Solana Beach formally notified Encinitas and Solana Beach that the city will be withdrawing from the longtime agreement among the three cities for fire services, the latest step in a process that began earlier this year when the Encinitas City Council voted to abandon the cooperative by next March.
Solana Beach and Del Mar have both been considering other options for fire services as the cooperative, which has been in place since 2009 under the Encinitas Fire Department, winds down.
“Over time, the development patterns have changed,” Solana Beach City Manager Alyssa Muto said during a Sept. 24 presentation to the council about next steps in how to proceed. “Encinitas is definitely facing different challenges than the city of Solana Beach and the city of Del Mar. So I think we all face different challenges daily throughout our land use planning, wild fires and other fire prevention needs.”
Options under consideration in Solana Beach include a single station to serve Solana Beach, having another version of a cooperative agreement with Del Mar or joining another existing fire department.
“There are details and nuances within each of those options that are of many different shades, and we’ll be continuing to explore that as we look at near-term and long-term options for our city,” Muto said.
No decisions were made about which option specifically to pursue, but the council gave the city manager direction to develop the best possible alternatives for the council to approve later.
“I’m hopeful there’s a silver lining to all of this,” Solana Beach Deputy Mayor Kristi Becker said. “We weren’t expecting it, but we’re going to find something great for our city.”