by The Editors on September 17, 2009
After the Carlsbad City Council approved changes made to the Posiedon Desal plant plans several groups are vowing to sue because the City skipped a lengthy environmental review process, according to a Michael Burge story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The council approved those as an addendum to the environmental impact report it OK’d in 2006, without reopening the time-consuming environmental review process. . . Marco Gonzalez, an attorney for the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation and Coastkeeper, told the council it should have reopened the environmental process to allow for public review. . . “I’ll simply say we’ll have to see you in court again,” Gonzalez said.
For its part Poseidon says they’ve heard these arguments before and they have been “rejected by all the other agencies and by the courts.”
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on September 16, 2009
The City of Carlsbad is now accepting proposals from organizations to “finance, design and manage the city’s new technology business incubator program.” The winner will get free office space and the support of the City to help grow clean, green businesses in the community.
The incubator will serve as a place for entrepreneurs to develop sustainable technologies and will provide entrepreneurs support and access to resources and information that might otherwise be inaccessible to them, such as education, contacts and capital. . . . The project is anticipated to be operational by March 2010. When complete, the technology business incubator will function as a public-private partnership in which the city provides the project facility and the contracted organization will develop the program and look for opportunities for public and private grants to provide funding.
The request for proposal is available on the city’s Web site and proposals can be submitted until Monday, Oct. 19, at 3 p.m. The city will award the contract in December.
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by The Editors on September 14, 2009
One of the last great free parking lots on a California beach will soon be gone as the City of Carlsbad, the California Coastal Commission, and California State Parks have settled a lawsuit regarding the installation of a pay parking kiosk at Tamarack surfing beach (click here for previous coverage).
Under the settlement agreement, State Parks will charge hourly parking, with a two hour minimum and a maximum daily charge of $10, the same day rate fee charged at South Carlsbad State Beach’s Ponto beach. The hourly fee has not yet been set but is agreed to be $2 an hour or less. State Parks originally proposed only a day use fee. Under the settlement agreement, the requirements of the coastal development permit for the project that the California Coastal Commission approved will remain in full effect.
The thing that sucks most about this agreement is that it’s going to push even more people up into the neighborhood surrounding Tamarack and there are way too many people parking there already. The only good news is that people with California State Park parking passes will always have a spot at Tamarack because once they start charging for parking the lot will be mostly empty most of the time.
Follow the jump for the official press release from the City of Carlsbad.
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by The Editors on September 7, 2009
Before it was built Carlsbadistan’s Legoland was positioned as a tiny little theme park “just for small kids” that would be happy staying small. Each year, however, seems to bring new expansion plans from the Merlin Entertainments Group owned theme park.
First it was an aquarium, then the company got the city to change their parking requirements so they could build a hotel and restaurants, now according to the LA Times Legoland is asking the City of Carlsbad to allow them to put in a 5.5 acre waterpark.
San Diego County theme park Legoland has submitted its plan to the city of Carlsbad to build a 5.5-acre water attraction in the park’s northern section, officials said Friday. . . .The water park’s cost and design have yet to be determined, but Legoland spokeswoman Julie Estrada said it would be open by next summer.
The water park, like the aquarium, would have it’s own entry fee meaning there would actually be three amusement parks where previously only one stood. As one Carlsbadistan.com news tipper asks, “I wonder how this will affect the water park at Alga Norte.”
[Link: LA Times]
by The Editors on September 1, 2009
It seems an underground group of Carlsbadistan shuffleboard players are none too happy about plans that the City of Carlsbad and the Carlsbad Rotary club have to “fill in” the Magee Shuffleboard courts to make room for more seating around a soon to be moved gazebo.
“We’ve been playing on the courts for over a year now and were completely blindsided when we heard that they were going to be torn out,” one player said. “Seriously, they’re tearing out recreational space so they can put in another gazebo for homeless people to hang out in?”
The courts’ pathway to destruction began about a year ago when the City of Carlsbad’s lease ran out on Rotary Park (the strip of grass East of Village Faire and West of the train tracks that is mainly frequented by homeless people).That strip of lawn is owned by the North County Transit District and without the lease, the park’s centerpiece gazebo needed a new home.
After exploring several different location options The Rotary Club and the City of Carlsbad apparently decided that the gazebo should be relocated to Magee Park, according to Carlsbad Parks and Rec Supervisor Paul Meadows. And once discussions began it became apparent that the current layout of the shuffleboard courts would not be consistent with the plans for the Rotary Club’s completely refurbished gazebo.
While the gazebo will be located just south of the shuffleboard courts the unevenness of the playing surface would cause problems for walking and sitting in the area in front of the Gazebo. “At that point we came in to do a redesign of the shuffle board courts,” Meadows said. “They’re going to fill that in for seating for the Gazebo.”
Did Rotary or The City of Carlsbad put it up for public comment? No. “There was no public forum for it,” Meadows said. “It was just decided. One of our men who works there says he’s never seen anyone play there.”
Maybe the underground group of shuffleheads have been too far underground. “We’re obviously not down there all the time, but we use the courts enough that we’re extremely interested in keeping them,” another player said. “What is the City trying to do? We don’t have a usable skatepark, they stalled on our swimming pool, and now they’re going to take our shuffleboard courts away. I don’t get it.”
Meadows said that anyone with concerns regarding the Magee shuffleboard courts should contact Carlsbad Parks and Recreation Department Kyle Lancaster at (760) 434-2826.
by The Editors on September 1, 2009
by The Editors on August 20, 2009
After raising the water rates for Carlsbadistan agriculture by 45 percent last week, the Carlsbadistan City Council is now considering subsidizing the water bill for Paul Ecke the third’s The Flower Fields, according to a Michael Burge story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Mayor Bud Lewis said he was concerned about subsidizing the farms’ water bills, but in 2006 voters passed Proposition D, which said they want to preserve those two operations. . . In 1996 the city also required the Ecke flower-growing family to cultivate the 53-acre Flower Fields “in perpetuity” in exchange for the right to develop the 471-acre Carlsbad Ranch, which includes Legoland California and the Carlsbad Premium Outlet stores.
Now, Chris Calkins, president of the Ecke-owned company CB Ranch, says they are “staring down a barrel of a gun that makes it impossible to grow the crops” inferring that if the City of Carlsbad wants to keep the Flower Fields all colorful they’re going to have to help with the water bill.
Isn’t it nice how businesses will agree to almost anything when they’re trying to get a huge development approved, only to come back later and say they’re not going to be able to hold up their end of the bargain? Classic.
by The Editors on August 20, 2009
According to a press release issued by the City of Carlsbadistan, The Carlsbad Municipal Water District is installing 1,000 new high tech water meeters that “keep track of water use and detect leaks more quickly.
The new meters will be installed within the business park surrounding Palomar Airport, along Avenida Encinas, and in the Car Country Carlsbad area. . . “The new meters are a great example of using technology to increase efficiency and provide even better service to our customers,” said Cari Dale, City of Carlsbad public works manager. . . The meters’ leak detection technology will help the water district respond to potential water leaks quickly by alerting the district of unusual water use at individual properties. Currently, leaks are found mainly by seeing evidence of excess water and by property owners noticing unexplained increases in water use on their monthly bills. In the future, the new water meters will allow water customers to receive real-time water use and billing information online.
The switch over is going to cost the district about $400,000 for 998 new meters. Just think how much it will cost to roll over the other 27,000 customers. [click to continue…]
by The Editors on August 12, 2009
The City Council has decided last night to put off voting on a shopping center that may be built at the corner of La Costa Avenue and Rancho Sante Fe Road until next week, according to a story on San Diego 6.
Some say the shopping center would bring in upscale retail shops within walking distance of their homes. . . But opponents say it would bring in more traffic to an already busy area, and the possibility of big box discount stores like Wal-Mart.
There’s nothing funnier than voting to vote later. Then again, the longer it goes without being approved the happier opponents will be.
[Link: San Diego 6 and North County Times]
by The Editors on August 6, 2009
Carlsbadistan doesn’t have a usable skateboard park or a new swimming pool, but Carlsbad City Council is proud to announce that the City has ended the fiscal year “in the black,” according to a Barbara Henry story in the North County Times.
And it added about $1.5 million to its reserves, according to the city finance department’s year-end financial assessment. The fiscal year ended June 30. . . . Falling sales tax revenue and other recession-related problems have hammered most California cities in recent months. Even well-off places like Carlsbad have experienced first-hand a decline in everything from automobile sales to home construction.
But we’ve got Lisa Irvine at the controls, so we don’t worry.
[Link: North County Times]
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