Carlsbad Derails Commuter Depot Plan

The Carlsbad City Council on Tuesday withdrew its support of plans to build a downtown commuter rail station. The 4-0 vote, with Councilwoman Margaret Stanton abstaining, rescinded a 1990 council decision approving the Grand Avenue and State Street station.

Council members cited the growing opposition from Carlsbad residents, including downtown merchants, to the station. Residents claimed that it would damage local businesses, create traffic jams and bring undesirables into the heart of the city.

Mayor Bud Lewis, who originally voted for the station in 1990, said that then there was strong support among residents for bringing the rail downtown.

“The residents we talked to said it was not such a bad thing for Carlsbad,” Lewis said. “We are in deep trouble with the highway system we have now.”

Officials with North County Transit District, the lead agency in the $140-million Oceanside-to-San Diego commuter rail project, have said the proposed station on Grand Avenue in downtown Carlsbad is a key element in the plan.

Although it is only one of nine stations that must be built within the next two years if rail service is to begin on time in 1994, it is one of the five North County feeder stations expected to provide most of the ridership, said Pete Aadland, NCTD marketing officer.

Under current plans two stations about four miles apart would be built in Carlsbad. Others would be built in Oceanside, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Sorrento Valley, Miramar Road, Old Town and at the downtown Santa Fe Depot.

“All of these stations are critical to the success of the commuter rail operation,” Aadland said recently.

“When you only have five (feeder) stations and talk about eliminating one, that is potentially a fifth of your ridership,” he said.

But Carlsbad council members found themselves bombarded Tuesday with testimony from opponents who claim the downtown station will force some businesses to move out, cost jobs and destroy the village atmosphere.

“It is not good for Carlsbad and it’s going to displace the oldest business in Carlsbad, which is my livelihood,” Craig Bauer, co-owner of Bauer Lumber Inc. on State Street, said recently. Bauer, whose business was founded by family members in 1922, said he might be forced to move because the lumber yard is on leased rail right-of-way being taken for the station.

Opponents drew strong support from the city’s Master Plan Advisory Committee, which voted June 22 to urge the council to oppose the downtown site.

Committee members said the station was neither required nor desired in the downtown area and traffic caused by commuters trying to reach the station would cause problems.

They also said the station would significantly alter the small town atmosphere of the downtown area locals call “the Village.”