Letters to the editor

Preserving Quarry Creek 

For over 15 years I have been sharing my family home with thousands of local residents.

My family home, the Marron-Hayes Adobes Historic District, and the grounds that surround it are a living history museum going back 9,000 years. From the sacred El Salto Waterfall at the head of the Buena Vista Creek Valley, to the adobe in the center, to the creek that was the boundary between two early missions, to the site of first contact in 1769 by the Portola expedition — we have it all.

The value of these resources have been documented numerous times over the years — with a plaque by Native Daughters of the Golden West, eligibility for the National Historic Registry, and the listing as a sacred site El Salto Waterfall by the California Native American Heritage Commission.

Now a developer, McMillin, is proposing to build 656 homes in the heart of this valley. The Carlsbad City Council will make their decision at 6 p.m. March 26. This is the last chance for the residents of this area to help determine the fate of this valley. Please join me in telling the Mayor and Council to preserve the little we have left of our rich local history- and move development off the panhandle. Your children and grandchildren will thank you. Please call me at (760) 729-1818.

Shelley Hayes Caron,

Marron- Hayes Adobes Historic District

For years I have observed Carlsbad city official’s failure to acquire open space despite passage of Measure C in 2002. The proposed development of 656 housing units at Quarry Creek is an opportunity for them to honor this vote, and the recommendation of the Open Space Committee to acquire this land. But history shows us there is not an even playing field when it comes to the citizens and developers. Developers hold private meetings with the mayor and council members while citizens advocating for land preservation have limited access. Developers get asked numerous questions at public hearings, while project opponents get none. Unequal treatment built into the land-use decision process marginalizes such citizens and diminishes their impact.

Preserving the panhandle of the Quarry Creek project preserves the most significant natural, cultural and historical site left in Carlsbad. The City Council can do this as a fair compromise — building denser, higher and more affordable in order to preserve more land for open space. Will the City Council listen to their residents? Or will the developers’ voice be the only one that matters? Attend the City Council hearing at 6 p.m. March 26 and see for yourself who they listen to.

Mary Anne Viney,

Carlsbad

 

Adobe back on most endangered list

That was a headline for a June 22, 2012 story in The Coast News. The Marron-Hayes Adobe had been added back to the Save Our Heritage Organizations (SOHO) 2012 list of most endangered historic resources. The Adobe had been on the list before in 2003 when there was talk of placing the Rancho del Oro freeway interchange right next to it. Now the threat is building 656 homes all around it with the sprawling Quarry Creek development. Instead of looking out on hundreds of acres of land one will be looking at hundreds of houses. Bruce Coons, Executive Director of SOHO, explained why this area is so important, “We have very few adobes from the Mexican-Rancho period of California and this one is extremely important and almost none of them are in their original settings.” We are so fortunate to have one of the most significant historic resources in all of San Diego County right here. Please ask the Carlsbad Mayor and City Council to shrink the Quarry Creek development off the panhandle. We don’t want our history to become extinct.

Tese Gorszwick,

Carlsbad

 

Carlsbad traffic dangerous for Oceanside seniors

The proposed Quarry Creek Project near College Boulevard and state Route 78 doesn’t just cause traffic gridlock for drivers — it is a pedestrian safety nightmare. Just east of College Boulevard on Lake Boulevard there are five senior housing complexes. My mother-in-law lives in one. Every day mobility impaired seniors — often in wheelchairs or using walkers, are seen trying to cross College at Lake to go shopping in the Quarry Creek Center.

This is one of the busiest pedestrian intersections in the entire city of Oceanside. But the streets were certainly not designed with pedestrians in mind. Visibility is poor, there is no safety island, and signals are timed for fast moving cars — not seniors in wheelchairs. There are already seven lanes of traffic and two bicycle lanes to cross. What will adding thousands of more cars a day for the Quarry Creek project do to this already unsafe area? Whose mother will be struck by a car trying to do her shopping? Tell the Oceanside City Council to keep up the barrier behind Walmart. Let Carlsbad keep their own traffic. Let us give our seniors a fighting chance to do basic things — like cross a street.

Tom Reeser,

Oceanside

Re: Initiative headed for special election

Since 1999, I have provided my office as a polling place for elections in Cardiff. Presidential, primaries, and local. The lame decision by the Encinitas City Council to hold a special election at a cost to taxpayers of $350,000 on June 18 for an issue that should be handled by our elected officials has made me rethink closing my office once again for a full business day this June.

Can’t this issue wait until a regularly scheduled election at no cost to taxpayers? Or not at all? If the council finds this issue so important, they should open their own homes and offices as polling spots.

Regrettable, my office will not be available. I will miss seeing all my neighbors coming by to vote.

Since our elected officials can’t resist spending our money, the $350,000 could better be used towards a Wayside Horn System, as the city of Del Mar has done. This would be a much smarter way to allot funds, and a true benefit to thousands of Encinitas and Cardiff residents who are impacted by the train horns.

Kurt Hubert,

Cardiff

 

Need for city news bulletins

Thanks for being the alternative to the U-T and our continued hope for objective news reporting. I am sure you will grow!

I was at an Oceanside council meeting recently and someone complained about missing the Oceanside magazine that the city mailed out I believe quarterly with the city goings-on. The magazine was stopped for budget reasons. That got me wondering why there could not be a quarterly city newspaper bulletin providing the same information. As I remember there was plenty of advertising and some may spill over into your weekly paper. I am sure a city newspaper bulletin would be cheaper than a magazine. Maybe even friendlier and could be picked up all over the city. Just food for thought.

Jack Key,

Oceanside

 

Council inconsistent re Coastal Commission jurisdiction

Encinitas contracts with Peder Norby, at $100,000-plus per year, to be Highway 101 “facilitator;” taxpayers involuntarily support his acting as a lobbyist for a roundabout/lane-elimination plan decided against by Solana Beach and voted down in Del Mar.

Norby has now organized various Highway 101 business groups to change their names to “101 Mainstreet Associations,” a generic categorizing, which, on the surface, flies against Encinitas’ diverse communities’ desires to be distinctive. These name changes, and prejudicial special-interest subsidizations through the city, act against the best interests of citizens who support the right-to-vote-on-upzoning initiative, and those residents, particularly those of us adjacent to 101, and local commuters, who oppose the Highway 101 Streetscape Project’s five roundabouts and lane-elimination for motorists.

In the case of the initiative, council claims the resulting ordinance requires “divisive” oversight by the Coastal Commission, whereas review actually wouldn’t be problematic. But in the case of Highway 101 Streetscape, council is effectively “thumbing its nose” at the CCC, saying the city can eliminate a lane for motorists on Highway 101, without processing required Local Coastal Program (LCP) amendments, an unwise decision now being appealed.

And why are these newly renamed business associations sponsoring the dinner for Mayor Teresa Barth’s State of the City address? Shouldn’t that address be given at City Hall, as has been the custom, with few exceptions, so citizens don’t have to “pay-to-play?” We hope the mayor also will repeat her address at a regularly noticed Council Meeting.

We support neighborhood self-determination, enhancing the canopy, keeping Leucadia funky, preserving community character, improving quality of life, and extending the existing rail-trail bicycle lane ASAP. These goals would be facilitated by empowering private citizens with greater ability to control our own lives, as is being demonstrated by the right-to-vote-on-upzoning-initiative, through the populist, grassroots efforts of dedicated activists. We’ll be voting yes at the Special Election!

Lynn and Russell Marr,

Leucadia