Carlsbad has renewed the idea of building a “linear park” on the narrow strip of land along the beach from Palomar Airport Road south to the Encinitas border.
The decades-old proposal includes working with the state Department of Parks and Recreation and other state agencies to realign Carlsbad Boulevard a short distance inland to create more space and protect the lowest sections of the coastal highway from rising sea levels.
“We could create a linear park that’s second to none in California,” said Mayor Matt Hall during last week’s City Council’s discussion of a staff report on options to preserve open space and recreation in the city’s southwest quadrant, the area that includes Ponto Beach.
Trails, pocket parks, beach access and parking could be built on the city-owned land sandwiched between Carlsbad Boulevard and the coast, said Hall, who’s long supported the idea. The city owns about 22 acres stretching 2.7 miles and ranging from about 100 feet to almost 300 feet wide that could be used.
Residents of the Ponto Beach area have a different idea, and have been pushing the council for several years to find a way to build a neighborhood park in their quadrant of the city. The keystone of their proposal is a vacant 11-acre parcel at Ponto Drive and Avenida Encinas, where the owner plans to build a mixture of townhomes and retail shops.
The residents group, People for Ponto, wants the city to buy and preserve the land, which is one of the last undeveloped coastal parcels on the San Diego County coast. They say their quarter of the city has a shortage of park space and that the Ponto property would rectify that.
However, city officials have said that buying the land for a park is not practical. Also, the property owner has repeatedly defended their right to develop the property and not sell it to the city.
A rough estimate of the market value of the property is $45 million, officials said, and any decision for the city to buy the property probably would require a vote of the residents.
“As indicated in our previous testimony and correspondence to the City Council, the Ponto property is not for sale as a park or open space, and the city cannot legally use eminent domain for such purposes over the landowner’s suggestion,” states a July 12 letter to the city from Michele A. Staples of Jackson Tidus, the Irvine law firm representing the owner.
A majority of the speakers and many of the letters submitted to the council on the issue last week supported the idea of building a park on the Ponto property.
“Find a way to make this happen,” said resident Paige DeCino, a member of the local nonprofit Preserve Calavera, adding that state and federal grants and private donations could help fund the project.
“This is exactly the kind of project that can really bring a community together to create something special for the residents and the visitors of today and tomorrow,” she said.
Another Carlsbad resident, Arnie Cohen, saw it differently.
“The biggest challenge I can’t seem to get past is do you have a willing seller,” Cohen said. “And would the whole community vote to spend ... that much money in one area.”
The council stopped short of voting to proceed with the linear park plan, but agreed to discuss it again in an upcoming planning session.
About 10 years ago, city staffers met several times with state parks officials to discuss a possible trade of city and state lands for a portion of the realignment near the Carlsbad Boulevard intersection with Palomar Airport Road. However, the deal failed to get the support it needed in the state Legislature, and the talks fizzled after that.
“There has been a lot of early work done,” said Gary Barberio, deputy city manager of city services, but the linear park project so far has not advanced to the point of recruiting community involvement.
A new park could cost between $50 million and $100 million, Hall said, and the city has other high-priced and unfunded projects on the table such as a proposal to place the downtown railroad tracks in a trench below street level.
“We need to look at all the dreams of our community and have a conversation,” he said, adding that it’s too early to give priority to a single large project.
Councilmember Teresa Acosta, who was elected to her first term in 2018, represents District 4, which includes the southwest quadrant. She said the Ponto property’s “unwilling seller” is a concern for her, and that much of the focus on the site seems to be because the site is vacant.
However, she said, the linear park sounds interesting and, if it was once on the city’s priority list, it should stay there.
“If this is a priority for our community, we need to ... get it done,” she said.
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Carlsbad revisits idea for coastal linear park - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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