CARLSBAD — The Southern California Gas Company aims to stabilize almost two-thirds of an acre of land as well as bring back coastal sage scrub to a site near the ocean in Carlsbad.
The site is located east of Carlsbad Drive near South Ponto State Beach. The portion west of Ponto Drive is zoned general commercial and the portion to the east is zoned residential, according to city documents.
Around 0.053 acres of coastal sage scrub was impacted during work that began in November 2020 when the Southern California Gas Company, SoCalGas, performed emergency repairs to address a gas leak. That work was completed in March 2021.
The Carlsbad Planning Commission then approved a Coastal Development Permit and a Habitat Management Plan Permit in April 2022 to finalize the work that had been done under the previous emergency permit.
Per the direction of the Coastal Commission, twice as much land had to be mitigated as had been impacted. The 2:1 ratio resulted in a need to create around one-tenth acre of habitat for coastal sage scrub, according to city documents.
Additionally, 0.642 acres of disturbed non-native vegetation will be stabilized as part of the plan.
Part of the reason for the delay included city staff taking a further look at the accuracy of the original vegetation mapping as well as negotiating access to part of the site located on private property.
Alex Alegre, a planner for the City of Carlsbad, said that the result of those reviews and negotiations led to the restoration plan submitted in October 2024, which aims to “close the loop” on the emergency repair work.
The commission unanimously approved that plan during an Aug. 6 public meeting.
The plan calls for weed removal, soil treatment and initial planting during the beginning of the rainy season in October, according to the documents. That work is expected to be completed by May 2026.
“A five-year monitoring period will follow, including annual reporting by a qualified biologist,” Alegre said. “If restoration falls short of performance criteria, adaptive measures will be triggered. The plan will only be considered complete once the city verifies all success criteria have been met.”
James Chuang, an environmental specialist with SoCalGas, said that taking almost five years to get all the proper approvals in place was relatively normal for such work in response to a question by Commissioner David Hubinger.
Chuang added that SoCalGas would be paying for all the mitigation work and that none of it would fall on Carlsbad taxpayers.
