The Del Mar Metropolis Council determined March 18 to postpone a vote on two zoning adjustments which might be required for the town to satisfy state-mandated housing objectives.
Following a two-hour dialogue with metropolis planners and the town lawyer, council members determined to push the vote again to their April 1 assembly, simply forward of a late April deadline to replace the zoning.
The zoning adjustments would accommodate 20 dwelling items per acre within the metropolis’s Central Industrial zone, positioned on 56 parcels alongside Camino Del Mar in downtown, and Public Services zone, positioned on city-owned land on tenth and twenty eighth streets that may accommodate seven inexpensive items.
Del Mar Deputy Mayor Terry Gaasterland and Councilmember Tracy Martinez had been involved that builders might discover a approach to circumvent top limits, doubtlessly blocking views of surrounding properties. Town’s Planning Fee, which voted 3-0 in February to suggest the zoning adjustments to the council, had additionally expressed these considerations.
Each zones have most top restrictions of 26 ft, or 14 ft for buildings going through west alongside Camino Del Mar.
“This motion shouldn’t be granting anyone to come back in and develop at limitless heights, it’s not offering for any improvement to dam public scenic views,” Del Mar Principal Planner Amanda Lee stated. “That’s all going to be addressed at challenge, site-specific, context-specific assessment stage.”
Metropolis employees additionally emphasised that council members already agreed in precept to the Central Industrial and Public Services zoning adjustments once they accredited the most recent housing factor, which covers 2021 to 2029 and lists a timeline for all zoning adjustments to satisfy state-mandated housing objectives.
Council members additionally mentioned the danger of the town’s housing factor being decertified by the state’s Division of Housing and Neighborhood Improvement if the 2 zoning adjustments aren’t applied. Town achieved certification for its housing factor final 12 months after an in depth back-and-forth with HCD officers over a number of years.
If the housing factor misplaced its certification, the town may very well be topic to by-right improvement, which may supersede native zoning and isn’t topic to assessment by the Design Overview Board or the Planning Fee. The council and metropolis planners would solely be capable to implement a comparatively restricted set of “goal” requirements.
“Whenever you’re decertified, it’s truthful to say that HCD will get to put in writing their very own guidelines and quite a lot of your deliberations and concerns form of exit the door at that cut-off date,” Metropolis Lawyer Ralph Hicks stated.
Del Mar Metropolis Councilmembers Dwight Worden and Dan Quirk stated they felt ready to proceed with the vote. They each stated they oppose state legal guidelines that inhibit native management, however the proposed zoning adjustments had been the very best the town can do.
However the council wanted a four-fifths supermajority to implement all the required adjustments. With Del Mar Mayor Dave Druker recused as a result of he lives inside 500 ft of the proposed zoning adjustments, the council wanted a unanimous 4-0 vote. Since they had been cut up on needing extra data to proceed, they voted 4-0 to postpone the vote.
“Typically, prevention of a step backwards is as necessary as a step ahead, and that’s form of what we’re doing right here,” Worden stated. “That is essentially the most palatable possibility that we’ve got.”