the lone yes. Mayor Ehlers said he distrusted the CA Department of Housing and Community Development, would rather spend General Fund money and would do so “if necessary.”

·      🌮 Food For Thought: A state grant designed to fund exactly the kind of homeless outreach Encinitas is already doing — and four councilmembers said no to filling out the application. “We’ll spend General Fund money if necessary” is not a plan. When does “if necessary” kick in — and who decides?

📅 Quick Hits

·       ☀️ EcoFest: Sunday, June 28, 12-4 PM, Encinitas Community Park. Go enjoy it. 🌿

·        🏕️Homeless Action Plan Community Meeting #3: June 29, 6-8 PM at City Hall. Come share your input on how the city addresses homelessness — this is one of the few direct opportunities to do so.

·       🏛️ Council returns from summer recess: August 12.

In the meantime, we wish you a wonderful summer!  Thanks for paying attention, and remember that democracy works best when somebody is still awake at 2 a.m. taking notes.

—Encinitas Action