Encinitas Mayor and City Council Announce ADUipelago

“We think we have the solution to homelessness and the paucity of affordable housing in Encinitas,” said Mayor Catherine Blakespear. “It’s a string of ADUs and JADUs meandering through the city. It would resemble an archipelago, so we call it an ADUipelago. It has nothing to do with gulags, so no bad jokes please. And to be clear, it would have both ADUs and JADUs, but ADUJADUipelago is too awkward to write, let alone say, so we settled on ADUipelago.

“For the ADUipelago to succeed in its mission,” said Blakespear, “many property owners would have to participate by building ADUs or JADUs on their properties. On top of that, they would have to offer the units for rent at affordable rates so low income and homeless people could live in them. To facilitate this public/private effort, the city is offering architectural plans free of charge and has streamlined the permit and approval process.

“One of the several blessings of having an ADUipelago meandering through the city is maintaining community character,” said Blakespear. “ADUs and JADUs are far less intrusive than plopping crammed density bonus developments into single-family-home neighborhoods.

“Another blessing is avoiding monstrosity apartment house and condo developments,” said Blakespear. “If we can meet our required low income housing numbers and get HCD approval with ADUs and JADUs, the pressure to build monstrosities that are mostly market rate housing will lessen if not disappear.

“So the other council members and I encourage Encinitas property owners to join the ADUipelago movement,” said Blakespear. “Let’s cooperate in a public/private effort to solve our low income and homeless housing problem. It’s the right thing to do for our people and our city.”