CARLSBAD -- A request to stop a Lake Calavera Dam repair project and plans to create a 25-member city committee to discuss the Cannon Road development controversy will go before the Carlsbad City Council on Tuesday evening.
Also on the agenda is a proposal to change the planning document that guides development in the Car Country Carlsbad auto mall just east of Interstate 5. Under the new proposal, multistory parking structures would be permitted.
City staff members have said the change could reduce the area's parking woes. The proposal has been supported by at least one auto dealer -- Bob Baker Enterprises Inc. No one from the public opposed the change during a hearing at the March 15 Planning Commission meeting.
Other items on Tuesday's agenda have faced far more controversy.
The Lake Calavera project first became the subject of extensive debate when the city proposed draining much of the man-made lake to repair valves that control the lake's water levels. The valves haven't worked properly in years, city staff members have said. The lake drainage plan was dumped after people who live around the lake fought the idea, saying it would result in dead fish, stinky air and an exploding mosquito population.
Neighbors didn't oppose the replacement proposal -- a plan to build a metal container around the work area and lower water levels slightly. But, members of the environmental group Preserve Calavera expressed concern about the city's accompanying plans to destroy 0.78 acres of coastal sage scrub habitat to make way for a pump station building.
The city's Planning Commission backed the new lake repair plan Jan. 18, and Preserve Calavera immediately filed an appeal to the City Council. In its one-page appeal, the group contends that the commission should not have approved the project's Habitat Management Plan permit for five reasons. Preserve Calavera says that wildlife agencies had problems with the decision, that public documents were not made available to the group before the commission's hearing, and that the decision was made in haste.
"The rushed time schedule gave insufficient time for commissioners to review submitted information," Preserve Calavera leader Diane Nygaard wrote.
The city contests all of these statements. The City Council will rule on the appeal during Tuesday's meeting.
The council also will consider a request by Mayor Bud Lewis to establish a 25-member committee to study plans for the Cannon Road area east of I-5. A proposal to put houses, commercial structures, city parks and a civic center complex in the area are already the subject of two proposed citizens' ballot initiatives and the city is contemplating introducing a third one.
According to a city staff report, the proposed committee would review all three ballot proposals as well as existing land use documents. The group would be charged with issuing recommendations on what should be done with the area.
"It is tentatively proposed that the committee would meet on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon for a six-week period starting in late May. This would allow for the committee's work to be completed and its report submitted to the council in advance of the final date for certification of all ballot measures on August 11, 2006," a city staff report notes.
Tuesday's meeting starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive. For copies of the agenda and the accompanying staff reports, visit ci.carlsbad.ca.us.
Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com. To comment, go to nctimes.com.
