CARLSBAD — The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 100th anniversary on Feb. 8 with more than 200 current members, staff and residents at its office on Priestly Drive in Carlsbad.
CEO Bret Schanzenbach said the event celebrated local history, noting the chamber’s ties to the city’s founding and subsequent growth over the past 100 years.
“In general, we act as a hub within the community,” he said. “We also interact with local and regional government, public safety, schools and the non-profit community. Our goal is to make a positive impact on all that we do. We see ourselves being engaged with everything of significance in this community.”
Sometime in 1923, the chamber formed and acted as the de facto city government before Carlsbad filed for articles of incorporation. On the side of the chamber’s first building was a sign that read, “Carl.”
While not much is known about the chamber’s origins due to minimal record keeping, the organization built up businesses and helped with petitioning San Diego County to fix potholes and other infrastructure, Schanzenbach said.
Luther Gage, the second chairman of the chamber’s board, is responsible for bringing the famed ranunculus flowers to Carlsbad in 1924, now made famous by the Flower Fields.
The chamber’s popularity quickly grew. More robust record-keeping shows that meetings in 1926 attracted upward of 350 people to discuss local issues, such as tree trimming by the electric company, opening Kelly Slew to mitigate the smell, lobbying the U.S. Post Office Department for daily rural route service and producing a promotional pamphlet about the community, according to chamber records.
Years later, Oceanside failed to annex the coastline where the former Encina Power Plant was constructed, so the Carlsbad Chamber saw the urgency to incorporate as a city. Schanzenbach said that the chamber organized a referendum and lobbied for residents to vote to incorporate.
In a contentious and narrow decision, the residents voted 809-732 to establish the City of Carlsbad, according to city records. The neighboring chambers of commerce in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista subsequently helped establish Tri-City Medical Center.
“The chambers are the ones that came together in the 1950s and said, ‘We need healthcare,’” Schanzenbach said. “They led the charge to found Tri-City Hospital District and get the hospital open in 1961.”
As years passed, the chamber remained a small yet steady force in the city and would prove its strength again in the 1990s. In 1991, American troops engaged in Desert Storm in Iraq, and the country’s economy hit a recession, especially Carlsbad, according to Carlton and Sandy Lund, two longtime chamber members with their real estate business, The Lund Team.
The Lunds said the city’s economy needed diversification and something big. So, the chamber and city spearheaded a letter-writing campaign to Lego headquarters in Denmark.
Sandy Lund said it was known Lego wanted a North American location for its theme park but had eyes on the East Coast. So, combined with the letters, Elaine Lyttleton, a former chamber chairwoman, rallied a delegation to visit Lego brass in Denmark, and they convinced Lego to select Carlsbad.
On June 7, 1994, the residents approved a ballot measure of 57%-43%. The park opened five years later and has become a staple of the city’s economy and a destination for residents and tourists alike.
“We wrote thousands of letters to Demark to get Legoland here,” Sandy Lund said. “It opened in 1999, which was a big deal for the city, especially economically. Because of that, the hotels came up.”
As the calendar turned into the 21st Century, the chamber experienced massive growth under the leadership of Ted Owen. Owen, the publisher of the San Diego Business Journal, was recruited by Carlton Lund and others to take the reins as CEO with a mission of growing the chamber.
Owen’s work over his 15-year tenure proved fruitful, leading the chamber to become the second biggest in the county and one of the biggest in the state, with more than 1,000 members.
Around this time, Carlton Lund envisioned a massive archway sign spread across Carlsbad Boulevard and Carlsbad Village Drive to replace a long-forgotten sign from the 1930s.
As part of his 14-year passion project, Carlton Lund secured a $225,000 donation from TaylorMade Golf Company, which was donated to the chamber. As a result, the iconic sign was installed on Dec. 29, 2014, with more than 5,000 in attendance.
