Council Reverses Decision on East-West Route : Transit: Action leaves the fate of proposed Route 56 path through Carmel Valley up to Coastal Commission.

In a victory for coastal property owners, the San Diego City Council rescinded its earlier controversial decision to link a new east-west freeway to Interstate 5 at Carmel Valley.

The council also unanimously approved an extension of the proposed highway, Route 56, in Rancho Penasquitos at its eastern link with Interstate 15. But, after heated and organized opposition from residents in the Carmel Valley area, it took back its earlier vote rezoning the freeway route through North City West at its the western link to Interstate 5 at the coast.

The decision, however, did not mean that the highway might not eventually link that area. The council’s action leaves the fate of the western link to the Coastal Commission.

Route 56, which has been in state highway plans for a quarter of a century, is designed to link fast-growing inland communities with coastal freeways near Del Mar. Coastal residents have opposed the route, while inland residents have pushed for its construction to relieve near-gridlock on Interstate 15 during heavy commuting hours.

The action rescinding an earlier rezoning of the freeway route through Carmel Valley came in response to a successful petition campaign by the Carmel Valley Coalition, a group of property owners along the western end of the proposed freeway route.

The coalition gathered nearly 50,000 signatures on referendum petitions calling for the council members either to change the alignment through Carmel Valley or to put the measure to a citywide vote.

When the petitions, turned in last week, proved to have sufficient signatures to force the measure to a vote, the city clerk’s staff hurried it onto the council’s Tuesday agenda, the last meeting agenda before their four-week “legislative recess,” so that council members could decide whether to place it on the Nov. 6 ballot--at a cost of about $40,000--rather than delaying the decision until their return in September when the deadline for the Nov. 6 ballot would be past. A special election on the freeway issue would cost about $850,000, City Atty. John Witt estimated.

The council rejected a motion to place the issue on the Nov. 6 ballot by a 3-4 vote, then agreed 6 to 1 to rescind its earlier zoning action, after Asst. City Atty. Curtis Fitzpatrick advised that its action probably would not affect the construction of the freeway.

“The zoning ordinance was adopted at the insistence of the (state) Coastal Commission staff,” Fitzpatrick said, explaining that rezoning of a small portion of the freeway route from residential use to open space would make it easier for the commission staff to recommend approval of the route to the commissioners.

However, Ellen Lirley, spokeswoman for the regional Coastal Commission staff, said she was unaware of such a request. “I am sure that we would not have required the city to take such an action,” she said.

She said that the Coastal Commission will take up the Route 56 issue along with a number of other road and highway improvements in the Del Mar-North City West area during its Sept. 11-14 meeting in Marina del Rey.

“I cannot see how rescinding the zoning action can affect the freeway, except perhaps to move the alignment a few feet or so to the south,” Lirley said. “It possibly could delay construction, but not stop it.”

The Carmel Valley Coalition wants to detour the $28-million, 2-mile-long Route 56 alignment out of Carmel Valley and move the route south, outside the developed portions of North City West.

Kevin McNamara, president of the Rancho Penasquitos Town Council and head of the newly-formed Save 56 group, told council members that the rescinding of their earlier action would have “absolutely no effect” on Route 56. He challenged the council to put the issue to a citywide vote because “we are willing to spend the time and money to find out what the people of San Diego really think about selfish neighborhoods” of North City West that oppose the cross-county freeway.

Jerry Mailhot, co-chairman of the Carmel Valley Coalition, said the group does not oppose construction of Route 56 but does oppose having it run through North City West’s established neighborhoods. That plan also would have threatened sensitive wetlands around Penasquitos Lagoon, he said.

Several environmental spokesmen unsuccessfully sought Tuesday to have the council to delay approval of the half-mile eastern link between Rancho Penasquitos Boulevard and Black Mountain Road because it would run through a nesting site of the California gnatcatcher, a bird that is a candidate for endangered species status.

However, Caltrans has required the county to provide a gnatcatcher nesting site in Ramona to mitigate for loss of a similar-sized site in the path of the route through a Rancho Penasquitos Canyon.

But Mayor Maureen O’Connor interrupted Bernhardt to remind her that the action approving the eastern segment of Route 56 already had been taken and that further discussion was improper.

The east-west freeway probably will not be completed before the year 2000, a Caltrans engineer said, because of the problems with financing the middle portion of the 9-mile route between I-15 and I-5. The alignment runs through the city of San Diego’s urban reserve, where major development requires citywide voter approval, he said. Without developer contributions, no funding for the middle part of the route is available.