by The Editors on April 20, 2009
Tomorrow evening (April 21, 2009) is officially “Pack The City Council Chambers” night as City Council will be reconsidered something they’ve reconsidered several times already: the fate of the Alga Norte Park something we like to call it the Alga Norte Skatepark. (AB#19.780)
City Councilman Keith Blackburn is so interested in all of us attending that he’s reportedly calling 40,000 people, according to a story in the The Times.
For about $2,000, Blackburn has taken the unprecedented step of hiring a company that operates an electronic “phone tree” to reach as many of Carlsbad’s 40,000 households as possible today with a 30-second, recorded message from the councilman. . .Blackburn is urging residents to show up at a council meeting, set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, at which the proposed park will be discussed.
The fact that the citizens have to show up to remind the City Council that we need a new swim complex and skateboard park is crazy in our opinion, but looks like we’re all going to have to go anyway as it apparently is the only way members of the City Council ever hear anything.
Building parks should be the one thing that the City Council does on their own, but apparently, they need our help. Be there Tuesday evening at 6 PM.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on April 16, 2009
by The Editors on April 16, 2009
Opponents of NRG Energy‘s plans for a second power plant near the shores of Carlsbadistan’s Aqua Hedionda Lagoon gathered at Cannon Park today (April 16, 2009) in the shadow of the Encina Power Station to speak to the media.
News 10, News 8, and writers and photographers from the local papers were present along with approximately 40 citizens to hear people including Carlsbad Councilman Matt Hall, former Councilwoman Julie Nygaard, and Kerry Siekmann (among others) speak out against the new plant.
Siekmann spoke to the fact that SDG&E does not need the power this new plant will produce. In fact, she said, SDG&E hasn’t even contracted with the plant to buy power. Where will it go? Maybe Los Angeles, she said.
“This power can be sold everywhere,” Siekmann said. “But where will the pollution go? Here. So we get 854,000 tons of carbon emissions. We get all the particulate pollution that the American Lung association links to death from respiratory and cardio-vascular causes, increased number of heart attacks, hospitalization for asthma among children, inflammation of lung tissue in young healthy adults just to name a few. We get all the ozone pollution too that the American Lung association says may lead to serious health concerns including premature death, chest pain, inflamation of the lining of the lungs. This is not just about our neighborhood. It’s not just about Carlsbad. It’s about the whole air basin here in San Diego. This is not the right plant, it’s the wrong plant.”
Former City Councilwoman Julie Nygaard agreed. “We should not sit back idly and watch our way of life be diminished,” she said. “In all my years of public service I have never seen a proposal that stands to do as much damage as this one does to our community.”
For more information on the plant and the people who oppose it click the link. Or click here for Barbara Henry’s story in the North County Times.
[Link: Power of Vision Carlsbad]
by The Editors on April 14, 2009
A stretch of private land in Calavera Hills that local residents had hoped the City of Carlsbad would buy and turn into a park has been sold to Thompson Co. of Nevada, according to a story in the North County Times. And the new owner plans to subdivide the 60 acre property.
This has made a group of local residents upset enough to launch an anti-developement website called SaveVillageH.com. And they are blaming the Carlsbad City Council for not honoring the wishes of its own Open Space Committee.
For over ten years, residents around Village H and from elsewhere have done everything they can to lobby the Council and City to preserve the property. SaveVillageH.com, in its original incarnation several years ago, was a focal point for this effort (with much work by PreserveCalavera.org as well). . . .As a result, three Council members now serving who served then (Lewis, Kulchin, and Hall) all expressed a willingness to preserve the land. But despite their Open Space Committee ranking the property as tied for #2 in the entire city (as worthy of acquisition) and despite the landowner making two very low offers to the City (one reportedly only $300,000), the Council — in a legally questionable closed-door session last year — declined to buy the property.
While we believe for the most part that private land owners should be able sell their land to whomever they want it is strange that the City would pass on a parcel that they obviously had interest in. For more info, click the link.
[Link: Save Village H]
by The Editors on April 9, 2009
The Surfrider Foundation’s argument that that California Coastal Commission acted illegally when it failed to “require Poseidon to reduce the amount of fish and marine organisms that would be killed in the desalination process” were rejected today in San Diego Superior Court today, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Judge Judith Hayes issued a tentative ruling rejecting arguments by Surfrider Foundation and the Planning and Conservation League that the California Coastal Commission misapplied state law when it gave Poseidon Resources a coastal development permit to build the plant. . . . Marco Gonzalez, the attorney for Surfrider and the league, said the groups are unhappy with the ruling and believe the court misunderstood some facts. . . “In particular, a large part of the prospective ruling is based on the perception that the project was previously approved by the Regional Board,” Gonzalez said.
One more hurdle out of the way for the for Poseidon Resources and the desalination plant.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on April 8, 2009
The vote has been delayed, however, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board has decided to close the desalination plant hearing “meaning no new evidence or testimony will be considered at the next meeting,” according to a story in the North County Times.
Poseidon Resources Corp., the plant’s prospective builder, made encouraging progress at the hearing, said Scott Maloni, a vice president of the Stamford, Conn.-based company. . . “We think it’s a significant milestone,” Maloni said. “They ended the public debate over the project, and they agreed to come back next month and make a decision. The time delay is insignificant in comparison to the milestone of the public debate coming to a close.”
Writing in the San Diego Union-Tribune Michael Burge said that the plant has been “all but approved” and that the board will “give the project a final green light at a later meeting.”
[Link: North County Times and San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on April 8, 2009
It recently came to light that the number of fish Poseidon Resources‘ proposed desalination plant will kill is actually four to seven times higher than it originally estimated thanks to a math error in their calculations discovered by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board last year, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
But in poring over Poseidon’s study on the number of fish its plant would kill, the board’s staff discovered a math error last year that significantly underestimated the number. . . .When challenged, Poseidon admitted the mistake but said it shouldn’t affect its proposal to create 55.4 acres of new wetlands to compensate for the fish killed. . . “We believe the . . . impacts for the desalination project are de minimis (insignificant), and the impacts can be offset by the 55.4 acres,” said Scott Maloni, Poseidon’s spokesman.
But, of course, that statement makes no sense at all. More damage requires more restoration. Seems pretty simple to us.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on March 30, 2009
The Surfrider Foundation is opposed to the desalination plant that Poseidon Resources wants to put in Carlsbadistan’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon. In an email sent out to members today they said the following:
If Poseidon Resources is granted a final permit on April 8th for the Carlsbad Desalination plant, it will require ENORMOUS AMOUNTS of energy to make new water. If upgraded, the North County and South Bay Water Reclamation plants would require LESS THAN HALF THE AMOUNT of energy to make new water of the same quality – and dramatically reduce discharge of partially treated sewage to our local marine environment. . . Carlsbad Desalination would kill millions of fish and larvae each day. North County and South Bay Water Reclamation plants would kill zero fish and larvae per day.
The Surfrider Foundation is also encouraging everyone to read and sign Surfrider and Coastkeeper’s petition to help prevent Poseidon from building such a wasteful and destructive desalination plant.
Follow the jump for all the details. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on March 16, 2009
Claiming that the Carlsbad Unified School District has made mistakes in its traffic plans for the new high school, the City of Carlsbad has teamed up with developer Bentley-Wing Properties, the Rancho Carlsbad HOA, and Preserve Calavera to sue the school district, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
In a press release sent out by the City on March 13, 2009 the City said:
To preserve its legal rights, the City of Carlsbad today filed a lawsuit regarding traffic impacts of a proposed new high school at the corner of Cannon Road and College Boulevard. Although city and Carlsbad Unified School District officials are working cooperatively to address the project’s impacts, not all of the issues will be resolved before the statute of limitations runs March 16 on the project’s Environmental Impact Report.
If the City, a developer, and a mobile home park HOA agree on anything, we’re pretty sure we’re against it just on priciple.
For the full press release follow the jump.
[Link: San Deigo Union-Tribune]
[click to continue…]
by Richard J. Riehl on February 27, 2009
There didn’t seem to be much more to say about Carlsbad’s Bressi Ranch NIMBYs and their attempt to keep developmentally disabled persons from moving into a group home in their neighborhood. But then I read the letter to the editor last week that suggested that, regardless of their legal rights, the new neighbors would be foolish to move into a community where they were not wanted. Sound familiar? That’s the same argument that was once used to discourage persons of the wrong race, ethnicity or religion from moving in next door.
Last year County Supervisor Bill Horn defended himself against accusations that he’d engaged in a quid pro quo deal with developers. With imaginations like that, he scoffed, his critics should write novels. Since a novel wouldn’t fit in this space, I wrote him a fairy tale instead.
This time it was the unhappy campers of Bressi Ranch that reawakened the bard in me.
Once upon a time, in The Land of Troubled Assets, the NIMBYs were nervous in their village by the sea. Having recently immigrated to the edge of the village, they had found homes where they could live among those who looked alike, acted alike and thought alike.
[click to continue…]
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