Educating Batiquitos: A Lesson in Setbacks : Development Delays Have Carlsbad Concerned

It seemed the brightest star in the development firmament of Carlsbad. When builder Don Sammis proposed a 168-acre private graduate university and residential complex on the bluffs north of picturesque Batiquitos Lagoon back in 1985, Carlsbad officials gushed with enthusiasm.

The so-called Batiquitos Lagoon Educational Park would “give Carlsbad world-class status,” declared then-City Councilman Richard Chick. Then-Mayor Mary Casler agreed, saying the university promised to “give our little city nationwide recognition.”

Even Councilman Mark Pettine, the council’s staunchest slow-growth advocate, had kind words for the educational park, calling it a “high-quality” development offering “a wide variety of opportunities and assets for our residents.”

Now, more than three years after the ambitious project was proposed, not a single university building stands on the broad mesa top once carpeted with flower fields. City officials are beginning to grumble, and longtime opponents of the deal are crowing.

‘Sold a Bill of Goods’

Sammis has yet to enlist the sort of high-quality institution that nearly all involved agree will be needed to make the educational park a success. Meanwhile, some prospective tenants have bailed out, and the one law school that appears close to signing on has generated little enthusiasm among Carlsbad officials.

“Right now, it looks like we’ve been sold a bill of goods,” said Councilwoman Ann Kulchin, who voted for the project in 1985. “That’s very foolish to do.”

Amid all the tumult, officials at San Diego-based Sammis Properties remain optimistic that their high-profile project can be pulled off.

“Our confidence in doing this has never been shaken,” said Robert Breunig, director of education and business development at Sammis. “Day by day we’re getting closer to building this project out. . . . What we need is cooperation and patience from the people who we are trying to serve.”

Sammis officials are close to reaching an agreement that would bring the National University law school, currently in a cramped building off Miramar Road in San Diego, to an 80,000-square-foot structure planned at the park, Breunig said. Eventually, the school could have 500 students.

Breunig said the developer is continuing efforts to woo several other colleges to the educational park, although he refused to give any names or discuss the status of negotiations. The process is slow, he said, largely because of the difficulty in obtaining the go-ahead within a college’s administrative hierarchy.

When Sammis Properties first unveiled its plans

for the property, sandwiched between Interstate 5 and the ocean, the developer promised to establish a reputable educational facility anchored by a law school and featuring graduate schools in several disciplines. Among those were schools of public affairs, communication and information science, land use and real estate.

The development was also to include a public policy center, or “think tank,” as well as research and development facilities, a large hotel, convention center, two libraries, three restaurants, convenience and retail stores, and about 600 houses and condominiums around the rim of the site.

In addition, the company planned to build a permanent training center for the U.S. Olympic volleyball squad on the property. Don Sammis is an avid volleyball fan and former owner of two professional teams in the short-lived International Volleyball Assn.

For Sammis Properties, the project represented something of a windfall. While the property had once been zoned for about 600 dwelling units, Sammis could now build all those homes in addition to erecting a wide array of office and commercial buildings.

The project won rave reviews from the City Council, which unanimously approved it in October, 1985. Within a year, however, problems cropped up.

First, negotiations between Sammis and San Diego-based California Western School of Law broke down.

Officials at the law school say Sammis promised to build them a facility at no cost and provide scholarship money to attract high-quality students. But when a written contract arrived, the developer asked that the school help underwrite about one-quarter of the construction costs and allow Sammis officials to award one-third of the seats in each entering class tuition-free.

“It soured us,” said Jan Stiglitz, an associate dean at Cal Western. “When they finally presented us with a written proposal, it wasn’t worth responding to other than to say no.” The school has not talked seriously with Sammis since, he said.

Later, when the developer applied to the city seeking building permits for 129 residential units scheduled for the first phase, city planning officials groused that Sammis had failed to obtain firm commitments from educational institutions interested in locating on the proposed campus.

Sammis responded by steering a parade of administrators from various educational institutions past the City Council to provide testimony as to the importance of the project. Several educators said they wanted to have classes in session at the educational park by the fall of 1987.

After that outpouring of good tidings, the council gave the go-ahead for construction of the dwelling units, buoyed by assurances from city planners that the homes would be characteristic of what would be allowed on the property even if the educational park fell through.

Work began on a number of the houses several months ago, but even that modest step bred controversy. A few weeks ago, nearby residents complained about grading work on the lagoon bluffs.

Residents contend the building pads--the built-up areas of earth on which the foundations are laid--for half a dozen units are too high, in some cases by as much as 11 feet. They say the one- and two-story homes planned atop the pads would create visual blight along the environmentally sensitive lagoon.

While Sammis executives say the higher pads meet all city standards and are needed to provide proper outflow for sewer pipes, Carlsbad planners contend the grading work violates the spirit of setback requirements under the project’s master plan.

Currently, representatives of the developer are working with nearby residents to reach some compromise.

“We’re really trying to find solutions that please everyone,” said Michel Barton, a project assistant with Sammis. “We want to be friends. We don’t want to be at odds.” Among the ideas being bandied about are lowering the grade of the building pads.

On another front, the developer was stung in early January when the president of a Chula Vista architecture school dispatched a critical letter announcing that the institution no longer wanted to be a part of the educational park.

“Sammis Properties has been evasive and misleading in their negotiations with us and, in my opinion, with the City of Carlsbad,” wrote Richard P. Welsh, president of the New School of Architecture. “You used NSA, and other established schools, to convince the city that you would carry out your proposal.”

Welsh concluded that Sammis seemed to have “no intention of constructing educational buildings.” Although the concept of an education park was “farsighted,” Welsh said, the developer “never intended to carry it through.”

Later, however, Welsh backed off on those pronouncements. In a Feb. 3 letter to Sammis Properties, he said that “my earlier letter was written amidst the necessity of finding a permanent facility for NSA.” The school president said he did not mean “to cause any problems for” the developer. He refused to comment further when contacted by phone.

Today, the educational park has only one tenant firmly committed to the project--a fledgling music conservatory that is in the process of raising funds to open its doors.

Chapman College of Orange County has eyed the Batiquitos site for a satellite facility, but Sammis officials refused to comment on the status of negotiations and officials with the school would not return repeated phone calls. The church-supported school was founded by Christian Church Disciples of Christ and has been in the City of Orange since 1954.

Claremont McKenna College--one of the prestigious Claremont Colleges east of Los Angeles--considered opening a small, 2,000-square-foot office at Batiquitos, but those plans are now indefinitely on hold, according to Don Henricksen, vice president for research at the college.

Meanwhile, Sammis officials are more eager to spotlight their successes. Breunig points to the firm’s effort to woo the National University law school as a potential coup for the project.

But while Sammis officials insist the National University facility would help attract top-flight schools to Batiquitos, others are less sure. In particular, they note that the law school has yet to receive accreditation from the American Bar Assn., the key litmus test for schools of law.

“I don’t think Don Sammis will ever build a first-rate graduate educational center around National University,” said Stiglitz of California Western School of Law. “It will take a while for National to get ABA accreditation, and I don’t see many first-rate institutions following a school that doesn’t have that.”

Opponents of the project agreed. “I think what the council envisioned was an acclaimed school, not one that barely has its California accreditation,” said Cindy Ward, a resident near the Batiquitos project. “National University is hardly acclaimed.”

Breunig, however, called National University “a very entrepreneurial school” and said that “Don Sammis has full confidence that National University will be stronger for coming” to the educational park.

Moreover, he said the developer is dedicated to helping the school win accreditation from the ABA, a goal National University administrators predict will be achieved by the mid-1990s.

Most of the City Council, meanwhile, is withholding final judgment on the Batiquitos project.

“I’d be kidding if I said we weren’t concerned,” said Pettine. “If Sammis fails to live up to his commitments, I certainly think the council will want to reevaluate it.”

The council may have that chance relatively soon. In October, Don Sammis faces a deadline to show he has made headway in hauling aboard a reputable school to anchor the project. Some city planning officials contend the developer will be hard-pressed to meet that deadline.

Opponents say they are less than astounded that the project has, so far, failed to produce dividends.

“I’m not surprised,” said Anne Mauch, a longtime foe of the development. “I think there were people on the council who knew perfectly well when Don Sammis first presented his project that it was magic lantern time.”

Mauch and others contend the council should never have allowed the project to go forward in the first place.

“The city could have written its own ticket for the land use on that spot,” Mauch said. “It could have kept the flower fields there with the full blessing and support of the (California) Coastal Commission. . . . Instead, it opted to clone Mission Valley in a flower field.”

Others, however, remain bullish on the Batiquitos concept.

“I think Sammis can carry it off,” said Michael Tseitlin, a founder of the music conservatory seeking to open at the educational park. “I’m not sure it will be a match of the original master plan. Reality is always a little bit different. But I’m quite excited about it. Even if 80% of the master plan comes true, it will be a spectacular community.”

Marc Moore, chancellor of National University’s Vista campus, echoed him.

“As far as educational potential, I think it would be a great place,” Moore said. “It’s a great fertilization ground not only for us but for people of the community. The location is just great. There’s a real need for a campus like this in the coastal North County.”

Indeed, Breunig said the Batiquitos site is uniquely positioned for success, with no similar facility between La Jolla and Irvine.

“We’re very conscious that this site is a precious resource, that everything will be scrutinized, as well it should be,” Breunig said.

“The real question is: Would the community rather have the site covered with condos? Is that what they want? Or do they want something that would be a lasting credit and resource for the area?

“If they want the former, we can do that in a twinkling,” Breunig said. “If they want the latter, they’re going to have to work with us.”