Downtown Encinitas project won't include short-term rentals

By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 28, 2007 11:24 PM PDT ∞

ENCINITAS ---- The developer of a major project planned in downtown Encinitas promised Wednesday that none of the 47 condominiums to be built would be available as short-term vacation rentals.

Bowing to pressure from an activist and some City Council members, developer John DeWald told the council he would write the restriction into occupancy rules for the proposed project at 687 South Coast Highway 101.

Last month, the Planning Commission approved "Pacific Station," a three-story complex of condominiums, stores, offices and a restaurant on 1.4 acres between E and F streets.

In an appeal to the City Council, activist Gil Foerster of Elfin Forest requested a prohibition of short-term rentals and parking restrictions in the two-level, underground garage.

"Like any project of this size, there are a few warts," Foerster told the council, adding that he generally supported DeWald's plan.

The council voted 5-0 to reject Foerster's appeal, although with DeWald promising to prohibit short-term rentals, the longtime nursery operator in Encinitas received half of what he asked for.

Before the meeting, Foerster said that renting the planned condominiums to vacationers would disrupt the tranquility of full-time residents.

Some council members had reasons of their own for objecting to the condominiums' use as vacation rentals.

Councilwoman Maggie Houlihan said the project has been sold to the community as one where residents would ride the train to work, and therefore reduce freeway traffic.

"Short-term rentals in mixed-use projects are not smart growth," Houlihan said.

Councilman Dan Dalager added, "I look at short-term rentals as a lack of stability in downtown."

Dalager and his colleagues agreed that DeWald should tailor a parking management plan to the needs of tenants and their customers once the project is finished.

DeWald must provide the city with operational and management plans for the residential and commercial components of the project and update those plans annually for five years.

The project needs flexibility in its early days, he said, to establish whether certain parking restrictions would or wouldn't work.

If parking becomes a problem, the sort of businesses that operate at the project may be restricted, planner Kerry Kusiak said.

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

He said 650-square-foot flats are estimated to sell for $450,000 and townhomes would sell from $700,000 to $800,000.

-- Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 943-2312 or akaye@nctimes.com.

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