CARLSBAD: Council to consider Scripps medical project

Complex would be near city's business park

By BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer | Sunday, October 5, 2008 5:24 PM PDT ∞

CARLSBAD ---- A plan to build the second part of a proposed Scripps medical complex in the city's business park region heads to the City Council on Tuesday after struggling through three city Planning Commission meetings.

The center, which would offer an urgent care facility and other medical services, is proposed to go along the west side of El Camino Real between College Boulevard and Faraday Avenue.

It would be the second Scripps building in the area ---- another Scripps facility, which contains family practice physicians' offices and a laboratory, is already under construction on a separate part of the property.

The project has been hailed by supporters as much needed --- there is no hospital in Carlsbad ---- but the city's Planning Commissioners have said they have reservations about it because of the additional traffic it will create.

El Camino Real is a major commuter route and nearby Palomar Airport Road is even bigger, carrying thousands of commuters each day between inland and coastal North County.

Planning Commissioners raised a series of traffic concerns related to the Scripps project during the course of three meetings on the topic.

They noted that the building would be a long walk from the now-under-construction Scripps building nearby and asked how people would be transported between the two structures.

Scripps Clinic Chief Executive Larry Harrison responded that Scripps would offer a golf-cart shuttle service between the two facilities.

Also of concern to commissioners was the amount of vehicular traffic that the project would generate. Several said that surrounding streets already had traffic congestion issues.

The developer's traffic study indicates that the project would add 218 vehicles to surrounding roads during the peak morning commute and 575 vehicles during the early evening.

The commissioners initially had a tie vote in July, then revisited the issue at two meetings in August.

Ultimately, the commission voted 6-0, with Commissioner Bill Dominguez absent, to support the developer's requests for various zoning and general plan amendments.

Now, it's the City Council's turn to have a say. A consultant for Scripps has said that if the council approves the project, that second part of the facility could open for business in three years.

The first project, which has already received its approvals and is under construction, is forecast to open in November.

In other action Tuesday, the council will:

-- hear an update from Peter MacLaggan, senior vice president of Poseidon Resources, about the company's proposed desalination project along Agua Hedionda Lagoon. Last month, San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation filed suit in Superior Court, seeking a new environmental review of the project.

-- vote on whether to accept bids for native habitat restoration work at Lake Calavera.

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

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