Dear Editor,
People don’t seem to pay attention to recent decisions that will affect their quality of life. Promises that have been made to preserve our values are forsaken.
The Carlsbad Growth Management Plan (GMP), established through a citizen’s initiative in 1986, had two key components to ensure a high quality of life for the residents of Carlsbad.
The two key components are limits on growth through restrictions on the number of residential units that could be built in each quadrant and guarantee that public facilities would be adequate to support that growth (performance standards).
Thirty years later, that vote of the people is meaningless. State law restricts the ability of local governments to limit growth.
A recent court ruling said that, in spite of the will of the people, the City Council can modify performance standards at a whim.
Distributed parks have been replaced by one big park at Veteran’s Park; community needs for a coastal access park are ignored; and gated, locked schoolyards are counted as parks.
Promises for 15% open space in each neighborhood have been disregarded. It only takes a few minutes to drive on local roads to see that traffic standards went out the window.
Today’s residents can’t rely on the promises of the past. The current City Council isn’t connecting the dots.
Who is responsible? Both the residents and the City Council need to act to maintain the high quality of life everyone was promised.
Diane Nygaard
Oceanside
