Help retain sanity — Vote ‘No’ on Proposition J
Proposition J will benefit only developers, increase bumper to bumper parking in front of residential homes, traffic through our narrow side streets, crowding, crime, pressure for concrete multi-story parking lots, and overall deterioration in the quality of life in this small beach community.
The Del Mar Plaza and hotel are the most recent projects and remain too large for the small population of this City to support.
The Plaza was too costly to build, resulting in the necessity for high retail space costs and succeeding in raising costs of retail throughout the rest of the City that only real estate brokers could afford while they contributed to the housing bubble by selling reasonably- priced homes to single small developers who scrapped ocean view lots and built luxury two-story homes with gargantuan basements and bringing profits to both the developer, real estate broker and increasing property values.
The economy tanked, the Plaza has been sold three times and the hotel is currently for sale. (Retail rental space is one-quarter empty in the Plaza and has been for the past five years.) How will additional high-priced development that is empty revitalize?
The wisest move for us is to continue to enjoy our stable lifestyle and small size while maintaining our successful civil society and community interaction with beach and ocean views without conflict. Let’s reject the new “density bonus” and incentives 2008 State Law just like we rejected the new Chart House Restaurant with blacktop parking lot for our Sea Grove Park. The Power House Park replaced another large restaurant in the planning stage. We gain by wisely saying “No” politely.
There are less expensive ways to build low-cost housing for sure.
Del Mar is most successful by doing exactly what we have always done which is to protect what we have and let the cities around us go for the gold. Property tax is the largest contributor of revenue in Del Mar. Retail contributes little.
Indeed, this is the best beach town in Southern California. Our surfers are healthy and our dogs are friendly. We could always put City Hall in the Plaza and build a larger food market on City Property and possibly regain the town’s camaraderie that we had with Boney’s Market when we all bought our groceries there.
All we need is more creativity, less “development,” maybe with a glass and airy two- story simple building with fabulous views and simpler outside dining to replace the Stratford corner old English fake dark and heavy building blocking views and encourage the other commercial building landlords improve and refurbish their buildings and shape up. That is my opinion. It is just that simple. Tell the neighbors.
Sharon Feierabend
Del Mar
Related posts:
- New State law impacts Proposition J — and the future of Del Mar
- Lilian project vote upcoming
- Will Proposition J (the Village Specific Plan) re-vitalize Del Mar?
- Will the Village Specific Plan redevelop Del Mar?
- Vote for Proposition J — Don’t miss this opportunity
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