December 29, 2007 8:58 PM PST



Escondido will consider landmark legislation in 2008

By: DAVID GARRICK - North County Times

ESCONDIDO - The city's agenda for 2008 will be chock-full of controversial legislative proposals - everything from revamping the city's official blueprint for future growth for the first time in 18 years to new laws that would restrict overnight parking on public streets and prohibit day laborers from flagging down cars.

Critics of the parking and day-laborer proposals have described them as intentional attacks on the city's poor Latino families. But a majority of the City Council says the laws will help attract higher-paying jobs to Escondido by making the city a safer place to live and work.

Council members say the same goals have prompted them to revise the city's growth blueprint, or general plan.

"You can't create better paying jobs without a land-use plan that will accommodate them," Councilman Sam Abed said last week. "This is long overdue."

A committee of residents will begin meeting early next year to explore and review suggested changes to the general plan from city staffers and the council. The changes will be restricted to downtown and the neighborhoods that surround it.

"There was not much discussion of the downtown core last time around," said Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler, who served on the committee that last updated the general plan in 1990. "The outer sphere of the city was our focus back then."

City officials estimate the process will take 18 months and cost $500,000.

Updating the general plan has been a hot topic in Escondido since 1998, when city voters approved an anti-growth initiative known as Proposition S. The measure has stymied some proposed developments by requiring a citywide vote for individual projects that increase density beyond the general plan. Previously, such changes could be approved by a majority of the City Council.

Prop. S does not prohibit updates to the general plan, but a revised general plan will have to be submitted to city voters for approval during a general election. Council members say they have no plans to circumvent the growth limitations included in Prop. S, but that they want to add an appropriate mix of urban housing and new businesses to the city's downtown core.

Parking restrictions

The overnight parking restrictions, which the council began discussing last spring, could become law by the middle of the year, according to city officials. The council decided to make them simpler and less intrusive earlier this month, but the changes have not quieted critics.

Some opponents insist that the proposed restrictions are a thinly veiled attempt to drive poor Latinos out of Escondido by preventing multiple families from inhabiting single-family homes. Other opponents say the city shouldn't be in the business of telling families how many cars they can park on the street in front of their house.

The council majority contends the restrictions will reduce overcrowding and make the city safer, by discouraging people from living illegally in garages or congregating together in single-family homes built for a much smaller number of residents.

In its current form, the proposed ordinance would outlaw parking on city streets between 2 and 5 a.m. But each single-family home would be mailed two permits.

Targeting day-laborers

City officials said they are not sure when the proposed day-laborer restrictions might be adopted.

They were proposed in early December by Councilman Ed Gallo, who suggested the city should explore mimicking ordinances under consideration in the city of Orange. Those proposed laws would make it illegal for day laborers to solicit motorists from the sidewalks and street corners where they gather each morning to look for work.

City Manager Clay Phillips said city employees are in the very early stages of researching what laws are being proposed in Orange, how they could translate to Escondido and what any hurdles might be.

Gallo said the proposed laws would improve safety by prohibiting laborers from entering roadways to solicit work, and by making it illegal for motorists to pull over and pick up laborers on arterial streets that have no parking spaces.

Advocates for immigrant rights immediately warned that there could be legal challenges if the council adopts such restrictions. They contend that the council is targeting a specific group of people, not a particular activity.

With the exception of Mayor Pfeiler, Gallo's colleagues on the council expressed initial support for the proposal. But Councilman Dick Daniels said last week that it is crucial for any new day-laborer measure to have a good track record in the courts.

"It's got to be legally defensible," said Daniels. "I'm not interested in doing any experimentation."

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