OCEANSIDE -- Spurred by more than 15 public speakers, the Oceanside City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to pursue preserving El Salto Falls, even though a separate effort to reclaim the falls and Buena Vista Creek is already under way.

Members of Oceanside's Parks and Recreation Committee urged the council to ask city staffers to explore making 4 acres, including the falls, a city park or designating it as open space.

"Isn't there something we could do to preserve this place?" asked commission Chairman Charles Adams.

Tucked in right next to the towering retaining wall that holds up the Quarry Creek shopping center, El Salto Falls is south of Highway 78 and west of College Boulevard. The falls are visible to those who lean out over a wrought-iron fence behind a nearby Kohl's department store.

Several council members said they were disappointed that the shopping center ended up so close to what is perhaps the most rare and striking natural landmark in Oceanside.

Councilwoman Esther Sanchez said there was supposed to be a 50-foot buffer between the falls and the shopping center's retaining wall.

"It didn't happen," Sanchez said.

Ann Gunter of the Lightfoot Planning Group, which represents Hansen Aggregates, the former operator of a sand mine on much of the property, said the company intends to do what's right for the falls and added that calls for other efforts from city staff are simply unnecessary.

"The preservation of the falls, and the restoration of the creek, has always been a part o the restoration plan," Gunter said.

But some people were not satisfied that property owners and bureaucrats would make sure that the falls are preserved and perhaps made into a city park. They noted that more than 100 acres just west of the falls, which are in Carlsbad, are slated for a housing development.

Dianne Nygaard, a local environmental activist who has often decried vandalism at the falls and the plans to add another housing development to the valley, said assurances were not much good in the past.

"They said the area was protected before, and they built a wall right up to the edge," Nygaard said. "That's what they call protection?"

Mayor Jim Wood said he, too, was disappointed with the result of previous development efforts in what was formerly a sand mine south of Highway 78 and west of College Boulevard.

"If we had been on top of it the last time, we wouldn't have a building sitting on top of the falls," Wood said.

Though he voted with the rest of the council to pursue preserving the falls, Councilman Rocky Chavez said he was satisfied that private property owners and local government are already working in good faith toward preservation.

"It seems that this motion is the same thing that we already have in process," Chavez said.

Several council members were worried about requests from some residents to rezone the 4-acre property to create a park.

That, said City Attorney John Mullen, could constitute a "taking" from the MacMillan Co., which owns the falls and surrounding land.

"They may require compensation," Mullen said.

Councilman Jerry Kern cautioned the council to avoid rezoning if it could open the city to legal action.

"We can't just declare a park at any time," he said.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.