Carlsbad Gives Final OK to Lagoon Project

The city of Carlsbad has given final approval to a $1-billion development on the shores of Batiquitos Lagoon--a move that its detractors fear may signal the beginning of the end for the scenic wetlands preserve.

The City Council on Tuesday night granted unanimous approval to the final maps for the first phase of the Aviara project on the northern shore of the lagoon. The Hillman Properties development is to include up to 1,500 homes, a luxury hotel, an 18-hole golf course, aquatic sports facilities and public improvements, including an elementary school and a nature trail.

The total parcel of 1,400 acres--formerly owned by the billionaire Hunt brothers of Texas--will eventually hold a maximum of 2,800 homes, convention facilities and possibly an Olympic training facility. Grading has already begun on the project, and construction is expected to continue for the next decade.

‘Nicest in the Country’

The council happily gave its seal of approval to the project, which City Manager Ray Patchett described as “one of the nicest in the country, there’s no doubt.” The master-planned community will utilize Mediterranean-style architecture and will be built with the resort and golf course as the focal point.

The Aviara project is the second major housing development the city has approved for the north shore of Batiquitos Lagoon. More than three years ago the city council unanimously approved a $250-million project by Sammis Properties that promised a world-class college along with a residential area. So far, 70 expensive, single-family homes have been built on the bluffs west of Interstate 5 overlooking the lagoon, but the rest of the project has been indefinitely stalled.

When the ambitious plans for the “Batiquitos Lagoon Educational Park” were approved, developer Don Sammis was given a three-year deadline to lure an academic institution to the site. But, in addition to other problems, Sammis has yet to offer proof that the promised university will materialize, critics charge. The City Council must now decide whether to grant the developer an extension, tell him to redesign his project or put a halt on it altogether.

Tuesday’s approval of the final maps for the Hillman Properties project clears the way for the developer to obtain building permits and start working, according to Planning Director Michael Holzmiller. In this case, Hillman may now proceed on the hotel and golf course, but must still seek the approval of the Planning Commission for the final layout and design of the residential portion of the first phase, Holzmiller said.

“We always thought a resort and golf course was a neat idea for the city, but getting that without destroying the environment was a real problem,” Holzmiller said. The maps approved Tuesday differ substantially from the plans first submitted by the Hunts more than five years ago, he said. The initial proposal was to build more than 5,000 residential units, with three or four times as much grading and no protection of the environment, Holzmiller said.

Holzmiller said the city has worked with the developers of Aviara for two or three years to come up with a more environmentally sensitive plan. Now the developers are required, among other things, to preserve many of the existing trees, stay off most of the hillsides, and move the entire development back from the shore of the lagoon to provide a buffer area.

But even those concessions have failed to mollify some opponents. “People are impressed that it’s going to be upscale,” said slow-growth activist Anne Mauch. “But I just think it’s a complete misuse of the land. It’s typical of what the Coastal Commission was formed to prevent.”

Local environmental activist Delores Welty echoed that sentiment: “It’s nothing more than an overly dense housing project in an inappropriate place,” she said. “If the city had been in the least interested in keeping their open space--and I don’t think they are--they could have forced a deal on the Hunts that could have benefited the future of California by leaving this lagoon natural,” Welty said.

“There should never have been any homes allowed on the slopes leading down to the lagoon,” she said. “It’s a travesty.”