An appeal of a city Planning Commission decision to issue permits for the controversial Piraeus Point housing project must be denied given state law, a majority of the Encinitas City Council decided late Wednesday night.
“I acknowledge your reasons for being here to oppose this project are real,” Mayor Tony Kranz said as he expressed sympathy for the neighbors. “I feel it, I understand it, but in the end, we’re up against state housing law.”Ehlers, a former city planning commissioner, said he was voting in opposition because he did not believe he could make the required findings that the housing project would provide significant benefits and thus ought be granted waivers from various city development standards.
The Encinitas Community Collective appealed the Planning Commission’s May 18 decision to approve permits for the project. Group members have argued that the project’s proposed retaining walls will be structurally unsound in an earthquake; the developer’s request to opt out of moving the utility lines underground will create a fire hazard as well as being unsightly; and the rooftop decks will create light and noise issues for neighbors.