A majority of the Carlsbad City Council has sided with residents who oppose adding sidewalks in the beachfront Terramar neighborhood along Carlsbad Boulevard, dropping another element of changes first proposed for the area in 2013.
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Originally, the proposal included a roundabout at Cannon Road, lighted crosswalks, seating areas, landscaping and other beachfront access improvements at or near the intersection.
The plan has been downsized over the years, and the City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday to proceed only with repaving and restriping the asphalt. Councilmembers Teresa Acosta and Priya Bhat-Patel voted no after saying there should be a way to compromise.
“We need to have the sidewalk on at least one side of the street,” Acosta said, adding that the project had been “stuck in limbo for a long time.”
“We need to adjust to the times and be sure that our entire community is benefitting,” she said. “We cannot just leave it like it is because it always has been that way.”
She and Bhat-Patel pushed to add a sidewalk on at least one side of the road and preserve more of the parking, but the others did not support that.
“I am not inclined to support anything that takes away parking,” said Councilmember Melanie Burkholder. “The fact is that parking will then spill over onto neighborhood streets in the area.”
Parking that would be sacrificed for the sidewalks has been one of the most frequently heard concerns, usually from residents along Carlsbad Boulevard. Their homes just south of Cannon Road are among the few in San Diego County with driveways directly onto the boulevard, also known as Highway 101.
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Many of the residents park on the unpaved shoulder of the road, where they compete for space with surfers and beachgoers who visit during the day.
“Where am I going to park to get to my own house … blocks and blocks away, with my groceries or tools or children, furniture, supplies or whatever?” said Paul Macmanus, a resident on the west side of Carlsbad Boulevard for 35 years.
He and others have said less parking along the highway would send more people looking for spaces on nearby crowded residential streets.
The proposed sidewalks would eliminate about half of the available parking in the project area, said Tom Frank, transportation director and city engineer.
An 8-foot-wide sidewalk is recommended on the west side of Carlsbad Boulevard because of the large number of pedestrians, Frank said. The city standard for sidewalks is 6 feet, though some farther north near Tamarack Avenue are 12 feet wide.
Mayor Keith Blackburn said the council could still add sidewalks in the future. He supported the Carlsbad Planning Commission’s recommendation to wait until a settlement is final between the city, NRG Energy and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. on a land swap at the northeast corner of Carlsbad Boulevard and Cannon.
Carlsbad will get 6 acres of seaside property in a deal stemming from the city’s 2014 agreement to allow construction of a power plant to replace the old plant along Agua Hedionda Lagoon. The city could use some of the property for parking.
