Groups Oppose San Elijo Lagoon Project

A condominium project proposed for the steep northern slopes above San Elijo Lagoon has brought opposition from environmentalists and San Dieguito residents, who have blocked development of Holmwood Canyon on the southern shores of the ocean inlet.

The landowner, Donald T. Shelley, has applied for a San Diego County permit to build 119 condominium units on an 11.4-acre site west of Interstate 5 on Manchester Avenue.

Bob Bonde, spokesman for the Cardiff Town Council, said that body had not been informed of the project, “but it appears to be another in the flurry of activity generated because of our incorporation efforts. We have begged the Board of Supervisors not to allow further developments until after the incorporation vote.”

Bonde leads a coalition seeking to incorporate four San Dieguito communities--Cardiff, Encinitas, Leucadia and Olivenhain--into a single city if voters approve the plan in an election scheduled for June.

The development proposal will be heard by the county’s Planning and Environmental Review Board on Thursday, but Steve Apple, county project manager, said that no decision will be made on the environmentally sensitive project until in-depth studies are completed.

Scott Englehorn, representative of the San Elijo Lagoon Alliance, said that he has sent a letter to the county Planning and Land Use Department urging that studies be conducted to determine if the lagoon would be harmed by the proposed project.

Englehorn asked that the county planners consider whether the “steep unstable slopes” that rise 110 feet above the lagoon will create an erosion and sedimentation problem if developed at a maximum density of 10.4 units per acre. He warned that the project could pose erosion and sedimentation problems in the salt-water lagoon, which is a nesting place for many species of waterfowl and wetland creatures.

Apple said that the county planning group would take no action on the project this week or until further studies had been made. The property, which lies between a highway viewpoint and the lagoon, “needs a much more serious review” before any action is taken, Apple said.

He also proposed that any development be limited in height so that buildings would not block scenic ocean and lagoon views from I-5 and be limited to a density that would not cause traffic congestion on Manchester Avenue.

Apple said the development proposal had been advertised in the Union-Tribune newspapers and that notices had been sent to property owners within 300 feet of the site.

Residents and environmentalists were successful in persuading county supervisors to borrow $1 million from the state Coastal Conservancy to help acquire the 16-acre Holmwood Canyon property on the southern shores of the San Elijo Lagoon in Solana Beach where developers sought to build 38 homes.

Residents in the Cardiff area said that there were reports that historians thought the north shore site might contain a burial ground that should be protected or moved before any grading or construction is allowed.