Plan to Build on Old Grove Spurs Protest in Carlsbad

When 6-year-old Justin Piro is looking for excitement, he walks out his door and wanders into Hosp Grove.

A dense stand of eucalyptus trees carpeting hillsides that rise from Buena Vista Lagoon’s southern shore, Hosp Grove is a natural wonderland brimming with wildlife and the outdoor adventures upon which boyhood are built.

“The grove is every kid’s dream,” said Jeff Piro, Justin’s father. “My son plays Tarzan the jungle man in there, and he loves to poke around the frog pond. It makes him feel like we live in the wilderness.”

Justin is not alone. Residents throughout Carlsbad and neighboring cities have long treasured the eucalyptus grove both as a cool, refreshing place to explore and a lush visual respite from the rapid urbanization on the city’s northwest edge.

But now a developer is making a pitch to turn the remnants of Hosp Grove--which has been eaten away by development to 60 acres over the past 20 years--into a forest of apartments. The Odmark Development Co. of San Diego wants to cut down hundreds of trees on a 25-acre site and plant a 216-unit apartment complex in their place.

The proposal, which has won the endorsement of the Carlsbad Planning Commission, goes before the City Council tonight.

“If they succeed, a major jewel will be lost,” Piro said. “The wildlife wouldn’t have a chance in the few trees they plan to leave standing. The lagoon would be environmentally dead from the urban runoff. And an important piece of Carlsbad history would be destroyed.”

Piro, for one, is determined to protect the forest from such a fate. He and a feisty flock of Carlsbad residents are pleading with the council to attempt to buy Hosp Grove, which is valued at more than $2 million, and preserve it either as parkland or a historical wilderness area. Another option involves the swap of the grove for property elsewhere in Carlsbad.

The Neighborhood Alliance to Save Hosp Grove has gathered about 1,500 signatures on petitions protesting the development, and about 70 people turned out to register their dissent at an informal public hearing last week. At least one councilman, Mark Pettine, supports the effort to protect the tall, thin trees from the bulldozer’s blade.

“I’d like the city to take a stand and preserve one of the last remaining pieces of nature in Carlsbad,” Pettine said. “The council had the opportunity to purchase the grove 20 years ago and failed. Let’s not miss out this time.”

It is not clear whether the property owner is amenable to selling Hosp Grove. Neither Odmark Co. officials, who are in the process of purchasing the land, nor their agents in Carlsbad returned telephone calls Monday from The Times.

The proposed project would be built just south of the Plaza Camino Real shopping mall at the intersection of Marron Road and Monroe Street. Plans call for two- and three-story buildings in a complex heavily landscaped and designed to blend with the trees that will be left standing.

Carlsbad Planning Director Mike Holzmiller said his staff has “done all it can within the limits of our master plan to minimize the impact this project will have on the grove.”

The city has required the developer to replant the 470 trees it destroys on a one-to-one basis and retain trees on the perimeter of the property to minimize the development’s visual impact. Holzmiller said the majority of the grove would be reestablished within five years.

“Of course, it’s not going to be a secluded forest like it is now,” Holzmiller said. “It’s going to be a thinner forest with a project in the middle of it. But our position is . . . we tried to make sure we saved as many of the trees as possible while still allowing the guy to develop his property according to our master plan.”

Topping the alliance’s list of arguments against the development is the question of its impact on the environment. Residents in the area say the development will destroy habitat used by red-tail hawks, raccoons, coyotes, possums and numerous indigenous and migratory birds. Furthermore, they worry that siltation from the site will flow into nearby Buena Vista Lagoon, despite a city ordinance requiring the developer to build catch basins.

Traffic is another concern. As commercial and residential development near the mall has continued, congestion on El Camino Real, California 78 and other roadways in the area has worsened.

“Our streets are not elastic,” said Kay Christiansen, a lifelong Carlsbad resident whose family once owned Hosp Grove. “If they put another 200-plus units in this area, it’s going to be very nearly intolerable.”

Some residents bemoan the loss of what they call a “natural buffer” between the southern portion of Carlsbad and the busy commercial area of the city surrounding the mall.

And there is a potent historical argument for saving the grove as well, Piro and Christiansen said. The grove was planted in 1907 by E.F. Hosp, an Oceanside nursery owner, and his two Los Angeles partners. The three intended to make a million dollars by selling the imported Australian trees as wood for railroad ties.

“They figured those lovely, fast and straight-growing tree trunks would make lovely railroad ties, because when you first cut it, the wood’s soft as butter,” said Christiansen, 77, who was forced for financial reasons to sell the 223-acre grove in 1961. “But they soon found the wood hardens like flint, and they couldn’t get spikes into it.”