ENCINITAS: Hoping to appease residents concerned about crowded beaches, the Encinitas City Council last night set in motion a plan to tighten oversight of surf camps.
There are more than a dozen surf camps operating in Encinitas this year, including transplants from nearby cities that began limiting such operations.
Under the new rules, surf-camp operators will have to bid for a city concession contract. That would allow the city to limit the number of camps.
Two business owners spoke in opposition, saying the bidding process would favor larger surf-camp operators.
The council voted unanimously to direct staff members to prepare several options for the details of how the regulations would work, including fees and the bidding criteria, to be considered at a future meeting.
The council also set in motion a related proposal to require a new permit for other business activities – fitness “boot camps,” yoga classes and personal training sessions – that take place at city beaches and parks. –T.M.
Three chickens per home OK'd for some larger lots
IMPERIAL BEACH: The Imperial Beach City Council agreed Wednesday that residents living on certain larger lots in the city can own as many as three pet hens.
The council passed an ordinance by a 3-2 vote to allow residents to keep chickens, but no roosters. The chickens need to come from disease-free stock and be confined.
Councilwomen Lorie Bragg, Patricia McCoy and Mayda Winter voted to approve the ordinance. Mayor Jim Janney and Councilman Fred McLean voted against it. Bragg, McCoy and Winter voted in June to direct staff members to draft an ordinance to allow four to five chickens. They agreed to reduce the maximum allowed to three at an evening meeting.
The city's ordinance requires chicken enclosures, which cannot be larger than 120 square feet. They must be kept clean, be located in a rear yard and be no closer than 15 feet from property lines.
The ordinance will go into effect 30 days after a second reading set for Oct. 15.
Imperial Beach and Coronado were the only two cities in the county that had an outright ban on chickens. Coronado is not considering changing its ordinance. –J.Z.
Sanders replaces four
members of SEDC board
SAN DIEGO: As part of an effort to overhaul the Southeastern Economic Development Corp., San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has named four replacements to the agency's nine-member board of directors.
The appointees, who are subject to City Council confirmation, are Gina Champion-Cain, president and CEO of American National Investments; Vernon Evans, vice president of finance/treasury of the San Diego Regional Airport Authority; Richard Lawrence, managing coordinator of San Diego Works for a Better Health; and Simon Wong, founder and president of Simon Wong Engineering.
They will replace sitting board members Kea Hagan, Randy Jones, Charles Simpson and Artie “Chip” Owen. Owen, the board chairman, has been under scrutiny for his real estate dealings. The board members to be replaced all supported Owen last week in an unsuccessful effort to oust him as chairman.
SEDC is a quasi-independent, nonprofit city agency responsible for revitalizing 7.2 square miles of neighborhoods east of downtown San Diego. It has come under fire this summer for budget and compensation anomalies. –H.G.
Safety violations prompt
E. County church closure
EAST COUNTY: An East County church has been shut down by the county because of numerous safety violations.
This isn't the first time that Guatay Christian Fellowship has had trouble with county officials. Members of the church had to stop meeting at their building on Old Highway 80 in Guatay after they were notified May 30 that the structure had permits for beer, wine and live entertainment, but not religious services. The church had been meeting at the site at the Pine Valley Trailer Park for 22 years.
The church resumed services at the building Aug. 10, but four days later a county inspection found unsafe wiring and lighting, an improperly installed furnace and water heater and an unsafe doorway, according to a letter to the church from Senior Deputy County Counsel Eliot Alazraki. Those violations, and many others, create fire and safety hazards, Alazraki said.
Church attorney Peter Lepiscopo said he believed the county used “heavy-handed tactics” and is trying to get more information about the nature of the violations. Alazraki said he is trying to meet with Lepiscopo and the mobile-home park's attorney to resolve the issue.
“We have an obligation to protect people from these kind of dangerous situations,” Alazraki said.
The church has been meeting at members' homes since the county inspection. Pastor Stan Peterson said he did not believe the violations were major and hoped to return to the building within a month or so.A.K.
Staff writers Tanya Mannes, Janine Zúñiga, Helen Gao and Anne Krueger contributed to this report.
