Encinitas’ new mayor, Bruce Ehlers, has his eyes set on the prize.
Formerly a councilmember, Ehlers defeated incumbent Mayor Tony Kranz in November with a campaign that promised he’d fight back against state housing laws that are impeding local control.
The message clearly resonated with Encinitas residents, who, for decades, have largely been hostile to new development in the city.
Residents also voted out incumbent Councilmember Allison Blackwell in favor of newcomer Luke Shaffer. And they elected newcomer Jim O’Hara over his more pro-housing opponent Destiny Preston. Ehlers, Shaffer and O’Hara have all expressed their desire and readiness to challenge state housing laws.
Now, in the aftermath of the election, residents are closely watching the new Council. Some have already expressed disappointment about a few housing projects the Council allowed to move forward.
These were projects that were already approved by the city’s Planning Commission because they were found to be compliant with state housing laws, but after being appealed, or challenged, they were brought to the Council for final approval.
That was the case at a Feb. 12 City Council meeting. The Council reluctantly upheld the Planning Commission’s approval of a controversial 448-unit development called Quail Meadows Apartments. Ehlers was the one who encouraged the Council to move the project forward, noting that the city was being forced to do so by the state.
Though it’s not the decision most of the residents packed into the Council chambers were hoping for, Ehlers says he knows why he was elected, and it’s bigger than any individual housing project. He has his sights set on a larger effort: changing the state laws that he says have taken control away from Encinitas, Ehlers told Voice of San Diego.
While he and the council work on creating those changes, he said, the city is forced to follow state housing laws and approve qualifying affordable housing projects.
‘Sophie’s Choice’
There was a lot of buildup leading to Wednesday’s City Council discussion about Quail Meadows Apartments.
The project had already been discussed at four previous public meetings, and many residents were hoping the newly elected mayor and councilmembers would be the ones to finally shut the project down.
Public speakers and councilmembers expressed concerns about the impacts that such a large development will have on traffic, flooding infrastructure, fire safety and more, especially with multiple other housing projects already being developed nearby on Quail Gardens Drive.
Councilmember Luke Shaffer suggested halting the project because it could be a fire risk, especially given recent fires throughout California. But Barbara Kautz, a land use attorney who the city regularly consults with, said at the meeting that the Council didn’t have a concrete reason to reject the project without exposing the city to lawsuits from the developer and serious consequences from the state.
State officials could decide to decertify, or revoke approval of, Encinitas’ Housing Element, a state-required plan that outlines how a city will make way for housing at different income levels. That could trigger the Builder’s Remedy, a law that allows developers to bypass local zoning rules and build affordable housing projects regardless of the city’s wishes.
“This is the nuclear option, it would absolutely ruin Encinitas,” Ehlers said at the meeting.
The state’s housing department, or HCD, sent a letter to city leaders ahead of Wednesday’s meeting warning them that “if HCD finds that a local government’s actions do not comply with state law, HCD may notify the California Office of the Attorney General that the local government is in violation of state law.,” the letter said.
Ehlers called it “Sophie’s choice,” where every alternative has significant negative consequences.
“We need to go fight at the state level to fix these crazy laws, but ignoring them would be at our own peril, and that’s what we would be doing if we can’t make a finding that fits into this,” Ehlers said. “We’ve got to be very careful here, we are headed straight toward decertification. It’s a very credible threat, to the point where it’s not an ‘if,’ it’s ‘when.’”
He ultimately made the motion, or proposal, to move the project forward, specifying that it is “under duress,” meaning the city is being forced. When the motion failed 2-2 (Councilmember Joy Lyndes recused herself), he asked the Council to vote again, and the motion passed 3-1.
“This decision is based on unavoidable ramifications of state housing policies coupled with credible threats from HCD that will result in unavoidable and even greater harm to the city’s environment, traffic, flooding and community character,” Ehlers’ motion said. “Our discretion has been usurped, possibly illegally, by the state through the forcing of unfunded mandates and threats of greater harm if we disapprove the project. We are approving this project under duress only because the credible threats made by HCD and the state leave us no choice. A ‘Sophie’s choice’ is not a choice.”
The Mayor’s Plan
Ehlers is no stranger to the fight against state housing mandates and has previously taken different approaches.
He was the author of Proposition A, a growth-control initiative approved by voters in 2013 that requires a vote by Encinitas residents for any major zoning and density changes.
During his time on the Planning Commission, Ehlers regularly pushed back against proposed housing projects leading to him being removed from the Planning Commission in 2022 by the then-City Council, who said Ehlers had a record of opposing the city’s efforts to stay compliant with state housing laws and an inability to remain unbiased and objective when considering housing projects.
Now, he believes the answer lies at the top.
He’s involved with multiple grassroots coalitions of cities and neighborhoods throughout California, like one called Our Neighborhood Voices, that are trying to get a statewide ballot initiative passed to restore local control when it comes to housing and development.
They’re hoping this initiative will pass in the November 2026 election. He’s also supporting groups like Livable California that are working on challenging the legality of some of the state’s housing policies.
Another strategy Ehlers plans to employ is lobbying. The city of Encinitas’ legislative policy, which outlines its lobbying strategies, says the city can take a position on state laws or policies and can communicate that position to state officials.
“We’re not alone. I’m talking to mayors across San Diego… and mayors across the state,” Ehlers said during the meeting. “There are many cities out there that feel exactly the way we do. But let’s not do anything that would harm us worse, let’s minimize the harm and move forward to fight it as we got elected to do.”
Correction: This story has been updated to correct that Councilmember Joy Lyndes recused herself from Quail Meadows votes.
Mayor Ehlers,
I support your sensible efforts regarding taking back local control of our housing and building projects in Encinitas, even though, as you rightly noted, our city has been given a “Sophie’s Choice” in the matter.
Your long game is going to pay off, I believe,and my husabnad and I support you and the Council all the way!!!
As an Encinitas resident, I am completely opposed to this NIMBY attitude towards development. But additionally, people need to stop using the phrase Sophie’s Choice. If you read the book, her choice is to pick which of her small children to give to the Nazis to kill. This “choice” represents the greatest horror there is. Don’t trivialize it to try and sound erudite.
You nailed it, Karen! Bravo!
So the places people want to live are run by republicans and opposed to mind virus policies. But the mind virus state pols are trying to impose mind virus policies on all places. We are going to see a republican governor of CA before this decade ends.