From the urgency of its actions, you’d think the Friends of Aviara had just discovered a Super Walmart was about to open its doors on the shores of the Batiquitos Lagoon.
The La Costa neighborhood group is suing Carlsbad’s City Council for approving a planning document that would bring affordable senior housing to their backyard. The lawsuit is a pre-emptive strike on a proposal the City Council has never discussed, much less approved.
What the council did approve at its Dec. 22 meeting was a revision of the city’s general plan that references Pontebello, a proposed project that would add 76 low- and moderate-income units to its housing plan, helping the city meet the state’s affordable housing law.
Senior Planner Scott Donnell explained that if the city failed to obtain state certification for its housing plan it could lose millions in future state and county government grants. Carlsbad would also be exposed to lawsuits halting development until the state steps in to mandate the number and locations of affordable housing units.
Donnell emphasized that the approved housing element does nothing more than guide future development. All rezoning requests are still subject to public hearings, during which time the Friends of Aviara may produce evidence supporting its opposition to the change. If the rezone is denied, the city must find another site for the project.
No new development project can be approved without a formal assessment of its environmental and architectural impacts and after another public hearing has been held.
A preamble to the petition being circulated by the Aviara group claims, “This rezoning of a low-density single family housing area to high density meets the definition of spot zoning” and “represents a taking of property value from established property owners and tax payers.”
A review of Carlsbad’s zoning map reveals the shakiness of those claims. Only 20 percent of the Pontebello project area is now zoned for single family residences. Seventy percent is zoned for either multiple-family dwellings or “Limited Control,” which allows for mixed uses, ranging from family day care homes to pig farms. The Friends of Aviara should be careful what it wishes for.
It’s quite a stretch to call the rezone of property proposed for the Pontebello project “spot zoning,” since its purpose would be to support Carlsbad’s stated land use policies and objectives, the area is surrounded by compatible multiple-family residence zoning, and there’s no evidence it would reduce property values.
If Aviara Oaks Elementary School were to give Friends of Aviara a report card, it wouldn’t surprise me to find “doesn’t play well with others” under teacher comments.
Richard J. Riehl writes from Carlsbad. Contact him at RiehlWorld2@yahoo.com.
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