Mayor, two councilmen: Cannon Road development to be Carlsbad election issue

By: BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Monday, January 16, 2006 9:19 PM PST ∞

CARLSBAD ---- The city's mayor and the two councilmen who are up for election in November said Monday that the debate over building homes or commercial structures on the vast agricultural lands along Cannon Road will be one of the year's hot election issues.

Tension over proposals to develop the region, which is home to hundreds of acres of strawberries and flowers, has increased in recent weeks.

First, a group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Carlsbad announced it will try to put an agricultural fields preservation measure on the November ballot. Next, using the state's public records act, the citizens group forced the city to release details of private meetings city staff members had with developer Lennar Corporation and neighboring property owners on developing the area.

The group charges that the city is secretly deciding what development will go on the land long before any public hearings are held on the topic ---- a charge that city staff members who attended the meetings say is false. City officials stress that any development plans would need to go through a series of public hearings and state Coastal Commission review.

The city's elected leaders didn't attend the meetings, which began in October 2004 and continue to this day. On Monday, Mayor Bud Lewis, and councilmen Matt Hall and Mark Packard ---- whose seats are all up for election in November ---- said they think the city has handled the issue appropriately.

Lewis called the citizens' group's claims "hogwash," while Hall said city employees have conducted their work "very professionally." Packard said the city is managing the issue "the same as it's been handling any issue with any property owner."

"I don't think there's been anything wrong with what we've been doing," Packard added.

When the meetings began 15 months ago, the initial participants were city staff members and a team from Lennar Corp., which is currently building the Bressi Ranch housing and commercial project at the corner of El Camino Real and Palomar Airport Road.

In spring 2005, neighboring property owners were invited to participate and, by fall, participants were reviewing detailed map proposals that included trail routes, home placement and a civic center design proposal.

Hall, who has served on the council for 12 years, said these meetings are no different than the meetings the city had over the Legoland amusement park project a decade ago or the recent discussion regarding plans to develop the aging southwestern Carlsbad area known as Ponto.

All three men said they're already hearing from voters and expect the issue to be one of the key election topics in the months to come, along with the controversial Ponto plans, which have been sent back for additional environmental review.

"My ear's sore," joked Hall, saying he has received many calls from citizens with strawberry fields-related questions.

Packard said that while he believes the private meetings were appropriate, the city needs to do a better job of communicating what it is doing to the public.

"Because somehow people aren't understanding what we're trying to accomplish and they're trying to attribute some motives that really don't apply," he said.

Lewis said in the end it will be up to residents to decide what they want done with the land if the citizens' group collects the signatures it needs to get a measure on the ballot.

"If they want to put it in front of the public and if the public buys into it, so be it," he said.

He added that in the late 1980s and early 1990s, "I really pushed to have that (land) put into open space."

At the time, he said, he was told that would be "a heavy cost on the city's treasury" because the city wouldn't get any tax revenue from open space land, so he dropped the idea, he said.

Meanwhile, the initiative proponents said Monday that they had published the legal document that is required before they can start the petition drive. They're now contracting with a printer to produce the petitions, the group's attorney, Peter Lind, said.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.

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