Downtown Encinitas project faces challenge

ENCINITAS —- An activist said Friday that he supports a proposed commercial and residential center in downtown Encinitas, but will challenge the developer’s plans for handling parking and occupancy

ENCINITAS —- An activist said Friday that he supports a proposed commercial and residential center in downtown Encinitas, but will challenge the developer’s plans for handling parking and occupancy.

Gilbert Foerster of Elfin Forest is appealing the Planning Commission’s approval last month of Pacific Station, a planned three-story complex of condominiums, stores, offices and a restaurant on 1.4 acres on South Coast Highway 101 between E and F streets.

The City Council will consider Foerster’s appeal when it meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday at 505 S. Vulcan Ave.

If the council upholds Foerster’s appeal, developer John DeWald must apply the changes that Foerster has requested. If the appeal is rejected, construction on the project can proceed.

With 51,600 square feet of floor area, Pacific Station would be the largest development in downtown Encinitas since 1980, when the 80,000-square-foot Lumberyard shopping center opened on the Coast Highway.

DeWald expects to break ground on the $20 million project in six months. Construction would last 18 months, he said.

Last month, Foerster told the Planning Commission the project was one that he “hated to love,” and that, “It’s a sardine can, but a beautiful sardine can.”

On Friday, Foerster said he wants the project to move forward, but also wants the City Council to restrict parking in its two-level, underground garage and to forbid renting of the condos to short-term vacationers.

A longtime nursery operator in Encinitas, Foerster said increased housing on the highway is a good idea, and that’s why Pacific Station must be able to handle any parking problems it creates.

“I don’t want the community to be turned off,” he said.

DeWald said Friday that appropriate controls are in place to address Foerster’s concerns.

Foerster said he worries that public spaces in the garage will fill to capacity and send a long line of vehicles into the driveway. That might cause residents of the project to slip into valuable street parking rather than wait to get into the garage to use the reserved spaces, he said.

If the parking garage is full, a “lot full” light should shine at the driveway entrance, Foerster said.

DeWald responded that the project needs leeway in its early days to establish the kind of parking restrictions that will and won’t work.

“I think we need a little flexibility to test and prove out the appropriate management techniques in the garage rather than having those imposed on us,” he said.

Once the project is completed, DeWald said, he faces a city requirement to submit annual reports for five years analyzing parking.

If parking becomes a problem, the sort of businesses that operate at the project may be restricted, planners say in a report.

In his appeal, Foerster states that renting planned condominiums to short-term vacationers should be prohibited because outdoor spaces are limited and because vacationers could disrupt the peace of full-time residents.

DeWald noted that future condominium owners would need to secure city permits before renting to tenants for 30 days or fewer.

He said he thinks that young professionals and “empty nest” couples —- and not short-term tenants —- are the people who would live at the project.

“I appreciate Gil’s concerns,” DeWald said. “It’s in our best interest for the parking to work out. We have tenants there and we want the tenants to be successful.”