Encinitas Considers Moratorium on Liquor Licenses as City is Becoming 'The New P.B.'

Update: Mayor Barth told Patch that the City Council is only considering the moratorium and not changing hours. 

The Encinitas City Council, at its Wednesday meeting, will consider establishing a 45-day moratorium on any new liquor licenses within the city.

For years, residents have complained about ongoing partying, drinking, and sometimes fighting that is carrying out into the streets of Encinitas. Two weeks ago, 10News reported that angry residents and business owners in Encinitas packed the council meeting, claiming that the city "is becoming the new Pacific Beach."

Some residents have even said that late-night bargoers have been urinating on storefront windows and doors. 

"These people are now using my planter boxes as their bathrooms," one resident told the council. "It's not very nice when I go outside and say, 'Can you please not do that,' then they offer to fight me."

The issue has divided the business community of the city.

“Property damage, vandalism, we're hearing a lot of things on the street now, in terms of noises and phrases and utterances that are maybe not what everyone wants to hear,” business owner Karen Henderson told NBC 7/39. “I think maybe we have to do some experimental planning, or I think we have to try some different things and see what does work.”