A nearly $6 million bond sale to fund the city’s purchase of a prime coastal habitat area will take place starting this week, a financial consultant handling the effort reports.
Branden Kfoury, a director with the municipal financial advisory company Urban Futures Inc., told the Encinitas City Council on Wednesday that all is proceeding according to plan.
Encinitas began the process of purchasing the 1.43-acre site last fall. Located on a bluff at the northeast corner of Coast Highway 101 and La Costa Avenue, the undeveloped land has glorious views of the Pacific Ocean, Carlsbad beaches and Batiquitos Lagoon. Before the city’s purchase plans, the property’s owner was proposing to put 25 time-share condominiums on the site.
On Wednesday, council members, in their position as board members of the Encinitas Public Financing Authority, approved the issuing of up to $6 million in bonds to pay for purchasing the property.
While their decision grants permission for up to $6 million in bonds, current plans actually call for issuing a lower figure — $5.7 million, and using money from the city’s open space acquisition fund to assist with the remainder of the expense, Kfoury said.
Encinitas will be offering 30-year bonds that mature Oct. 1, 2054, he said.
Kfoury estimated the city’s annual bond payments will be $347,000, and the interest rate will be 4.43 percent. Those figures will be finalized next week, “when we price and sell the bonds,” he added. The sale period is expected to close May 15.
Once the city finishes the bond sale deal, it will begin to assess how the land will be used, Mayor Tony Kranz said, adding that he is planning to host a workshop to discuss this issue.
Earlier this year, an informal group of people, including several area tribal members, launched a campaign to get Encinitas to grant area tribes the stewardship of the property. They started a change.org petition, sent many emails to City Hall and showed up at a city goal-setting meeting.
If the city agrees to “gives back” this property for tribal use, it would be an “incredible opportunity to set things right with the first peoples” of the area, Alexis Munoa Dyer, a member of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, told the council during the goal-setting meeting.
Tribal members would be interested in using the site to host ceremonies and to collect basketry-making materials, she said.
Read More: Encinitas moves forward with bond sale to purchase prime coastal habitat