If you are concerned about the future of the city owned L-7 property on Quail Gardens Drive and preserving it as a city park it is highly recommended that you attend the special city council meeting scheduled for Wednesday, November 20th at 4 PM at city hall. A presentation will be made to the entire city council by the mayor and deputy mayor who co-chaired the Affordable Housing Task Force (AHTF). 

Below is a link to the entire presentation:

https://encinitas.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=7&event_id=4891&meta_id=177700

The task force should have been chaired by a citizen member of the task force and not by the mayor and deputy mayor. This seems like a major conflict of interest. Appointing a citizens task force, appointing yourself as the chair and co-chair and then voting on site properties seems totally counter to good city governance practices and damages the credibility of the report.

Despite all the valuable work there continues to be very strong reservations about the real underlying nature of the task force being that the AHTF was created simply to justify circling back to Quail Gardens Park as the only solution for a 100% affordable housing project. To many members of the AHTF it continues to be the easy target.

The continued focus on Quail Gardens Park also runs counter to the recommendation of the Parks and Recreation Commission that voted unanimously to keep Quail Gardens Park as a true city park.

During the site selection process most members of the task force refused to score any parks or open spaces. Furthermore, a strong majority of the AHTF members asked that Quail Gardens Park be removed from consideration as a potential site based on how it met the rubric criteria, the poor financial feasibility, strong resident opposition and negligible impact on meeting the state’s housing law requirements. However, it was left on for scoring purposes and in the end, it scored the lowest of all potential housing sites providing further rationale for removing it from further site evaluation or planning.

In the interest of good governance and integrity the mayor and deputy mayor should recuse themselves from the discussion at the special city council meeting and give no direction to city staff other than to accept the report. The future incoming council should be tasked with determining the next steps.

It remains to be seen what if any direction is given to city staff regarding the Quail Gardens Park property.