Encinitas Still Blames Former Mayor Catherine Blakespear for Many of Its Troubles 

Catherine Blakespear’s time as mayor of Encinitas was eventful. 

In 2019, she led the city to adopt its first state-approved Housing Element since 1992, allowing Encinitas to become compliant with state housing law after years of resistance. That same year, the city opened its first segment of the Coastal Rail Trail, a regional bike and pedestrian project that she became an early advocate for. In 2020, Encinitas launched North County’s first safe parking program for homeless people living in their vehicles. 

Looking back, she describes her time as mayor as very “active.” Perhaps that’s why, three years after being elected to the state Senate and leaving the Encinitas City Council, she remains a political lightning rod in the community. 

Blakespear stopped being mayor in 2022, but to some residents, it’s as if she has never left. Today, many residents, and many of the city’s elected officials, still trace their frustrations about housing, homelessness and infrastructure back to Blakespear’s time as mayor. The criticism has outlasted her tenure and doesn’t show signs of slowing down. 

“The way I see it is my time at City Hall was so active, and we did so much, and I’m a convenient scapegoat for the problems and inconveniences that people see in modern life,” Blakespear said. 

Housing 

When Blakespear became mayor, she inherited a city in defiance of state housing laws. 

Encinitas had failed to adopt a Housing Element, a state-mandated plan outlining where new housing can be built, since 1992. That defiance had already cost the city millions of dollars in lawsuits from developers. The governor’s office, the attorney general and the state housing department warned the city repeatedly that continued resistance could result in legal action and loss of state funding. 

“We had an ‘X’ on our back from the state,” Blakespear said. 

Encinitas’ Proposition A, a voter-approved growth-control measure requiring residents to approve major zoning changes, made it difficult to get a Housing Element approved. Voters had twice rejected proposed Housing Elements, in 2016 and 2018, before a judge ruled Proposition A could be temporarily suspended so the city could comply with state law. 

The ruling was very unpopular, but it allowed Encinitas to finally adopt a Housing Element in 2019. 

“We’d never had an approved Housing Element, we had multiple lawsuits we couldn’t win, and we were hemorrhaging money fighting those lawsuits,” Blakespear said. “I feel good about getting right with the law.” 

Still, resentment lingers over how that compliance was achieved. 

Encinitas Mayor Bruce Ehlers, who served on the Planning Commission during Blakespear’s tenure, said the city needed to comply but believes Blakespear and the Council went further than necessary. 

“We needed to become compliant, but it was a question of how much do we give away and where,” Ehlers said. 

He and other critics argue the city could have adopted a Housing Element with stricter development standards, like a lower cap on building heights and less density, rather than standards they say favored developers. Others point to the city’s inclusionary housing requirements, arguing Encinitas missed an opportunity to require more affordable units in each housing project, which was recommended by the city’s then-Planning Commission. 

Blakespear rejects that framing. She said many of the building standards were recommended by the state housing department, and without them, state officials likely wouldn’t have approved the city’s housing plan. 

“The ideas that came from the Planning Commission … weren’t legal or implementable,” Blakespear said via email. “I note that [Ehlers] has yet to adopt those ideas.” 

The Safe Parking Program 

Blakespear’s push to open North County’s first safe parking program for people living in their cars also provoked fierce criticism. 

At the time, Encinitas had no services for people experiencing homelessness. Residents worried the program would attract people from outside the city, a concern that still dominates local debate. 

But for Blakespear, it was a way to further address housing deficiencies in Encinitas. 

Today, Encinitas has a partnership with Vista allowing the city to reserve shelter beds for its homeless residents at Buena Creek Navigation Center. But the safe parking program itself shut down at the end of 2025 after five years in operation. 

Ehlers said the decision came down to funding. The program was previously fully funded by state grants, which were no longer available. The City Council offered to fund the program for six months, but the nonprofit operating the program said that wasn’t sustainable. 

Some residents celebrated the program’s end. Blakespear did not. She told Voice that the Council could have worked harder to find money for the program or tried to find a new service provider that could fund and operate the program. 

“The council currently is saying, ‘We’re going to invest in outreach workers, but if an outreach worker walks up to somebody who’s homeless, they can’t offer them anything within the city, like a safe parking program or interim housing or shelter—nothing,” Blakespear said. “So, to me it’s this big shell game.” 

Ehlers said the current Council is correcting what he sees as an imbalance between services and enforcement. Over the past year, they’ve added an enforcement portion to the city’s Homeless Action Plan, tightened camping rules and contracted with a new outreach provider (the San Diego Rescue Mission). 

“There is an obligation,” he said, “that when people refuse services and refuse a bed, they still abide by the law.” 

Infrastructure 

In April 2020, the backlash against Blakespear became deeply personal. 

More than 100 residents marched to her home, chanting and carrying “Recall Blakespear” signs. They were protesting Covid-era closures approved by city and county officials that had shut down beaches, parks and trails. 

“It was very destabilizing,” Blakespear recalled. “My daughter was literally having a panic attack inside.” 

One of the closures residents were protesting was the Coastal Rail Trail, a 42-mile regional bikeway and pathway that, once fully completed, will connect Oceanside to downtown San Diego. Years earlier, Blakespear had been one of the project’s early advocates. Critics of the project feared it could restrict beach access—they worried it could trigger the installation of a fence along the trail—and worsen traffic. She received anonymous threats for her support. 

At one point, Blakespear asked the City Council to reconsider the project after learning more about its design. But the Coastal Commission had already approved it. 

“The SANDAG executive director, called me and he said, ‘Do you want this project, because I have plenty of things in the queue that we can spend our money on,’” Blakespear said. “And I said, ‘Yes, we want this project.’”  

Today, the Rail Trail is widely used and popular among residents. 

“That Rail Trail is beloved. It is used by thousands,” Blakespear said. “I’m so glad I pushed through the controversy to say yes to this project.” 

She also championed the Leucadia Streetscape Project, a sweeping redesign of Highway 101 that added roundabouts, bike lanes, sidewalks and some stormwater drainage improvements.  

Critics argue the city prioritized above-ground improvements while delaying the costly underground stormwater fixes that have caused severe flooding in the area for decades. So far, the city has spent more than $20 million on surface-level upgrades, while funding for a major underground pipe replacement remains incomplete. 

“[Blakespear] is very proud of her beautification projects—whether it be the Streetscape Project or the Rail Trail—when we were ignoring completely drainage issues and flooding that should have been addressed in Leucadia and other areas first,” Ehlers said. 

Blakespear disagrees, saying these improvements made walking and biking safer for residents. 

“This is not ‘beautification,’” she said. “This is highly improved functionality and public safety.” 

A Lasting Target 

Encinitas is still wrestling with housing mandates, homelessness and debates about how the city should be structured. Today, there are new leaders governing the city, but Blakespear’s name continues to come up in public discourse, social media and even public forums about housing. 

For Blakespear, the lingering resentment reflects a city grappling with change. 

“There are inconveniences in modern life, like traffic and more construction happening, and there’s a perception that the past was somehow better than the present … it gives way to this vindictive and mean-spirited criticism,” Blakespear said. “But there are many people who live in Encinitas who say this is an amazing place.” 

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