Battle on Growth Takes Different Path in 2 Cities : Carlsbad Council, Citizens’ Group Avoid Clash on Open-Space Issue

Carlsbad council members will establish a citizens’ committee to decide how to preserve open space, avoiding a clash with environmentalists who were threatening to place a slow-growth initiative on the November ballot.

Members of Save Open Space, a group concerned that open space is quickly disappearing in the city, had obtained enough signatures to qualify an initiative that would have curtailed development.

But, during a negotiation session last weekend, a council subcommittee led by Councilmen Eric Larson and Mark Pettine persuaded the majority of SOS members to accept a compromise giving the city authority to file away the initiative, effectively keeping it off the ballot.

The SOS initiative would have required the city to obtain two-thirds voter approval before allowing any development project on land designated as open space.

In addition to forming the committee, whose 15 members will be appointed by the council, the city’s compromise package approved by the council Tuesday calls for a temporary moratorium on zoning changes or General Plan changes that “would decrease the size or diminish the environmental quality of open space.”

Open Spaces Map

Under the compromise, the city will also draft a new open space map, which will identify lagoons, wetlands and other environmentally sensitive lands.

“The role of the citizens’ committee would be to take a hard look at our current open-space programs,” Larson said. “They will be responsible for taking a look at all our policies and city ordinances concerning open space.”

The moratorium could last as long as a year, or be suspended once the committee completes its study.

After a review, the committee will also recommend ways to improve open-space protection. Such a report will then be evaluated by the council for adoption as a city ordinance, Larson said.

Not all SOS members, however, were pleased with the compromise.

“The group has voted to accept the final proposal, but I, being one of the three legal proponents of the initiative, cannot give my consent without protest,” said SOS spokeswoman Anne Mauch.

Mauch, who helped collect more than 4,500 signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot, said the city’s offer changes the group’s original objectives.

“The creation of a citizen’s committee was our idea,” Mauch said. “Some control of the committee was to be given to the community. It was to be separate and in addition to the council’s efforts. But, if the council is appointing all the members, how can we have any control?”

SOS first proposed that half the committee’s members be chosen by the council and that the rest be drafted from a list including members of environmental groups, such as the Audubon Society.

That suggestion, however, was dismissed by the council, which expressed concern that the committee would be dominated by special-interest groups.