Encinitas will pursue proposals to limit illegal camping on private property and sleeping in vehicles, but it won\u2019t reduce the number of hours that RVs can park on city streets, the City Council decided Wednesday.<\/p>\n
All three proposals were put forward by Councilmember Jim O\u2019Hara. As he introduced them, he said he wanted to amend existing city ordinances to remove ambiguity, improve public safety and make it easier for Sheriff\u2019s deputies, who provide the city\u2019s policing services, to do their jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t meant to criminalize anybody, it\u2019s not meant to expand police authority,\u201d O\u2019Hara said after one audience member declared during her public comments that his proposals would \u201cfurther criminalize poverty and punish people for simply existing within our city limits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beth Whittaker, an Encinitas resident for two decades, told the council that she strongly opposed all three proposals, saying they \u201cecho the authoritarian impulses of the MAGA movement, which seeks to normalize surveillance, suppress dissent, and punish poverty under the guise of law and order.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hara countered that his proposed changes simply exchanged one kind of screw driver or wrench for another, saying \u201cthis tool as it stands (today) is a metric socket when you need an American socket \u2026 because it just doesn\u2019t fit the need of what we need as a city. So, all we\u2019re doing is taking an ordinance that already exists and making it so they can use it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two changes that won council approval Wednesday now will be written up by city staff in ordinance form and then go back to the council for final approval, City Manager Jennifer Campbell said after the votes. The code amendments will go into effect 30 days after the council\u2019s votes, she added.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hara\u2019s first proposal \u2014 eliminating the words \u201cat night\u201d to a ban on illegal camping on private property \u2014 received unanimous council approval. Before that vote, Sheriff\u2019s Capt. Shane Watts, commander of the North Coastal Station, said the change would eliminate a loophole that allows illegal campers to relocate from public areas to private areas during daytime hours, and might reduce fire issues in overgrown brushy areas.<\/p>\n
The city already has a 24-hour ban on camping in public places, but when illegal campers are asked to leave those places, they can simply relocate to private property, Watts said. He added that under the current ordinance, private property owners now personally must report the illegal activity in order for deputies to remove the campers during the day. With the elimination of the \u201cat night\u201d phrase, deputies will be able to handle the issue without requiring the private property owner to be present or file special paperwork, he said.<\/p>\n
The council modified one of O\u2019Hara\u2019s other proposals \u2014 one on sleeping in vehicles on public streets. O\u2019Hara had proposed changing the current 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. ban to one that ran from \u201cdusk to dawn,\u201d or 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes after sunrise. He said an earlier evening start time would make enforcement easier.<\/p>\n
Mayor Bruce Ehlers said he could support an earlier start time, but didn\u2019t want to use the sun as the metric \u2014 something several audience members also said was confusing. Ehlers recommended going with an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. ban, which the council ultimately approved in a 4-1 vote, with Councilmember Joy Lyndes opposed. Lyndes said she thought the existing 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. ban was appropriate because that\u2019s when people typically are sleeping overnight in their vehicles.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Hara\u2019s third proposal \u2014 one that would have reduced the hours that RVs could park on city streets without a permit \u2014 was tabled by the council after facing opposition from residents and some council members. His proposal called for making the ban valid from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., rather than the current 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. timeframe.<\/p>\n
Ehlers said he didn\u2019t want to prevent Encinitas residents from parking their RVs near the ocean at dawn so their families could enjoy a full day at the beach, while Lyndes said there was no way she could support the proposed change. Councilmember Marco San Antonio, who said he drives a Sprinter van, said he found the new proposal \u201ca little restrictive,\u201d and perhaps even more than that.<\/p>\n
However, Councilmember Luke Shaffer, a surfer who parks at the beach early in the day, said he thought the proposed change could be handled in such a way that Encinitas beach-loving residents wouldn\u2019t be significantly impacted. When O\u2019Hara introduced the proposal, he said it would stop RV-living people from parking near area schools in the morning, and that\u2019s a significant benefit for school children, Shaffer said.<\/p>\n
Shaffer\u2019s comments that he didn\u2019t want his son or daughter walking past \u201cslightly run-down,\u201d \u201c19-something\u201d -era vehicles containing the \u201cwrong people\u201d who \u201cjust don\u2019t make you feel so cozy\u201d drew a response from Ehlers.<\/p>\n
Ehlers said he didn\u2019t want to craft any code amendments that targeted people based on the way they looked, adding, \u201cSome of our discussion tonight, it sounds that way and I want to call that out and say, \u2018No, that\u2019s not the intent.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Shaffer later said that he wasn\u2019t trying to stereotype people, but policing work requires some amount of profiling and when he served overseas as a U.S. Marine it was necessary to profile some people \u201cpretty hard\u201d for \u201cobvious reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 14, 2025 at 12:53 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Encinitas will pursue proposals to limit illegal camping on private property and sleeping in vehicles, but it won\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":146028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,86413,32310,86414,728,50,8738,86415,3549,3550,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-146027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-cardiff-by-the-sea","12":"tag-encinitas","13":"tag-leucadia","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-north-county","17":"tag-olivenhain","18":"tag-san-diego","19":"tag-san-diego-county","20":"tag-sandiego","21":"tag-top-stories-sdut","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}