North County Report: Escondido Planning Commission Shake Up Still a Mystery

A longtime planning commissioner in Escondido is now out of a job, and the reason remains a mystery. 

The Escondido City Council, following the recommendation of Mayor Dane White, unexpectedly removed Planning Commissioner David Barber at an April 9 City Council meeting. The Council approved the removal in a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Consuelo Martinez opposed. 

“I was just wondering, Mayor, if you could share the reasoning,” Martinez said at the meeting. “Because I believe Mr. Barber has one more year left on the Planning Commission, and I haven’t heard any complaints from any of the commissioners, so I’m just wondering what the reason is.” 

White said it was “an effort to bring the Planning Commission more in line with the vision of the City Council.” When Martinez asked him what that vision is, he said it includes the things the Council discussed in a recent “priorities” workshop. He refused to share any specifics but added that he would be happy to go into more detail with Barber privately. 

Barber, who gave a public comment during the meeting, seemed just as confused. 

“I fully understand that I serve at the pleasure of the City Council, and the City Council may remove me at any time,” Barber said. “However, I would simply like the courtesy to know why I have been put on the agenda to be dismissed as a Planning Commission member.” 

Barber said he has seen members being removed from the Planning Commission before for inappropriate behavior, criminal activity, poor attendance and poor performance. None of these reasons apply to him, he said, adding that he has always received glowing recommendations from other Planning Commissioners, representatives from the Building Industry Association and the Association of Realtors and more. 

Barber did not respond to a request for comment. 

White told Voice of San Diego via email the same thing he said at the dais – that the decision was “an effort to bring the Planning Commission more in line with the vision of the City Council.” 

Barber has served three different terms on Escondido’s Planning Commission since the 1980s. His current term was set to expire on March 31, 2026. The city is now accepting applications for Barber’s replacement with interviews scheduled for May 14.  

Elsewhere in Escondido, ‘Empty-Chairing’ Is Back 

Amid a surge of protests throughout San Diego County and the nation against policies coming down from the Trump administration, the “empty-chair” protest seems to be making a comeback. 

Voters throughout the country have been holding empty-chair protests against their Republican representatives who are refusing to appear at town hall meetings. If someone is empty-chaired in a discussion, an empty chair is left where the representative would have sat to draw attention to the fact that they are not there. 

Congressmember Darrell Issa, who represents the 48th Congressional District, recently got empty-chaired in Escondido. 

Last month, more than 800 people attended an “Empty Chair Townhall” at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido protesting Issa’s refusal to hold town hall meetings with his constituents. Someone dressed in a chicken costume, representing Issa, sat in the empty chair for a portion of the event. 

Jonathan Wilcox, Issa’s deputy chief of staff and director of communications, told Voice via email that he wasn’t impressed. 

“The Empty Chair routine is so dated, that if these Democrat protesters had also been doing the Macarena, their event would have been significantly updated,” Wilcox said. 

The protest was organized by a group called Indivisible North County, which has been picketing outside of Issa’s Escondido office for several weeks. 

Questions Arise About How Poway Does Inclusionary Housing 

In recent weeks, I’ve seen a resurgence of a topic I’ve heard about on and off in Poway – the city’s inclusionary housing policy.  

Inclusionary housing requires developers to set aside a certain number of units as low income when they’re building; if developers don’t want to do this, they pay a fee to the city called an in-lieu fee. 

That’s where some residents’ complaints are centered. Many are calling for city leaders to raise the fee, which is the lowest in-lieu fee in San Diego County.  

In Poway, the inclusionary housing policy requires developers to set aside 15 percent of units for low-income households. The in-lieu fee is a flat rate of $500 per project.  

For comparison, San Diego’s in-lieu fee is $25 per square foot, Oceanside’s is $20 per square foot, Del Mar’s is $27,000 per project, and Coronado just raised its fee from $7,000 per project to $59 per square foot, now the highest in the county. 

Proponents of a higher fee say the idea is to incentivize developers to include affordable housing in their projects. But with such a low fee, it becomes easy for developers to opt out of building low-income housing, they argue. 

In Other News 

• ICYMI: As homelessness increases in Encinitas, an anonymous social media account and some residents are targeting nonprofit homeless services provider Community Resource Center (CRC), claiming the nonprofit is attracting homeless people to the city. CRC says the account is spreading misinformation and dangerous rhetoric. (Voice of San Diego) 

• Also, Encinitas leaders will consider hiring private security to patrol downtown Encinitas for illegal camping, public urination and other illegal activities by homeless people. (Union-Tribune) 
• The Oceanside City Council approved limited tenant protections earlier this month, after originally considering a sweeping set of tenant protections that received backlash from some residents and city leaders. (Coast News)