Refuse Finally Finds a Route to San Marcos Dump

A compromise on a route for trash haulers to get to the county’s San Marcos landfill was adopted Tuesday night by the San Marcos City Council. The pact ends a brouhaha between the city and neighboring Carlsbad that had threatened to spill over into most of North County in the form of increased trash pickup rates.

By a 4-1 vote, the San Marcos council accepted an agreement with Carlsbad that calls for Carlsbad to finish building a half-mile bypass loop on Rancho Santa Fe Road for the exclusive use of trash trucks. The loop will detour the vehicles from the La Costa residential neighborhood abutting Rancho Santa Fe Road.

Carlsbad officials have promised to complete the loop by March 30. Until then, trash truck traffic remains barred from Rancho Santa Fe Road.

The agreement calls for the loaded, northbound trash trucks from along the coast south of Carlsbad to use the new loop east of La Costa. Returning drivers will leave San Marcos westbound via Palomar Airport Road, instead of using Rancho Santa Fe Road southbound.

Carlsbad last year banned three-axle trucks from Rancho Santa Fe Road, saying they were a traffic hazard and a nuisance to residents of La Costa. San Marcos protested, however, because the ban forced the trucks to enter San Marcos through busy intersections closer to the heart of town.

The San Marcos council had threatened to charge each truck $405 to enter the city, to generate funds to improve the city’s streets to handle the increased trash truck traffic. Trash haulers said they would have passed that added cost on to their customers.

Haulers have indicated they may be able to absorb the added cost of driving out of San Marcos on the the less-direct Palomar Airport Road, rather than on Rancho Santa Fe Road.

Voting against the compromise was Councilman Corky Smith, who argued that the city was backing down to Carlsbad. Other council members said the compromise was in the best interest of the two cities.