The City Council of Carlsbad received a wakeup call in January. The recently formed group called the Concerned Citizens for Carlsbad, and their lawyer Peter Lind, forced the issue through a Public Records Act request for the private talks regarding the Strawberry Fields development plans to be made public, and the records of those talks to be published. Carlsbad City has complied and stated that these were only preliminary talks, and there were no deals or plans being made; just ideas floating around, and creative options being explored.

While this may be true, detailed plans were being created, and the meetings which prompted these plans under the guidance of Sterling Consulting came at the cost of $150,000.00. The City of Carlsbad states that no public officials have been in these meetings, so they are not a real concern, however the point was made that activities like this tend to gain momentum after a while and become official simply because of the mass and inertia they have accumulated. 150k for coffee and some drawings, seems like a good start down that road of mass and inertia.

The land in question is currently owned by San Diego Gas & Electric. Due to some previous dealings Lennar Inc., the developer talking with the city officials at these meetings, holds options to purchase 255 acres of strawberry fields and 26 acres between Cannon and Legoland and 46 acres south of Cannon and east of Car Country Drive. Most of the land is designated as open space, however over the last few years the city has held several public meetings discussing the areas development potential. Because of its central location in the community it would be a good spot for a new Civic Center complex.

As a group, the Concerned Citizens for Carlsbad wish to preserve the strawberry fields and the open land area as they are currently designated. In order for any of the proposed plans being created in these meetings to achieve fruition, the area would need to be re-zoned, and hearings before the Planning commission and City Council would have to be done, as a normal process. The Concerned Citizens for Carlsbad group however is pushing for an initiative to be placed on the November ballot to preserve the strawberry fields south of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, two large tracts near Legoland, and the Flower Fields near Palomar Airport Road for agriculture.

With areas near the waterfronts and around the lagoons closing up fast over the last few years it is no wonder that the citizens of Carlsbad are willing to make some strong efforts to preserve them. However, the talks with developers were not “out of the blue”, they have in fact been a very long time in coming. The council has sponsored several programs over the last year to gather information from the community voice, so that it can make good decisions and focus its attention on the hot spot areas. Denise Vedder, Carlsbad’s communications manager, said development ideas have been discussed publicly as part of the city’s “Connecting Community, Place and Spirit” process. She said the concept of developing residential units on the property came up at a public meeting in November that included representatives of Concerned Citizens for Carlsbad as well as Lennar.

Another prompting for looking into development ideas for this area, could have come from the growing, and long term problem of migrant worker housing. You don’t have to search very long on the topic of this land area to see that it has a long history of migrant worker housing problems. In fact, back in 2003, the City of Carlsbad Council voted to construct low cost apartments for migrant workers, whose work camps have been a social problem for many years. Every year a few hundred migrant workers are brought into the area for the Strawberry fields, the Leslie Fields and the Flower Fields. These workers are given no housing and are forced to live in camps near the fields. At least five times since year 2000, these shanty town camps were bulldozed by police and city warrants, in mid season, with no solution for where these workers were suppose to go afterwards.

Though the city did vote to have these apartments created, it has not created them, citing budget problems and lack of funds. So, looking for a solution to the Fields problem could have begun the talks with the developer who might be able to remove the fields from the equation. If there are no fields, there is no reason to have migrant workers, shanty towns or low cost apartments for the workers.

Whatever the reason for the behind-closed-door start to this situation, the talks are open for public hearing now, and the City Council is much more aware of the public’s view on the matters of open agricultural areas.

Posted by Glenn Hefley in Example-News Story