Carlsbad may put two measures on ballot
By: BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | ∞
CARLSBAD ---- The City Council may consider putting not one, but two city-sponsored measures on the Nov. 7 ballot.
The first measure would preserve as open space the hundreds of acres of agricultural land along Cannon Road east of Interstate 5. It's been talked about for several months.
The second measure was proposed at a council workshop Wednesday morning. It would ask voters if they want to spend some $30 million to buy the strawberry and flower-growing properties. The purchase price comes from a controversial economic report released late last week.
"Just think about it," Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis asked his colleagues during the workshop as he tossed out the land-purchase proposal.
The council could debate the issue at its regular 7 p.m. meeting next week.
In the coming months, another topic will be returning for discussion ---- the debate over whether to allow four railroad crossing points in Carlsbad to become "quiet zones" where trains must soften the sound of their whistles.
Councilwoman Norine Sigafoose said at the Wednesday workshop that liability costs may be less than initially estimated if Carlsbad decides to support the "quiet zone" concept. In order to start the zones, the existing crossing points would need to be upgraded and the city would have to foot the bill for that as-yet-unspecified expense. The extra annual insurance expense is now estimated to be about $500 a year per crossing point, Sigafoose said.
City Manager Ray Patchett said he will ask city staff to research the construction costs and return to the council with more information. Quiet zones have been sought in several North County coastal cities by residents who live near the train tracks.
"I think it's something we can do for our citizens that will ... make the quality of life so much better," Sigafoose said.
While that topic receives more research, next week's council meeting is expected to be dominated by Cannon Road-related issues. In addition to considering the mayor's new land-purchase proposal, council members are expected to debate the wording on the earlier preservation ballot proposal and they'll hear a report from a city committee on the issue.
They also must make a decision about a third proposed ballot measure ---- the one that kicked off the entire Cannon Road debate. That proposed initiative ---- the Save the Strawberry and Flower-Growing Act of 2006 ---- aims to keep the Cannon Road region in agricultural production against the wishes of the area's landowners. It was put forward in January by a group calling itself Concerned Citizens of Carlsbad.
The proposed initiative has enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. All that's needed now is a council vote authorizing its ballot appearance.
This is the only Carlsbad citizens measure that can appear on the Nov. 7 ballot. A second proposal, which was supported by the area's landowners, failed to collect the signatures it needed to qualify. Campaign leaders announced earlier this month they were dropping their effort.
The city's mayor said Wednesday that his new financial ballot measure proposal would ask voters if they decide to back the citizens initiative, do they want to pay more than $30 million for the land. It would seek to invalidate the citizens group initiative if voters oppose spending money to buy the properties.
Council members indicated Wednesday they needed to think about the idea. Several said they were becoming supportive of the mayor's first proposal ---- the preservation measure ---- now that the city committee has suggested some changes to the original concept.
Councilman Matt Hall said the changes could make the proposed ballot measure match existing city planning documents for the region.
"The only further protection is it takes it out of our hands and puts it in the hands of the citizens," he said, adding, "That's something I could support."
Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.
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Michael D. wrote on Jul 20, 2006 8:29 AM:If the City is so opposed to ballot box zoning, why is the city manager and Council offering two ballot-box zoning initiatives? And, before we spend 30M hard-earned taxpayer dollars on vacant land, it might be a good idea to get a couple of appraisals to find out what it's really worth. Has anyone asked the landowner about that price, or has the city manager already cut a back-room deal? While we're at it, why not put a whole shopping list of items on the ballot for the city to spend $30M on; give the voters a choice - a little comparison shopping, if you will. Gee, if this works, we can just get rid of the city manager and the entire council and just have the city clerk put all decision making on a ballot! Think of the money and aggravation we'll save by not having any more arrogant over-paid career bureaucrats and silly politicians to deal with!
Keep it simple wrote on Jul 20, 2006 12:55 PM:Well said Michael. The idea of adding a measure to cancel out the save the strawberry measure is dupclitous and disengenuious on the mayor's part. What a plot the mayor is cooking, confuse the voters with lots of misleading info and extra ballot measures that say if you want this, you must also vote to spend millions (how do we really know how much that undeveloped, utility-lines land is worth?.
Me too wrote on Jul 20, 2006 1:23 PM:I think it's great idea to buy those fields. That way I can look at the berrys every day when I am stuck on I-5. Im sorry the poor people have to work in the fields and live in the dirt huts, but its important to the quality of my life. Lets hope the city spends the money on keeping pretty things for me to look at for the rest of my life.
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