OB Rag

By Geoff Page

I have to clarify something about a very important issue surrounding the 30-foot height limit debate here in Ocean Beach and Point Loma – because the issue has become muddled.

Square footage has absolutely nothing to do with height.

What happened on Emerson was that residents saw how tall the building was and rioted. The city issued a Stop Work Order that people mistakenly believed was due to the height complaint but the Stop Work Order says nothing about height.

We originally believed the developer was artificially raising the grade to get a taller building when, in fact, the city granted a permit for a 40-foot tall building that the city still believes is perfectly legal. What they cited the developer for was artificially creating a subterranean garage by building retaining walls and raising the grade around the garage. Although, keep in mind, the Development Services Department (DSD) approved the plans that clearly showed what the developer planned to do. They are lionizing the developer when the DSD is the culprit.

If a garage structure is considered subterranean, it is not counted against the Floor Area Ratio (FAR).

In a very recent article in the San Diego Reader by Julie Stalmer, entitled, “30-foot coastal height limit slips a peg in Point Loma”, a needed searchlight is shown on the foggy controversy surrounding the 30-foot height limit controversy rolling over Point Loma.

Let’s bypass for the moment the minor issue about the September 8th San Diego Planning Commission meeting being called about the city’s solution to the controversy (of which Peninsula planning leaders were not notified) – and then being cancelled at the last moment – and look what Stalmer found.

She delved into what Peninsula planners see as the culprit that has caused the controversy around the sacrosanct 30-foot height limit, for afterall Prop D – which passed overwhelmingly in 1972 – is still on the books.

The culprit, according to the Point Loma planning leaders that Stalmer interviewed, Jon Linney, chair, and Don Sevrens, member, is August 2013 technical bulletin put out by the Development Services Department. They believe, with a lot of basis, that the technical bulletin attempted “to reinterpret the over-40-year-old 30-foot coastal height limit.”

Residents applaud future flight paths but say they won’t address ongoing concerns

By Joshua Stewart / San Diego U-T

After a year of lobbying by Point Loma residents, the Federal Aviation Administration is attempting to keep noisy air traffic away from the peninsula’s neighborhoods and landmarks by adjusting a proposed departure route for eastbound flights out of San Diego International Airport.

However, residents remain concerned about the current flight path for some planes that head south out of the airport and then bank sharply to the east over the finger of land.

“As this relates to the peninsula communities, this is a significant win, but it doesn’t do anything to impact the day-to-day issues,” said Casey Schnoor, a member of an organized group of residents.

San Diego “No Access” Rally in Support of Standing Rock – Friday, Sept. 9th at Federal Building at 9:30 am – 3 pm.
(Facebook here)

By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan / Democracy Now

The Missouri River, the longest river in North America, has for thousands of years provided the water necessary for life to the region’s original inhabitants.To this day, millions of people rely on the Missouri for clean drinking water.

Now, a petroleum pipeline, called the Dakota Access Pipeline, is being built, threatening the river. A movement has grown to block the pipeline, led by Native American tribes that have lived along the banks of the Missouri from time immemorial.

The OB Rag has heard from members of the Peninsula Community Planning Board that a meeting of the San Diego Planning Commission on a solution to violations of the 30-foot height limit in Point Loma has been abruptly cancelled.

The meeting was to have been today, Thursday Sept. 8th, at 9 a.m. on the 12th floor of City Hall.

Members of the Peninsula planning group were apparently notified on Wednesday. At this point, we were told, September 22 is being considered as a new meeting date.

By South OB Girl

The legendary, iconic bar on Newport Avenue – Pacific Shores – is adding a front bar window overlooking the sidewalk.

Already the bar manager has been bombarded with questions.

Who do they think they are? Why would anyone change anything? If it’s been successful and been doing business since December 1941 — nearly 75 years — why change anything?

The bar manager, Jack, has several messages for the community in response to the concerns the bar window has caused.

The owner of Pac Shores and the staff had no part in the decision to add the bar window. This was the landlord’s decision. He wanted to upgrade the building. The inside will not be changing.

Ed Spriggs Appeals to Fellow IB City Council Candidates But His Words Resonate for All San Diegans

By Ed Spriggs / San Diego Free Press

There is one proposition on the State ballot this year that hasn’t yet drawn much attention, and probably won’t.

It doesn’t cost anything. It doesn’t require anyone to do or change anything. It doesn’t prohibit anything. It doesn’t even benefit one citizen or group of individuals over another.

It just supports the core principle of a democratic system of government – one that is of the people, by the people and for the people.

The Ocean Beach Friends of the Library need volunteers to help out with the branch library’s Centennial Party coming up on Saturday, September 10th.

In fact, the Friends are having a meeting this Thursday, Sept. 8, at 10:00 am, at the library, for volunteers interested in helping with the 100th anniversary celebration.

Local Newspaper Sends Out Mixed Message About Homeless

About 3 weeks ago, August 17th was the “San Diego Homeless Awareness Day” – a day set up by various media sources around San Diego to bring a new awareness of those less fortunate and who live on the streets and in the shelters.

And about 20 of San Diego’s media sources carried or ran or printed or published 40 or so articles and posts about the homeless and homelessness today.

The OB Rag – along with our sister publication, the San Diego Free Press – joined this effort to highlight the plight of our area’s citizens who have no home, other than the streets, and we both posted a series of articles from the writers of the SDFP and OB Rag. (For other articles from the publications on the homeless, visit the SD Homeless Aware website.)

Many of the articles and posts painted and reflected compassionate understandings of the homeless and their plight, with efforts to examine the underlying reasons for so many homeless in one of the richest nations on earth. This day of awareness followed – by a little over a month – a serial murderer who preyed on sleeping homeless men in San Diego.

Why Didn’t I Know About This?

For the past three weeks, beginning at about 9:00pm, I have received the following calls:

“Hello. My name is Lisa. You have been awarded a full paid, all-expense trip to the Bahamas by just answering a few questions. Are you ready to begin?”

That is call number one.

Call number two comes in an hour later – or so – and it is a foreign voice telling me that he is calling from Windows 7.

“There seems to be a problem with your computer; go turn it on.”

I say that “I don’t have a windows computer” and the voice answers back, “go turn on the windows computer that you don’t have. . . .”

Then my cell phone begins to ring. The first call is from Lisa; the second call is from the Windows 7 Computer guy.

September Events in Ocean Beach

September 15th Thursday 7 pm OB Historical Society Presents: On the Tracks of an Angry God: John P. Harrington in San Diego County, By Richard Carrico. At P.L. United Methodist Church, 1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd., O.B. Richard Carrico will present an anthropological, historical, and geographic travelogue as we follow Harrington the “Angry God” through San Diego County. From the coast to the Anza Borrego desert and, from northern Baja California to Warner Springs, Carrico will interpret Harrington’s sometimes cryptic handwritten notes, provide photographic images of the region circa 1925, and offer a unique glimpse into Kumeyaay culture as captured in the mid-1920s. The Chemehuevi called Harrington “An Angry God.”

September 17th Saturday 9:00 a.m.to 12:00 p.m. Surfrider Coastal Cleanup Day Ocean Beach Pier, 5078 Niagara Ave, 92107. Join us for Coastal Cleanup Day! More info: sandiego.surfrider.org/ events

September 24th Saturday 7:30 am – 12:00 pm – Annual Ocean Beach Pier Pancake Breakfast , hosted by the OB Town Council; Ocean Beach Pier, 5091 Niagara Avenue; Mark your calendar for the Annual OB Pier Pancake Breakfast, a fun and popular tradition in OB that kicks off the big fundraising season for the OB Food and Toy Drive and our holiday events. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children. Proceeds benefit the OB Food and Toy Drive and upcoming holiday events. Tickets are on sale at stores.

COME INSIDE FOR MUCH MORE ….

Editor: The following letter by local residents to the OB Planning Board regarding the project at Ebers and Greene was sent to John Ambert, chair of the OBPB. Ambert responded and said that the September agenda was already full, and he invited the residents to speak during the public comment period of the Board’s agenda. We publish the letter in its entirety.

Attn: Blake Herrschaft, Vice Chair of O. B. Planning Board and Representative of District 3.

This letter is to gather a request to be added to the agenda for the Sept. 7th, 2016 O.B.P.B. meeting.

The matter to be brought before the board is as follows:

The structure @ 2269 Ebers St. now under construction is in violation of the following codes:

(1) .7 F. A. R. (floor area ratio limit.) This building takes up more then 70% of the lot it sits upon. (3 stories)

(2) Insufficient parking. The original duplex has been offered for sale as a 3-4 bedroom house without off street parking. The new structure has been approved with an additional bedroom, storage and a three (3) car garage area. The driveway for this garage would eliminate two (2) of the already too few parking spots available on Ebers St at this time. It also does not provide an off street parking spot for each bedroom as is needed to pass inspection.