Home Care In Solana Beach, CA

SOLANA BEACH —

A Solana Beach resident filed a lawsuit against the city of Solana Beach, Saddle Bar and San Diego Gas & Electric after she allegedly fell and suffered multiple injuries while leaving the venue earlier this year.

The plaintiff, Mary MacDonald, left Saddle Bar at 123 Plaza St. in Solana Beach and was walking to her vehicle last May, according to a complaint filed Sept. 7 in San Diego County Superior Court. She alleges that she lost her balance and fell on the asphalt after stepping on a flat, unanchored sheet that was covering a pothole on the sidewalk.

The injuries she suffered, according to the complaint, include post-concussion disorder, acute displaced fracture of the left sixth and seventh posterior ribs, right ankle sprain, knee pain, post-traumatic intractable migraine headaches, subjective memory dysfunction, concentration difficulties, imbalance due to vestibular dysfunction associated with head and neck injury, insomnia and sleep disturbances following the incident, pain in the chest due to rib fracture, scalp abrasion.

MacDonald’s complaint alleges that the city of Solana Beach “breached its duty to use ordinary and reasonable care in the maintenance, lack of repair, and safety precautions around the sidewalk and pothole in question.” She is seeking damages, including $10 million to cover medical costs, according to the complaint.

“All of this continues to cause Plaintiff Mary Macdonald great mental, physical, and nervous pain and suffering,” the complaint says.

MacDonald’s attorney, Kane Handel, said in an interview that cities should do more to fix potholes and other issues that can cause injury.

“It really aggravates me, whether it’s the city of Solana Beach or the city of San Diego, they don’t seem to see the urgency of people getting hurt and falling on their head, having head injuries, breaking bones,” Handel said. “It ruins people’s lives.”

In a cross-complaint filed by the city of Solana Beach on Oct. 24, the city asked for indemnity, arguing in part that SDG&E had a responsibility to maintain that stretch of sidewalk.

“The City denies the allegations contained in plaintiff’s Complaint and specifically denies liability in any manner whatsoever for damages claimed by plaintiff of any other party,” the city’s cross complaint says.

Solana Beach City Manager Greg Wade declined further comment.

SDG&E and Saddle Bar did not respond to requests for comment.

A case management conference is scheduled in March.

SOLANA BEACH — U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has determined the appearance of a disabled vehicle with over a dozen passengers off the Solana Beach coast last week to be a human smuggling incident.

U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and Border Patrol and Solana Beach and Del Mar lifeguards all responded Aug. 10 to a disabled vessel floating around 150 yards from shore at Fletcher Cove.

The boat, a small white motorized vessel containing 14 people, was first reported around 10:30 a.m. near Carlsbad. Further reports came in around 11 a.m. when it appeared to run out of gas in Fletcher Cove.

According to the San Diego Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, all 14 individuals were determined them to be migrants that arrived illegally into the United States. One passenger was charged with human smuggling.

“Border Patrol agents conducted immigration inspections on a total of 14 passengers, determining each was illegally present in the United States. Agents transported the individuals to a nearby Border Patrol station for processing and further investigation,” Border Patrol said in a statement.

There have been 615 documented maritime smuggling events in the southern California region in the past fiscal year, Border Patrol said.

Before the U.S. Coast Guard arrived on the scene around 12:25 p.m., one individual jumped off the vessel and was detained. The remaining individuals remained on board for around an hour until the Coast Guard arrived.

The reports of a disabled boat came just hours after an abandoned and suspected human smuggling boat was found on the beach at Sea Cliff Park in Del Mar.

Surfers discovered the boat just before 6 a.m. at 1500 Coast Blvd., and Del Mar lifeguards arrived and had it towed away, according to OnScene TV.

The motorboat contained several life preservers and gas canisters on board, the video news service reported. The U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard were notified of the discovery.

The boat was registered in California in 1995, according to OnScene TV.

Earlier this year, eight individuals drowned off Black’s Beach near Torrey Pines after two suspected human smuggling boats capsized.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include additional information from authorities.

SOLANA BEACH — Leaders in Solana Beach are considering amendments to the city’s vacation rental regulations to bring more rentals into compliance and prevent nuisances to neighbors.

The coastal destination city generally has between 250 and 350 permitted vacation rentals, or short-term rentals, each year, with 267 counted as of 2022. In addition, city officials estimate that there could be between 100 and 150 unpermitted rentals operating in the city.

At a May 24 meeting, several City Council members said they would like to see updates to the city’s 2003 vacation rentals ordinance, including increased penalties for violations and a cap on the percentage of units allowed in certain areas.

“Our current ordinance is over 20 years old — it was crafted long before anything like Airbnb or Vrbo was really a thing that was around, so it’s definitely time to look at making some adjustments,” said Councilmember Dave Zito.

Owners of short-term rentals in Solana Beach are restricted from offering stays under the city’s 7-day minimum. However, a quick search on Airbnb or VRBO reveals several options for stays as short as one night in the city.

Kimberly Jackson, owner of Vacation Rentals by Kimberly, which operates short-term rentals in Solana Beach and other cities, said it is mostly the unpermitted rentals causing complaints about noise and other issues.

“Many of the issues your neighbors are experiencing … stem from [short term vacation rentals] that are not permitted and don’t even know the rules,” Jackson said. “They’re giving the good guys that operate responsibly a really bad name.”

City Manager Greg Wade said the city is responsive to complaints, most concerning a lack of permits. A first violation of the ordinance incurs a $500 penalty, followed by $1,000 for a second offense in the same year and permit revocation for a third strike in a year.

However, it can be difficult to track down some of these rentals. Staff are in the process of hiring a consultant to help track down those without permits.

“Sometimes they’re tricky to track these down, particularly those that don’t have permits,” Wade said.

Unpermitted rentals also lead to a loss of the city’s transient occupancy tax, or TOT, revenue. According to a staff report, the city collected $1.1 million in TOT from vacation rentals last fiscal year and approximately $850,000 in the first eight months of fiscal year 2022-23.

City staff said most permitted vacation rentals in Solana Beach are concentrated south of Plaza Street and west of Coast Highway 101 in blufftop condos along South Sierra Avenue. Around 13% of the units in this area are vacation rentals.

Council members said while they respect the long history of vacation rentals in that area, they would like to see a cap on such rentals in single-family neighborhoods, where the rate is around 4%.

“I think it’s super important to protect our neighborhoods, because nobody wants to have a short-term vacation rental next to them, even if they’re really quiet, they’re still kind of in the vacation mode … and you just don’t have neighbors,” said Mayor Lesa Heebner.

San Diego has adopted caps on the percentage of units used as vacation rentals in certain areas. For whole-home rentals, the number of vacation rental licenses cannot exceed 1% of the city’s total housing units, or around 5,100.

The only exception is Mission Beach, where the number of licenses for whole-home rentals is limited to 30% of the total units in the community planning area.

In addition to capping the number of units in single-family areas, the Solana Beach council said they would favor limiting the number of days a property can be rented out per year.

“If you limit the number of days they can be rented, that might make them less attractive to someone who might purchase a property in order to just use it as a short term vacation rental,” said Councilmember Jewel Edson.

Some residents have also requested for the 7-day stay minimum to be raised. However, City Attorney Johanna Canlas said the city could only have a 7-day limit by compromising with the California Coastal Commission, which initially pushed the minimum stay to three days.

Once the City Council approves changes to the ordinance, they will be passed on to the state commission for final approval.

Councilmember Kristi Becker pointed out that while vacation rentals can be a nuisance for those directly neighboring them, they can be an essential source of income for some residents and bring visitors to local restaurants and other businesses.

“Some people do need the family income for these things. It’s also one of the things that really helps our local economy,” Becker said. “There are good things about it.”

SOLANA BEACH — After two years of work to bring the city’s 6th cycle housing element into compliance with state guidelines, the Solana Beach City Council has re-submitted the document in hopes of earning final certification.

Solana Beach is one of several cities that has been communicating back and forth with state housing officials regarding its housing element, which cities are required to update every eight years with their plans to implement and support new housing.

The city submitted the first draft of its element to the state Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) in early 2021, and since then, has received several rounds of feedback regarding needed clarifications.

HCD officials finally granted conditional approval in April, pending final adoption by the City Council, which members gave wholeheartedly at a May 10 meeting. The Del Mar City Council also submitted its housing element last month.

“I’m glad that we’ve been able to get to the point where we’re at, and looking forward to getting an approved housing element by the state,” said Solana Beach Councilmember Dave Zito, who thanked staff for all their efforts. “You’ve been working nonstop on this for four years now.”

Solana Beach is obligated to construct 875 units for the cycle period ending in 2029, including 474 units designated for income levels ranging from very low to extremely low.

The city has so far approved entitlements for 152 units that will be counted toward their housing requirements, the majority for moderate to above-moderate income levels.

Due to a lack of vacant land in Solana Beach, city leaders are counting on mixed-use developments to supply many of the needed units. One example is the Solana 101 project at Coast Highway 101 and Dahlia Drive, which will offer 25 residential units along with office and retail space when it is completed later this year.

“Since we are predominantly non-vacant sites, that’s how we’re addressing our housing element,” Community Development Director Joseph Lim said.

Another 62 of the approved units will come from the Solana Highlands renovation project, which also includes 32 low-income units. The rest are from smaller developments including new single-family homes and accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.

Solana Beach initially pushed back against the assigned number of units from the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, joining three other cities in a lawsuit arguing that the San Diego Association of Governments had issued allocations inequitably.

However, city officials have since accepted this obligation since the suit was dismissed in 2021.

“This city and this current council still is not happy about the way that process worked,” Zito said. “We vigorously opposed the RHNA number that we got because we didn’t think it was reasonable or equitable in the region, but we also know what our duty is, and we’ve done a very good job with respect to making sure we’re meeting that number.”

Lim said the major revisions from HCD focused on site suitability, with the city submitting more details regarding how they planned to implement housing in commercial areas.

He also shared a positive update regarding Solana Beach’s progress with ADU construction. The city has received around 100 ADU applications in the last three and a half years, 62 of which have been granted permits, putting the city well on their way to meeting their goal of 128 new ADUs by 2029.

“We are far exceeding the estimate,” Lim said.

The council kept its discussion of the revisions brief, eager to have it off the city’s plate.

“We’re ready to vote for this, send it off to HCD, get it certified,” said Mayor Lesa Heebner.

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ENCINITAS, Calif. — Beaches in Encinitas and Solana Beach will soon get wider.

U.S. Representative Mike Levin announced he secured $30.5 million in federal funding for a sand replenishment project. The goal is to create wide sandy beaches so there is more room to play and use recreationally, and also help the bluffs by creating a buffer to protect against coastal erosion.

The sand replenishment project is part of the coastal storm reduction damage project that has been in the making for 20 years, according to local elected officials.

“Looking at our beaches and our shoreline today, you do have to wonder, so this project is in the nick of time,” Encinitas Mayor Tony Kranz said.

The $30.5 million will be used to replenish sand along 7,800 feet of shoreline in Encinitas, then another 7,200 feet in Solana Beach.

“Which is so important to our recreation, to our beautiful beaches, to the public safety to preserving the infrastructure that is important to all of our daily lives. And really improving the quality of life to everybody that comes to visit our beaches,” said Lesa Heebner, City of Solana Beach Mayor.

Both city mayors said having more sand on the beach, will improve their economies by creating a buffer to protect against bluff erosion and future coastal storm damage.

Adding more sand to create wider beaches, also protects Highway 1, the rail corridor, plus gas and utility lines.

“Today’s agreement signing is only the first step in a multi-year, really multi-decade process,” U.S. Representative Mike Levin said.

The project includes funding for upkeep. Every ten years for the next 50 years, Encinitas and Solana Beach will receive more sand to replenish. Heebner said it will help Solana Beach continue to monitor the shoreline for improvements.

“It’s going to make sure everything is going as has been planned for. This project allows for some tweaks from time to time if we see things that are impacting perhaps the grass or some of the sea life. So we can alter that,” Heebner said.

The Army Corps of Engineers will complete the project. The colonel said they will start placing sand in the fall.