There's been some far fetched ideas floating around lately- like sending a man to Mars, building a stadium for the Chargers, putting Trump in office, and building a pier in Carlsbad. Now before you get your underwear all bunched up (about President Trump), a pier in Carlsbad has been tossed around before- like 20 years ago. Carlsbad loves controversy- like what to do with the power plant, what kind of development is going on at Ponto, the desalination plant of course; so adding one more lightening rod in the form of a pier isn't that big of a deal.
The idea of a Carlsbad pier has surfaced occasionally over the years, and had some serious support in the mid-1990s. Two local businessmen drew up a proposal to build a public recreational pier, along with mix of parking, restaurants, shops and perhaps a health spa and other complementary businesses, on the bluff at the foot of Palomar Airport Road. “The city was looking at realigning the intersection of Carlsbad Boulevard and Palomar Airport Road,” said Bob Ladwig, a Carlsbad planning consultant. “I did a plan that showed the realigned intersection, the pier ... and public spaces.” Ladwig said last week that at the time he and a partner talked to a number of staff members at the city, state parks department and Coastal Commission, and they were all supportive, but no one ever submitted an application. “They all get excited about it, and then that’s the end of it,” he said.
The pier idea popped up again a few years ago during discussions that led to an update of the city’s General Plan, which serves as the city’s planning guide for the next 20 years. However, there’s no mention of a pier in the final updated plan the City Council approved in September. A pier is also one of the possibilities listed on the website of Imagine Carlsbad, a nonprofit group formed 10 years ago to look at ways to improve the city.
Palomar Airport Road intersects with Carlsbad Boulevard, also known as Highway 101, with a swooping overpass that’s reminiscent of a freeway on-ramp or off-ramp. Until recently the city had considered changing the intersection to a “T” with a signal light to control traffic, which would help free up space around the intersection and make it safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
Part of the plan for the redesigned intersection was a swap between the city and the state of several small disconnected pieces of land near the intersection, which would link up the city’s property and provide better access to the nearby South Carlsbad State Beach. City officials have looked into that trade as recently as 2012, when state legislation proposed by Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, failed to get the support it needed to pass. Mayor Matt Hall said the city is still looking at a lot of possibilities for improving access to its beaches, but a pier is not one of them. “There’s a whole lot of stuff happening along our coastline right now,” he said.
Eventually about 3.5 miles of coastline, from the power plant at Terramar south to the city boundary at Leucadia, could become a single linear park, Hall said. As part of that, instead of the proposed land swap, a long-term lease of state land now appears more likely. Also, instead of a “T” intersection at Palomar Airport Road, the city is now looking at the possibility of a roundabout. Any of those changes would be preceded by lots of public meetings and community discussions, the mayor said.
Ladwig worked on the pier idea in the 1990s with Carlsbad developer Robert Bentley, whose portfolio of current projects includes the 105-home Cantarini Ranch neighborhood planned east of El Camino Real near Cannon Road and College Boulevard. Both men said last week a public pier could still fit into the mix. Bentley said Thursday that the pier idea grew from a conversation he had with Ladwig about potential opportunities in Carlsbad. “Everything that you do in the development business has to have a public benefit,” Bentley said. “To me, this is a combination of all the sorts of public benefits you hear talked about.”
A pier would help provide the access to the beach and the ocean that is the goal of the Coastal Commission and state Parks and Recreation Department, he said. For the city, it also could be a long-term source of income from the activities there, and possibly a new location for city offices. It also would fit in with Legoland, nearby hotels, and other attractions on that end of Carlsbad. “It’s definitely a tourist-serving sort of thing,” Bentley said. “Like all neat tourist-serving things, the residents benefit from it year round.” Diana Lilly, a senior planner in the San Diego office of the Coastal Commission, called the idea “intriguing.” “In general, it would take a permit from the Coastal Commission,” Lilly said. “We would be looking at it like any other project.” Coastal Commission staffers would consider the project’s effects on marine biology, the sand supply and other factors, she said. They would look at anything that goes into the water, such as the support columns of the pier, and how they might affect the environment. “Any pier that was built would absolutely have to be for public access and not just for something like a restaurant,” Lilly said. It would have to be available for fishing, sightseeing, walking and other recreational activities.
San Diego has several large ocean piers, though the only one in North County is in Oceanside. Oceanside has had a series of six piers since the 1800s and most have been washed away in winter storms. The concrete entrance to the pier was constructed in 1925 and the latest version of the Oceanside Municipal Pier — which at 1,942 feet is one of the longest wooden piers in California — was built in 1987 at a cost of $5 million. There hasn’t been a new public pier built in the county for at least 20 years and probably considerably longer, Lilly said. Any new pier would be expensive and would require the cooperation of multiple property owners and numerous local, state and federal agencies. “I’m sure its a major, huge undertaking,” Lilly said. "
Will this become reality? Probably not; it would have to get through the Coastal Commission, environmentalists (still not sure how they let a high rise get built on the shores of La Jolla), and the city has bigger fish to fry; like the power plant, desal plant, and Ponto. But if a pier could get built, it sure would help thin out the crowds at all the other surf spots...
