Carlsbad’s anti-development forces will likely shift back into high gear as the Planning Commission meets next Wednesday to discuss the environmental impact report on what’s called The Ponto Beachfront Village Vison Plan.
The plan envisions 180 hotel rooms and 126 time-share condo units in a resort overlooking Batiquitos Lagoon; a 215-room Hilton at Poinsettia Lane and Carlsbad Boulevard; and a third 269-room hotel on Ponto Drive where the storage units stand.. . The plan also proposes 128 attached condominium units in a mixed-use project on Carlsbad Boulevard north of Avenida Encinas.. . . Interspersed would be shops, restaurants and a wetland interpretive park all linked by a trail, and a pedestrian underpass to South Carlsbad State Beach.
Wow, Carlsbad’s stretch of Coast Highway could look just like Newport Beach’s. Joy.
A settlement has been reached in the lawsuit that the City of Encinitas brought against the City of Carlsbad regarding the costs of upgrading La Costa Avenue, according to a story in the North County Times.
Originally, the City of Carlsbad said they would pay nothing and that the developer of the Ponto Vision Plan would pay for 27 percent of the estimated $5.34 million the upgrades would cost.
Now the costs have been raised to $7 million and the two cities have agreed to split the costs evenly.
Encinitas Councilman James Bond said this week that he is pleased a deal was reached. . . .”Hopefully it is in fact settled and we have all signed off and walking away with a good agreement,” said Bond, who was elected Tuesday to his fifth term on the council. “For sure, it was a compromise agreement, but it was a lot better than they (Carlsbad) initially offered. I think it is more equitable.”
We are constantly reminded that lawsuits are the way organizations negotiate.
The biggest challenge facing Carlsbad’s leaders in the near future will be to agree on spending priorities without the safety net of an ample reserve fund.
The city’s yearly budget surpluses may soon disappear because of the planned opening of new city facilities and a reduction in new development as the city reaches build-out.
Enter the Carlsbad Six, City Council candidates ranging in age from 19 to 74.
Their campaign Web sites suggest they can be divided into three groups: the Insiders, the Outsiders, and the Long Shots.
Every hundred years the slumbering residents of Brigadoon awaken for a day to celebrate their unchanging lives, united in the knowledge that if anybody leaves town, their enchanted village will disappear forever.
Last week at the Dove Library, Carlsbad’s 2010 state of the city video (embedded above) gave a hundred local residents their annual reassurance that all is well in their village, and they can keep it that way by not leaving town to shop.
Mayor Bud Lewis explained there’d be no questions allowed from the floor because he didn’t want the event to become an election forum. You could approach staff and council members individually with your questions after the show.
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