ENCINITAS — Sugar Sweet Farm in Olivenhain will now be allowed to offer goat yoga as part of its educational agritourism programs, following the Encinitas City Council’s unanimous approval of revisions clarifying the farm’s agricultural permit.
Farm owner Elizabeth Sugarman told The Coast News that returning to the City Council for a second discussion helped establish clearer rules governing the farm’s educational offerings and its efforts to highlight the area’s agricultural heritage.
“Our goal isn’t expansion. Our goal is clarity,” she said. “A clear permit benefits the farm, benefits our neighbors, benefits city staff, and benefits the community.
“We don’t want to be at City Hall again anymore.”
Mayor Bruce Ehlers said he wanted to “put rock solid parameters around this” agricultural permit.
“Like a judge, I don’t want to see you back here, right?” he joked with Sugarman and her family, who help operate the farm.
Under the revised permit, the farm will be limited to 40 visitors at a time, excluding family members who live on the property. Sugarman said the farm has historically never come close to reaching that limit.
The permit also prohibits amplified music, requires all visitor parking to remain on the property and limits the farm to 16 events per month, excluding its farming day camps.
The June 24 council meeting also included a discussion over whether the farm’s children’s programs should be classified as day camps or daycare.
Councilmember Marco San Antonio said he preferred the term “day camp” because it more accurately reflected the programs being offered.
“Sugar Sweet Farm doesn’t provide child care before school or after school care,” San Antonio said. “There’s no real care. So, it’s not really like a day care place.”
Councilmember Joy Lyndes agreed.
“By using the term daycare, we pull in some complexity that’s going to be more confusing instead of less confusing.”
The city began reviewing the farm’s operations after receiving code enforcement complaints in 2023. The owners applied for an agricultural permit in 2024, which received administrative approval in January 2025, according to city documents.
Neighbor Gary Filips appealed that approval later that month, leading to a March 2025 City Council hearing that upheld the permit.
During the June 2026 meeting, Filips said he had submitted several complaints alleging permit violations since the council’s earlier decision.
Bryant Jemison, the city’s code enforcement manager, said the violations involved advertisements that were “inconsistent with their conditions.”
“The responsible parties did however amend their advertisements to comply with the conditions of their agriculture permit,” Jemison said.
Under the clarified permit, goat yoga is expressly allowed because it falls under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s definition of agritourism, according to Meagan Openshaw, the city’s assistant director of development services.
“On the question of goat yoga specifically, evidence has been provided to staff which demonstrates that this is an animal interaction activity and not a fitness class and that is consistent with the USDA agri-tourism guidance that was provided,” Openshaw said.
Filips said his primary concern was not the farm’s activities but an 18-foot paved roadway he uses to access his property, which crosses a 40-foot easement on the Sugarman property.
“It’s the ingress and the egress,” Filips said. “We hold a 40-foot private road easement to that property and that ultimately is the true crux of this issue … My issue isn’t the parking. My issue is being able to get in and out of the property.”
Ehlers asked Openshaw whether the owner of property subject to a roadway easement could use the remaining land, including for parking.
Openshaw said that while the details vary, “a good rule of thumb is that as long as they’re maintaining access as provided via the easement, that’s sufficient.”
Ehlers added that because it is a private roadway, any dispute over the easement would be a matter for civil court.
The council unanimously approved the revised permit.
“I’m generally in agreement and supportive of agricultural permits. I think our agricultural heritage is so key to who we are in Encinitas,” Lyndes said. “It gives our farms a way to stay in business and I would really hope to do everything possible to continue to promote that. It’s a good quality of life for everyone in the community. However, our neighbors and others in the community and we also need clarity and need certainty.”
Councilmember Luke Shaffer did not participate in the vote after recusing himself because he had previously volunteered at the farm.
“I have a 100% bias in favor of Sugar Sweet Farms,” Shaffer said. “They are, in my personal opinion, exactly what this community is and needs, and I wish that more Encinitasans exemplified exactly what and who they are.”
