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By Barbara Henry
North County Times
May 10, 2005
CARLSBAD — It may not be possible to put a dollar value on an ocean wave or a sandy beach, but this summer Carlsbad may try to do just that.
Today, the City Council will consider whether to spend roughly $30,000 for an economic study on beach tourism. Also up for discussion at the council's 6 p.m. meeting is whether to allow the farmers' market downtown to operate on Saturday mornings.
If the beach study proposal wins approval, clipboard-carrying surveyors will walk the city's sandy shores interviewing beach-goers on their spending habits and their reasons for coming to Carlsbad.
"We're going to do it at the height of the beach-visiting season, which would be the summer," said city engineer Steven Jantz.
Sought by the city's Beach Preservation Committee, the study would assess how much financial benefit beaches bring to Carlsbad, Jantz said. For its money, the city will receive a report, probably in November, on visitor spending habits, Jantz said.
The city's Beach Preservation Committee hopes the document will help the city win federal grant money for beach sand replenishment projects. It could even persuade city leaders to pay for lifeguards on the community's state-owned beaches, committee Chairman Dick Erhardt said.
Carlsbad has nearly 7 miles of beaches. The California State Parks System owns and controls Carlsbad State Beach, South Carlsbad State Beach and Frazee State Beach. The remaining beach frontage is privately owned.
Among the questions the researchers will be asking this summer is how much money beach-goers will spend each day during their visit, where they're from, and why they chose Carlsbad. One survey will be conducted on Memorial Day weekend and there will be two or three more after that date, Jantz said.
At this evening's meeting, the City Council also will consider a request by the Carlsbad Village Business Association to add a Saturday morning farmers' market downtown. The association already operates a Wednesday afternoon market on a city-owned parking lot on Roosevelt Street between Carlsbad Village Drive and Grand Avenue.
The proposed Saturday market would be at the same location and would include a few craft booths in addition to fruits and vegetables, market manager Susan Parker-Overstreet said. The Saturday market would attract people who work week days and can't make it to the Wednesday event, she added.
Mikki Royce, the association's new executive director, said the new market day is part of a larger effort to make the downtown Village area a "destination" for shoppers.
"This is just the beginning," she said, adding that the association also is planning to expand its annual August arts and crafts fair.
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