2024 Encinitas City Council Election

Mayoral Candidates

Question #1: Vision for the City of Encinitas

The City of Encinitas (COE) comprises five distinct districts.  Throughout the city there is growth and along with it, challenges. What is your vision for the City of Encinitas?

Response from Tony Kranz, Mayor:

As the Mayor of Encinitas, my vision is to cultivate a vibrant, inclusive community that harmonizes our rich coastal heritage with sustainable growth and innovation. Together, we will create a thriving Encinitas that honors our past, embraces our present, and builds a sustainable future for generations to come. Let’s work hand-in-hand to make our city a place where everyone can flourish.

Response from Bruce Ehlers, Mayoral Candidate:

Vision statement: To maintain our small, beach town ambiance and clean coastal environment.

Priorities:

• Defend Encinitas against excessive development

  • Defend our community character while providing the minimum, state-mandated lower income units

  • Defend Proposition A, The “Encinitas Right to Vote” on Zoning and Height Increases

  • Restore local control over zoning and development • Invest in fundamental infrastructure first!

  • Prioritize overdue fixes to pavement, storm drains and Leucadia flooding before new vanity and beautification projectsEnhance public safety

• Ensure public safety and reduce crime

  • Reduce homelessness both locally and regionally

  • Improve medical and fire response times and ensure wildfire safety

• Protect our environment

  • Save open space, restore the tree canopy, promote native plants, and reduce green-house gas emissions

• Improve traffic

  • Keep traffic flowing on main arterials and out of our neighborhoods

• Promote a healthy business environment

  • Support our local businesses and encourage a broad mix of restaurants, stores and services

Question #2: Challenges

Identify what you believe are the greatest challenges facing the City of Encinitas.

Response from Tony Kranz, Mayor:

One of the greatest challenges is the significant backlog of Capital Improvement Projects, especially related to our local transportation system. The condition of the roads and congestion at major intersections (especially at each of the six freeway interchanges) needs to be addressed but will be difficult and expensive to resolve. Another great challenge is the pace of new housing laws that are being adopted by the state legislature, which makes it difficult to maintain our legal standing with the State Housing and Community Development department.

Response from Bruce Ehlers, Mayoral Candidate:

1.) Excessive Development. The state is enabling developers to degrade our community character by overriding our local zoning law. Zoning code is the prescribed and historic method of protecting a community’s character. The State has systematically overridden our zoning code. For example, State law new allows 8 units where only a single family could previously exist under our code. Local control, not Sacramento control, is the key to protecting our community character.

2.) Homelessness. We need to reduce homelessness by using both the incentives and penalties. We must offer services to get the homeless off the street and/or to restore their sobriety. For those that refuse services and shelter, they have an obligation to abide by our laws. Homelessness is not a crime, but petty theft, camping on public property, drunk in public and defecating in public are examples of illegal behavior that is unacceptable and must be stopped. I recommend focusing on the chronic homeless who refuse services and are the most brazen in their illegal behavior. Our Sheriff must vigorously enforce our local laws on violators. Their illegal behavior impacts other citizens and often deprives others of the use of our public spaces.

3.) Fix Basic Infrastructure First. We have neglected basic services and maintenance. Specifically, we need to improve our funding for pavement maintenance, storm drain refurbishment, Leucadia flooding mitigation and traffic enforcement. Each of these have been long term problems and have not received enough funding. In lieu of funding these basics, past Council and Mayors have funded nonessential projects such as Leucadia Streetscape and Pacific View. Although these are nice projects, their funding should not come before or at a higher priority than funding basic City maintenance and services.

Question #3: Affordable Housing

The State of California has mandated affordable housing. What is your stance on affordable housing? Should efforts be made by the COE to remain in compliance with the current State’s regulations? If not, what is your specific plan of action to address the state requirements.

Response from Tony Kranz, Mayor:

State law around housing has changed in many ways over the last decade. Many of the new and amended laws have removed most discretion when it comes to higher density housing projects that are part of the city’s housing plan. To not have a plan that is approved by the State Housing and Community Development department would leave the city subject to “Builder’s Remedy” projects, which would most likely be much worse than would otherwise have been built.

Response from Bruce Ehlers, Mayoral Candidate:

Affordable Housing is an admirable goal however achieving universal affordability for everyone that wants to live in Encinitas is impossible. The demand for affordable housing near the beach is too high and market pricing will always far exceed affordable prices. Substantially increasing the supply will not lower prices from their current levels to levels affordable to lower income families. If density could solve affordability then San Francisco, New York and Hong Kong would all be affordable.

California’s process of planning and allocating lower income housing is also flawed. A March 2022 report by the State Auditor’s Office found serious flaws and stated “Overall, our audit determined that HCD (CA Department of Housing and Community Development) does not ensure that its needs assessments are accurate and adequately supported.” Based on this flawed data, the State allocated increased requirements that project growth that has not happened. It has however forced increased zoning on local authorities and thus enriched specific landowners and developers. We need to partner with other cities throughout the state to question and oppose this unfair process and these flawed projections.

Regardless of these facts, the state unwanted control of our local land use laws must also be addressed. I propose we take a multi-pronged approach to:

1. Support “Our Neighborhood Voices” statewide initiative that, if passed, would return control of local zoning back to local jurisdictions. There is a statewide group working on this initiative and they are targeting the November 2026 election. The City of Encinitas, led by the Council, should join this effort.

2. Lead the City to align with other cities throughout the state opposing the overreach by the State and the imposition of these unfunded state mandates. There are several working groups such as CALE (California Electeds), Catalyst and Liveable CA. They were formed from elected officials and activists from many cities throughout the state.

3. Provide clear instructions to our legislative lobbyist to identify and oppose legislation of this type. A previous Council in 2019 removed these instructions from our legislative lobbying policy. Through my leadership, the current Council restored these instructions. Unfortunately, several egregious laws went unopposed and were passed in the interim.

4. Consult with other Cities to identify potential legal challenges. Through shared resources and costs, costs could be kept reasonable. The City of Redondo Beach and five other cities recently won a lawsuit against the State and halted the impact on one of these laws.

Finally, several candidates have incorrectly stated that we lost a lawsuit with the state. This is incorrect. Encinitas has never been sued by the state nor have we lost a lawsuit to the state regarding housing. This was confirmed again last week by the City Clerk Office through a Public Records Act (PRA) request.

Question #4: Infrastructure

There are many infrastructure needs, both new and those requiring repair or ongoing maintenance in the City of Encinitas. The recent Infrastructure Task Force reviewed and identified infrastructure needs that have a projected cost of$500-1 Billion dollars over the next ten years. In 2024 the overall annual net revenue available for capital improvements was approximately $4 Million. Please prioritize the top three infrastructure projects that you would support. How best should these projects and others identified be funded in light of the shortfall as outlined above.

Response from Tony Kranz, Mayor:

The work accomplished by the Infrastructure Task Force was critically important for establishing the need for additional resources. Funding Capital Improvement Projects and repairs of existing infrastructure will be very challenging if available funding remains at the approximately $4 million you mention. I will hope for the best on Measure K and would list railroad crossings and a citywide Quiet Zone as the top priority followed by storm water pipes for the proper drainage in the Leucadia watershed, and more road maintenance throughout the city.

Response from Bruce Ehlers, Mayoral Candidate:

“Basic essential infrastructure should be funded first” is one of my main platform planks. This means that priority should go to essential City services and maintenance items such as roads, water, sewer, storm drains and public safety. This includes safe train crossings and quiet zone.

The premise of this question assumes there is only $4M available. This is not the whole story. The 2024 $4M “net available revenue” only accounts for the currently unassigned remaining General Fund (GF) balance. As recently as 3 years ago, this balance was above $10M. The unassigned balance fluctuates through the year as a function of commitments made by the City Council and actual revenues versus expenses. If the City Council were to change some commitments, the unassigned GF balance could be substantially larger. For example, several million in GF were assigned prior to the budget setting process. This action transferred and committed funds for vehicle replacement and other maintenance funds. If these had not been assigned prior to the budget setting process, then the unassigned balance would have been several million more.

Over the last 10 years, Encinitas’ GF revenue totaled approximately $1.2B (Billion) dollars. It is the allocation of this that could yield funding for large projects like Leucadia flooding, added pavement rehabilitation, quiet zone and at grade crossings. The budget process should look at the whole budget and make choices to fund essential services first. The largest project is Leucadia flooding and is currently estimated at $51M over 10 years or approximately $5M per year for 10 years, I have reviewed many years of Encinitas budgets and we have afforded frequent large projects and acquisitions of property such as the Downtown Streetscape, Leucadia Streetscape, Pacific View, Encinitas Community Park (Hall Property), new fire stations, Community Center, City Hall, Cottonwood Park, etc. Encinitas is financially sound and has sufficient revenue to meet all of its essential needs.

Question #5: Mobility

Increased growth in the COE creates complexities in mobility. Are you in favor of the City developing multi-modal forms of transportation? How would you address increasing demands on parking? What traffic calming measures, if any, do you support?

Response from Tony Kranz, Mayor:

Making our community safer for biking and walking is critically important. Giving people a safe option to driving their car will help ease congestion and free up more parking for others. There are no simple solutions for increased demand for parking in residential areas, though it’s clear the updated parking permit program that is currently being developed will be important to implement. I strongly support building more roundabouts at the busiest intersections around town.

Response from Bruce Ehlers, Mayoral Candidate:

I support bike lanes but not if it means eliminating vehicle lanes that are necessary for current or future vehicular travel. Bikes and other micro mobility can only replace short trips and will not become a significant replacement for car travel in our lifetimes. Most bike trips are recreational, or students headed to a nearby school. Replacement of vehicle trips by micro mobility account for a very small percent of total vehicle trips. However, bike travel, whether recreational or otherwise, deserves the necessary infrastructure and space to make it safe. In my opinion, allocating existing space to modest bike lanes was 30 years overdue and provides significantly improved safety.

Cars are not going away. People are driving more and riding buses less. A 15-year Southern California study of mass transit ridership and car ownership showed that mass transit ridership dropped, and car ownership increased from 1.7 to 2.4 cars per household. These trends clearly show that cars, parking and need for vehicle traffic lanes are not going away in Southern California. I do not support reduced parking requirements or reduced travel lanes based on false assumptions that vehicle usage is going away. Our increased population and density trends are also adding more vehicles to our roads. We must preserve travel lanes and existing parking in anticipation of this growth.

I support our General Plan and its goal of keeping cut-through traffic out of our neighborhoods and moving on our prime arterials. I have always been a strong supporter of traffic calming in various forms including stop signs, narrowing lanes, roundabouts, speed bumps and speed humps. These are appropriate in neighborhoods where pedestrian, cyclists, parked cars and other vehicles all share the pavement. Slower traffic on these streets means safer travel for all and less serious injuries in case there is an accident.

Question #6: Rail

Do you support the implementation of safe rail crossing(s) in northwest Leucadia and a Quiet Zone throughout coastal Encinitas? What specific efforts do you believe are needed to realize safe crossings and a Quiet Zone?

Response from Tony Kranz, Mayor:

I was the principal proponent of making the budgetary changes to advance the design and engineering of the safe rail crossings and citywide Quiet Zone, so yes, I support their implementation. The regulatory process is advancing and we need to continue to advocate for quick approval so construction can begin.

Response from Bruce Ehlers, Mayoral Candidate:

I consider the two proposed Leucadia rail crossings and quiet zone to be essential infrastructure and support their swift implementation. Implementation of a Quiet Zone is a matter of health and quality of life. The incessant and jarring nature of the horns, their sounding at all hours and their increased frequency and duration make this an urgent issue to address. Implementing new at-grade crossing are a matter of pedestrian safety and convenience. Implementation of the crossings will provide a crossing every half mile and would mean anyone would be within a quarter mile of a crossing in Northern Leucadia.

Our Quiet Zone Feasibility Analysis was completed in 2019 and we hired RailPros in 2023. RailPros is providing the design and engineering work for the Quiet Zone. The next step is to pursue the required approvals from the Federal Rail Authority (FRA) and California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). We will also need cooperation of the City of Carlsbad for improvements in their City since our quiet zone extends into their jurisdiction.

Funding is a critical step for both projects. Previously, we have sought grant funding and gated progress upon the successful acquisition of grant funding. I am open to proceeding with funding these projects directly while simultaneously seeking grant funding. The train negatively impacts a significant percentage of our population and we need to address these issues sooner than later.