PONTO PARK NIXED FROM CARLSBAD LIST

Southwest Carlsbad residents renewed their plea last week for the city to buy property for a park at Ponto Beach, but their request failed to make the City Council’s longterm list of capital improvement projects.

Instead, the city will continue to focus on the creation of a 3-mile-long “linear park” on nearby coastal land the city owns and some it could get in a swap with the state Parks Department along Carlsbad Boulevard from Manzano Drive south to the border of Encinitas. The city recently approved studies to realign 1 mile of Carlsbad Boulevard by moving a piece of it east to avoid erosion and sea level rise.

Residents have asked the city for several years to buy property at the corner of Carlsbad Boulevard and Avenida Encinas, where more than 10 years ago the city approved construction of a mixture of homes, retail shops and restaurants on about 11 acres. The project remains unbuilt on what is one of the area’s last large undeveloped coastal properties, which reportedly is for sale.

“It is quite possibly the most amazing piece of property left on the coast,” said Ponto-area resident Michael Sebahar at a council meeting Tuesday. “It is a once-in-ageneration opportunity. It could be extraordinary, just don’t let it go to condos and random development.”

Councilmember Teresa Acosta, whose district includes the Ponto area, moved to have the city staff look into the cost and any challenges to purchasing the property. Her motion failed on a 2-3 vote, opposed by Mayor Matt Hall and Councilmembers Keith Blackburn and Peder Norby.

“There are too many individuals who want to purchase that property,” Norby said, which would make it timeconsuming and costly.

The council voted 3-2, with Norby and Hall opposed, to support the city’s overall 15year capital improvement program with nearly 300 projects, large and small.

The single most expensive item was pulled from the capital improvement projects to pursue on a separate path — the trenching of the downtown railroad tracks.

The council agreed to make the trenching project part of its five-year “strategic plan” and to work more closely on it with regional agencies as part of plans to add a second set of tracks through downtown Carlsbad.