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North County Times
By: BARBARA HENRY
April 28, 2007
CARLSBAD -- An environmental report on the Ponto beachfront area is now out in draft form, Carlsbad officials said last week, roughly two years after an intense public outcry prompted the city to launch the study.
Generally, the document finds that proposed development plans for Ponto -- 50 acres on Carlsbad's southwestern border -- "may result in a significant impact on the environment." However, most of the potential problems could be eased to the point that they are "less than significant," it continues.
The new draft is massive -- the information is contained in seven huge, bound volumes that can be reviewed at the city's two libraries as well as the city clerk's office and the city's planning department.
"What makes up the bulk of it is the technical appendices," or supporting research for the document, senior planner Christer Westman said last week.
Public comment will be collected on the document until a May 29 deadline, and officials are expecting an earful. The city's planning department already has been contacted by Ponto-area neighbors, an environmental legal organization and the Surfrider Foundation, Westman said.
Those are the same folks that were involved two years ago in the push to get the city to produce the document.
"Our biggest concern is always going to be traffic and noise," said resident Victor Ramirez, who lives in the 112-unit Hanover Beach Colony development just north of the Ponto area.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Surfrider Foundation said that they were interested in multiple issues covered in the document, including everything from what the development will do to Batiquitos Lagoon to what will happen to the public parking spots that are regularly used by surfers.
Their comments will be incorporated in a final report that is expected to go before the city's Planning Commission for a public hearing in July.
Making development plans
A mostly vacant region, Ponto contains a few tiny industrial shops and homes on its western border near Carlsbad Boulevard. Its eastern boundary is the railroad tracks, while to the south is Batiquitos Lagoon and to the north is the Hanover Beach Colony.
Passing motorists on Carlsbad Boulevard typically know Ponto as that area with the huge fenced-in wood pile near the roadway. Surfers seeking waves at the famed Ponto Beach know Ponto Drive as a good place to find a vacant parking spot.
Over the years, developers have bought up much of land in the region, and the row of industrial businesses is generally on leased land. There are tentative plans to put three hotels, a resort complex, condominiums and retail shops within the Ponto region. One of those proposals, a roughly 200-room Hilton hotel, has a pending application with the city's planning department, Westman said.
Because of the private proposals to develop the area, the city began looking into creating a regional planning document several years ago. The goal was to guide the various, independent development efforts so that the city would have projects that looked as if they belonged together, city officials have said.
Their Ponto Beachfront Vision Plan detailed where the hotels would go, what the public access points would be and even what decorative elements the structures might have. When they released the plan, city officials argued that they didn't need to do a separate environmental impact report on the document, arguing that each developer would do their own environmental report as their individual projects moved forward.
A coalition of nearby residents, surfers and others disagreed with that position and pushed the city to change its mind. In July 2005, the City Council decided to pursue the environmental report.
Fixing the problems
The new draft report finds that many of the effects of development could be reduced -- or in planning lingo, "mitigated" -- to less than significant levels, including ones related to traffic, noise and biological issues.
To make up for disturbing natural habitat, the report outlines options such as buying off-site habitat-protection areas and making payments into special city funds. To make up for impacts to 1.2 acres of coastal sage scrub habitat, plans should be made to buy 2.4 acres of similar habitat in other parts of the city, the report states.
Ways to cope with anticipated increases in traffic include improving the La Costa Avenue/Carlsbad Boulevard intersection to allow two left-turn lanes and two through-traffic lanes.
There are two things that will provide "significant, unavoidable impacts," the report finds. One is noise associated with construction work. The second trouble spot is air-quality issues -- during construction and after, it states.
Air quality and traffic are standard unresolvable problems in environmental reports across the region, city senior planner Christer Westman said. That's because the region is already struggling with those issues, he said.
"One project is not going to be able to mitigate the region's (existing) issue with air quality, and it's the same thing with traffic," he said.
Campaigning for changes
Several people who have been keeping an eye on Ponto development plans for several years said last week that they have just gotten the report and expect to spend the next several weeks going through the document.
"I haven't even cracked open page one yet," said Todd Cardiff of the Encinitas-based Coast Legal Group. "I'll probably start this weekend."
Key concerns for Cardiff, who serves on the Surfrider Foundation's advisory board, are water quality, traffic and public access, he said.
"I can say that I look forward to looking at this ... and putting in comments," he said.
The Surfrider Foundation wants to make certain that Ponto development plans won't harm the nearby beach and famed surf spot, but the group is also interested in making sure that public access to the Ponto area continues, chapter coordinator Bill Hickman said.
"Traditionally, it's been an area where people can walk their dogs," he said of the resort portion of region, which has recently been fenced off.
Meanwhile, Ramirez of the Hanover Beach Colony is campaigning for the entrance to one of the proposed hotels to be off Carlsbad Boulevard rather than Ponto Drive, as proposed. Otherwise, the entrance his development and the hotel will right near each other, he said.
His fellow Hanover Beach residents aren't opposed to developing the area -- they'd want the ramshackle collection of buildings that currently exist to go away, Ramirez added. But, they don't want traffic congestion right at their front entryway, he said.
-- Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.
Where to write:
Send comments on Carlsbad's draft environmental impact report for the Ponto Beachfront Village Vision Plan to Christer Westman, Carlsbad Planning Department, 1635 Faraday Ave., Carlsbad, CA 92008.
To view copies of the document:
Visit the city clerk's office, 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive; the Cole Library, 1250 Carlsbad Village Drive; Carlsbad's main library, 1775 Dove Lane; or the city's planning department, 1635 Faraday Ave.
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