Carlsbad, San Marcos Halt Scrap Over Trash Trucks

The cities of Carlsbad and San Marcos, which have been battling for nine months over what route trash trucks should take to the county dump, have called a truce that officials hope will lead to a peace treaty.

In essence, the two cities decided to share the misery of allowing the trucks to chug along their streets.

The Carlsbad council voted unanimously Tuesday to use $200,000 in county funds to build a mile-long bypass road that will steer the trash trucks clear of their neighborhoods on the way to the dump in southern San Marcos. In exchange, San Marcos officials have tentatively agreed to let the trucks, once they have dumped their loads of refuse, exit via another route through their city.

No one was particularly happy with the settlement, but officials with both cities seemed to think it was the best that could be done.

“It’s not really solving our problem,” San Marcos Mayor Lee Thibadeau said, noting that trash trucks will still use the city’s streets. “But it’s a reasonable compromise that gets this dispute behind us so we can deal with the real problem, which is traffic circulation in all our cities.”

Carlsbad Councilwoman Ann Kulchin agreed: “There’s no way everyone will be completely satisfied with everything we did.”

Until last spring, trash haulers serving North County’s coast would typically drive their rigs north on Rancho Santa Fe Road, skirting the eastern edge of the swank La Costa neighborhood of Carlsbad, then head east along a short stretch of Questhaven Road to the dump.

For trash haulers, it not only was the shortest route to the dump from coastal cities such as Encinitas, Solana Beach and Del Mar, but it meant their trucks didn’t have to jockey for position in the crowded main streets of downtown San Marcos.

Residents of La Costa, however, were far from pleased by all the trucks. They complained to city leaders about the noisy, slow vehicles, which chug up Rancho Santa Fe Road about 100 times a day within earshot of their patios and swimming pools.

Worried that the trucks posed a traffic hazard on the hilly, two-lane thoroughfare, the Carlsbad City Council decided to begin enforcing an existing street regulation prohibiting three-axled trucks on the road.

That meant trash haulers were forced to travel an extra nine miles--and an extra 20 minutes--on each trip to the dump. Moreover, the longer route increased fuel costs.

The ban especially irked San Marcos officials. Trash trucks now were forced to enter San Marcos by way of Palomar Airport Road, which intersects Rancho Santa Fe Road at one of the city’s busiest intersections, before traveling south to Questhaven Road.

Fighting fire with fire, the San Marcos City Council countered by threatening to impose a $405 fee on every truck each time it entered the city. The money would go to widen and improve the city’s streets to better handle the trash-hauling traffic.

While the fee would help San Marcos, it would hurt other North County residents. According to trash haulers, the fee would have doubled or tripled trash pickup rates throughout the area.

During the late summer, city leaders from San Marcos and Carlsbad began trying to settle the dispute. Months swept by, but no compromise was reached. If anything, the dispute only seemed to flare. Indeed, in recent weeks, San Marcos officials laid down a Jan. 31 deadline for Carlsbad to reopen its road through La Costa or the $405 fee would be imposed.

After months of stumbling and grumbling, officials from the two cities finally sat down for 2 1/2 hours Tuesday and reached the tentative accord.

Under the plan, which goes before the San Marcos City Council next Tuesday for ratification, the trash trucks will use the new bypass to get to the dump, but then steer along San Marcos streets to return home.

The bypass, expected to be completed by the end of April, will break off just north of La Costa Avenue and snake along the old route of Rancho Santa Fe Road, which was abandoned several years ago and left to the weeds.

Officials say that route, which runs several hundred feet to the east of the new road, should not only put the trucks out of earshot from the La Costa homes, but also ease the traffic hazards created by the vehicles on Rancho Santa Fe Road. The truck bypass will rejoin Rancho Santa Fe Road just south of Questhaven Road.

Once the trucks have dumped their loads they will head to the coast via San Marcos streets.

Residents, however, have expressed displeasure with the compromise.

At the Carlsbad council meeting Tuesday, several La Costa homeowners complained that the settlement still meant the trash trucks would be traveling near their homes.

Carlsbad officials, however, say such gripes cannot be helped.

“Lots of people are lobbying to have the road closed completely to through traffic,” said Frank Aleshire, Carlsbad city manager. “They want it to be a residential street with a dead end and have the city build a road to the dump somewhere else.

“Well, that’s pretty hard to do. That road has been there a long time. It once was a stage coach route. It’s been on the city’s master plan as a major road for as long as anyone can remember.” In fact, Carlsbad officials say that when Rancho Santa Fe Road is expanded to six lanes north of La Costa Avenue, a project expected to begin in about five years, the bypass route will be abandoned and trucks will travel on the main road.

Thibadeau said the compromise probably won’t please San Marcos residents much more--especially those living along the route taken by the trash trucks.

If anything, he said, the only tangible benefit the compromise will give those residents will be to cut in half the number of times each day that a trash truck will pass by their homes. Problems with noise will only be effectively tackled with the construction of sound walls, a task the San Marcos council still must address, Thibadeau said.

Still, there are significant advantages, he said. Since the trucks will be empty when passing through San Marcos, there should be less wear and tear on city streets and the vehicles will be able to operate more safely, as they will have dumped their heavy loads of refuse.

“Hopefully,” he said, “this is something we can all live with.”