A longtime planning commissioner in Escondido is now out of a job, and the rationale stays a thriller.
The Escondido Metropolis Council, following the advice of Mayor Dane White, unexpectedly eliminated Planning Commissioner David Barber at an April 9 Metropolis Council assembly. The Council accredited the elimination in a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Consuelo Martinez opposed.
“I used to be simply questioning, Mayor, for those who may share the reasoning,” Martinez stated on the assembly. “As a result of I consider Mr. Barber has another yr left on the Planning Fee, and I haven’t heard any complaints from any of the commissioners, so I’m simply questioning what the reason being.”
White stated it was “an effort to carry the Planning Fee extra in step with the imaginative and prescient of the Metropolis Council.” When Martinez requested him what that imaginative and prescient is, he stated it consists of the issues the Council mentioned in a latest “priorities” workshop. He refused to share any specifics however added that he could be joyful to enter extra element with Barber privately.
Barber, who gave a public remark through the assembly, appeared simply as confused.
“I absolutely perceive that I serve on the pleasure of the Metropolis Council, and the Metropolis Council could take away me at any time,” Barber stated. “Nevertheless, I might merely just like the courtesy to know why I’ve been placed on the agenda to be dismissed as a Planning Fee member.”
Barber stated he has seen members being faraway from the Planning Fee earlier than for inappropriate conduct, felony exercise, poor attendance and poor efficiency. None of those causes apply to him, he stated, including that he has all the time acquired glowing suggestions from different Planning Commissioners, representatives from the Constructing Trade Affiliation and the Affiliation of Realtors and extra.
Barber didn’t reply to a request for remark.
White instructed Voice of San Diego by way of electronic mail the identical factor he stated on the dais – that the choice was “an effort to carry the Planning Fee extra in step with the imaginative and prescient of the Metropolis Council.”
Barber has served three totally different phrases on Escondido’s Planning Fee for the reason that Nineteen Eighties. His present time period was set to run out on March 31, 2026. The town is now accepting purposes for Barber’s substitute with interviews scheduled for Might 14.
Elsewhere in Escondido, ‘Empty-Chairing’ Is Again
Amid a surge of protests all through San Diego County and the nation in opposition to insurance policies coming down from the Trump administration, the “empty-chair” protest appears to be making a comeback.
Voters all through the nation have been holding empty-chair protests in opposition to their Republican representatives who’re refusing to appear at city corridor conferences. If somebody is empty-chaired in a dialogue, an empty chair is left the place the consultant would have sat to attract consideration to the truth that they aren’t there.
Congressmember Darrell Issa, who represents the forty eighth Congressional District, just lately acquired empty-chaired in Escondido.
Final month, greater than 800 individuals attended an “Empty Chair Townhall” on the California Middle for the Arts, Escondido protesting Issa’s refusal to carry city corridor conferences together with his constituents. Somebody wearing a rooster costume, representing Issa, sat within the empty chair for a portion of the occasion.
Jonathan Wilcox, Issa’s deputy chief of workers and director of communications, instructed Voice by way of electronic mail that he wasn’t impressed.
“The Empty Chair routine is so dated, that if these Democrat protesters had additionally been doing the Macarena, their occasion would have been considerably up to date,” Wilcox stated.
The protest was organized by a gaggle referred to as Indivisible North County, which has been picketing exterior of Issa’s Escondido workplace for a number of weeks.
Questions Come up About How Poway Does Inclusionary Housing
In latest weeks, I’ve seen a resurgence of a subject I’ve heard about on and off in Poway – town’s inclusionary housing coverage.
Inclusionary housing requires builders to put aside a sure variety of models as low earnings once they’re constructing; if builders don’t wish to do that, they pay a charge to town referred to as an in-lieu charge.
That’s the place some residents’ complaints are centered. Many are calling for metropolis leaders to boost the charge, which is the bottom in-lieu charge in San Diego County.
In Poway, the inclusionary housing coverage requires builders to put aside 15 p.c of models for low-income households. The in-lieu charge is a flat fee of $500 per mission.
For comparability, San Diego’s in-lieu charge is $25 per sq. foot, Oceanside’s is $20 per sq. foot, Del Mar’s is $27,000 per mission, and Coronado simply raised its charge from $7,000 per mission to $59 per sq. foot, now the very best within the county.
Proponents of a better charge say the concept is to incentivize builders to incorporate inexpensive housing of their initiatives. However with such a low charge, it turns into straightforward for builders to choose out of constructing low-income housing, they argue.
In Different Information
- ICYMI: As homelessness will increase in Encinitas, an nameless social media account and a few residents are targeting nonprofit homeless services provider Group Useful resource Middle (CRC), claiming the nonprofit is attracting homeless individuals to town. CRC says the account is spreading misinformation and harmful rhetoric. (Voice of San Diego)
- Additionally, Encinitas leaders will consider hiring private security to patrol downtown Encinitas for unlawful tenting, public urination and different unlawful actions by homeless individuals. (Union-Tribune)
- The Oceanside Metropolis Council approved limited tenant protections earlier this month, after initially contemplating a sweeping set of tenant protections that acquired backlash from some residents and metropolis leaders. (Coast Information)
