Revised Lake Calavera project to go before Planning Commission

By: BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Tuesday, January 17, 2006 11:10 PM PST ∞

CARLSBAD ----- The revised proposal to fix the long-broken, water-level control valves on the Lake Calavera dam will go before the city's Planning Commission tonight.

An earlier, controversial plan to drain 80 percent of the water out the lake in northeastern Carlsbad now has been dumped in favor of building a temporary work area that looks a bit like a boat's crow's nest. The temporary, steel structure would be lowered into the lake to create a water-free workspace so the valves, which have been broken for years, can be replaced.

"This current proposal gives the best of both worlds," associate city engineer Chris Muehlbacher said Tuesday. "We minimize our environmental impacts while doing it in an economically feasible manner."

The new project is expected to cost $2.5 million, a roughly $300,000 decrease from the old plan when all the environmental mitigation work is factored into the equation, Muehlbacher said.

Residents who live in the many upscale homes around the lake have been largely silent since the city announced it was backing away from the earlier lake-drainage plan. But, a representative for the environmental group that led the earlier opposition effort said Tuesday that she still has concerns.

"We think they're getting closer to doing something ---- they just have a ways to go," said Diane Nygaard of the regional organization Preserve Calavera.

Nygaard said she's concerned about a paved road that is proposed to go across the existing earthen dam structure. She also doesn't like the plan to put razor wire atop a 6-foot-high fence surrounding a new pumping station. And, she said, she thinks the city should have inserted any project comment letters it received as well as staff members' responses to them in the agenda package released late last week.

Muehlbacher said the city has only received one comment letter --- one from Preserve Calavera --- and it made that information available Tuesday to the public. The letter and the city's response weren't included in the initial agenda package because of delays resulting from the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday, he said.

Muehlbacher added that the city is working on the pump station appearance issue. In response to Preserve Calavera's comments, the city has agreed to put landscaping around the facility so it won't be an eyesore, he said. However, he said, the proposed fence and the razor wire must stay in the plans because of pump security issues.

If the Planning Commission approves the environmental paperwork and two permits for the project, staff members will ask the City Council to go out for construction bids, Muehlbacher said. The tentative construction timeline calls for work to start this summer and conclude 10 months later, he said.

One group downstream ---- the Rancho Carlsbad senior mobile home park ---- has said it can't wait. Residents of the gated community have said they think fixing the valves on the dam will help control flooding troubles in the community, which sits at the intersection of two creeks. Lake Calavera, which is upstream in the Calavera Hills development area, spilled over its dam during last winter's extremely rainy periods.

Muehlbacher said the city will require the contractor to maintain temporary pumps at the lake so water levels can be controlled next winter even if the valve repair work isn't done by then. The city rented temporary pumps this winter after Rancho Carlsbad residents asked for help.

Tonight's meeting begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive. For agenda information, visit: www.ci.carlsbad.ca.us/pdfdoc.html?pid=295.

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

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