Opening Up Lagoon for the Public : Boardwalks: Proposals to build walkways along the Buena Vista Lagoon in Oceanside and Carlsbad would allow greater access to the scenic habitat.

Two scenic boardwalks are being proposed for Southern California’s only freshwater lagoon, including one that would stretch from Carlsbad to Oceanside along the tranquil Buena Vista Lagoon.

Carlsbad parks and recreation officials have recommended spending $1.3 million for a mile-long boardwalk and sidewalk along the 240-acre lagoon’s southern boundary, from the popular duck feeding area to a city park near the ocean.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit Buena Vista Lagoon Foundation is pushing an estimated $500,000 plan, introduced late last year, to build a quarter-mile boardwalk at the lagoon’s western end that would run beside Carlsbad Boulevard to Hill Street in Oceanside.

The walkways would give pedestrians, bicyclists and bird watchers better access to the lagoon, home to more than 200 wildlife species including the endangered least tern, and a favored fishing hole for lovers of bass and catfish.

Formed during the rapid rise in sea level when the last Ice Age ended at least 10,000 years ago, the lagoon today sits by Interstate 5 and California 78.

Referring to the proposed western boardwalk, foundation president Ron Wootton said, “This is literally building a bridge between Oceanside and Carlsbad that would provide a way for visitors not only to enjoy the amenities of both cities, but nature.”

While the proposed boardwalks have clearly spurred interest, funding is still uncertain and officials caution that it may be years before the walkways are completed.

Carlsbad’s interest in building a walkway was included in a proposed $11-million park development plan for the city’s northwest corner. The plan includes expansion or improvements to Hosp Grove and Maxton Brown Park. The city council has reviewed the plan and sent it back to staff for more work.

Parks and Recreation Director David Bradstreet said the southern boardwalk, which would have a 1,000-square-foot observation deck, would begin at the lagoon side of Jefferson Street at the duck feeding area and extend .3 miles westerly to I-5.

From the freeway west to Maxton Brown Park near the ocean, a distance of 0.8 miles, the city’s plan calls for a sidewalk linkage that would skirt sensitive bird habitat and private property at the lagoon.

A boardwalk rather than a sidewalk had been considered for the freeway-to-park leg, but Bradstreet said homeowners had raised objections to similar proposals in the past “and (the Department of) Fish and Game didn’t want people in the bird sanctuary area.” So the city decided to hook the last leg away from the bird sanctuary with a sidewalk.

While city approval of the southern boardwalk-sidewalk proposal is pending, the lagoon foundation is waiting for the city to take the lead in pursuing the western boardwalk, believing the two boardwalk plans should go hand-in-hand.

As the foundation sees it, a Carlsbad-to-Oceanside boardwalk between Maxton Brown Park and the Buena Vista Audubon Society Nature Center in Oceanside would provide a beautiful view and keep pedestrians and fishermen somewhat removed from heavily-traveled Carlsbad Boulevard.

Environmentalists, however, caution that a boardwalk must be done sensitively.

“We think it’s great that people want to enjoy the lagoon, but any such boardwalk would have to be put in very carefully so it wouldn’t destroy the wildlife,” said Karen Messer, conservation chair of the Buena Vista Audubon Society. “A lot of nesting birds use the lagoon.”

A landscape architect has drawn plans for a wood-plank boardwalk on elevated piers three feet above the lagoon.

A boardwalk at the lagoon, which is a state-owned ecological reserve, was discussed in the 1960s, but Wootten said the idea “didn’t go very far at that time.”

This time, he and other foundation members believe the boardwalk can be built if funding is found. Wootten said the foundation will explore funding sources, such as private donations, grants or money from the state’s environmental license plate fund.

However, he said the foundation relies on Carlsbad to lead the way, perhaps by spending a reimbursable $50,000 for a design study. “Carlsbad has agreed, philosophically at least, to be the lead agency,” Wootten said.

So far, though, the city doesn’t appear to have made the western boardwalk a high priority.

Bradstreet said, “I believe the city’s position is that’s a foundation issue.”

Carlsbad City Councilman Eric Larson said there’s support for the foundation’s idea, but the city is taking a “conservative approach” because no funding source has been determined, and the city is waiting for the Department of Fish and Game to say whether it would support the western boardwalk.

“I think everybody’s agreed it’s a wonderful idea,” Larson said.

Either boardwalk proposal would require both local and state approval.