Should prime open Carlsbad coast be used for parkland or 120 townhomes? A showdown looms

A fight that is nearly a decade in the making for a beachfront park in Carlsbad is coming to a head next month. 

Residents in South Carlsbad have been advocating for a park by South Ponto Beach for years. It’s the last open space in an area they say is in desperate need of a coastal park. 

But San Diego-based developer H.G. Fenton Co. and the city of Carlsbad have other plans: 120 townhomes. 

In October, the California Coastal Commission will decide whether Carlsbad can update the land to residential, clearing the way for the developer’s plans to build homes on property it purchased in 2022. 

A group of residents who formed People for Ponto in 2017 are hoping the coastal commission rejects the city’s plea, instead clearing the way for a park. On Thursday, the group hosted a meeting to present the issue to the community. Over 150 people showed up. 

Lance Schulte, a former city planner in Carlsbad and Dana Point and one of the leaders of the community group, said it’s a matter of land use equity. 

“This isn’t just a local issue,” Schulte said. “It isn’t just a Carlsbad issue. This is really a regional, coastal park access issue because you cannot find properties like this that are still vacant, that are going to be able to satisfy the need, the forever need, the forever and final need, for coastal recreation for the region here.”

A history of zoning changes 

The land has been open for years and people have used it for recreation. On a day earlier this month, there were several people riding their bikes and walking their dogs around the property. 

But Carlsbad Communications Manager Sarah Lemons said the owners want to develop the land.

“While some residents have expressed an interest for the property to be purchased by the city and developed into a park or left as natural open space, that is not an option that the applicant is considering under their current development permit application,” she said. 

Carlsbad Councilmember Teresa Acosta, whose district includes the land, said that the last motion she made to discuss a potential park in the Ponto area did not get a majority. 

“I have long been a voice in support of a park in the Ponto area,” Acosta said. “Since I joined the city council in 2020, I have led many conversations about a potential park in Planning Area F.”

Planning area F is what the Ponto land is designated as. Acosta said she couldn’t comment further given the land is in the permit process, but that she was “proud of Carlsbad’s investments in parks and open spaces and will continue to champion them.”

The area is included in Carlsbad’s General Plan and is part of the city’s 1993 Poinsettia Shores Master Plan, which is specific to the South Carlsbad area. 

When the Poinsettia Shores Master Plan was approved, it designated the Ponto land as unplanned, which meant no development could occur without further study and approvals. 

In 2015, the City Council updated its General Plan and designated part of the parcel as residential and another as commercial. The state coastal commission approved those changes in 2016.

But in order for those changes to take effect, the Poinsettia Shores Master Plan also needed an amendment. The Carlsbad City Council approved those changes in 2021, but it requires the coastal commission to sign off. 

The city is hoping it will do so when the coastal commission takes up Carlsbad’s Local Coastal Program at its meeting at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8 at the Oceanside Civic Center. 

A question of worth

The zoning change won’t mean automatic approval for the townhome project, which still requires a vote of the City Council to be finalized. But in general, Lemons said, if the coastal commission denies the city’s amendments, the project “cannot proceed without further action.” 

Dave Gatzke, the vice president of development and policy for H.G. Fenton Co., said it wants to spread 120 rental townhomes and 6,000 square feet of commercial space.

There will be 24 affordable units for people who earn 70% of the median income in the area. 

Gatzke said he couldn’t predict the price of the other units. The neighboring Tower 24 townhomes, also owned by Fenton, has a 3-bedroom townhome listed for $7,350 in monthly base rent.  

Gatzke said Fenton’s plans include setting aside two acres for open space and habitat preservation and added, “City Council has been asked to consider a park at this location on multiple occasions, and has consistently chosen to designate this property for residential and commercial use.” 

But residents continue to push for a park. 

Schulte says existing plans are environmentally irresponsible because the California Coastal Act calls for prioritizing recreation space along the coast, which Carlsbad has failed to do. 

One section of the Act reads: “Oceanfront land suitable for recreational use shall be protected for recreational use and development unless present and foreseeable future demand for public or commercial recreational activities that could be accommodated on the property is already adequately provided for in the area.”

Schulte also thinks the city has failed to take into account a 2017 sea level rise assessment that warned of the potential loss of much of the city’s coastal land. He said if the city were to buy the land now, it would be far less expensive than paying for other remediation measures later. 

“You can’t squander land resources like this, irreplaceable land resources,” he said. “It’s like saying Central Park in New York doesn’t make any sense because all that land in the middle of New York is worth more as housing. Well, yeah, it is worth more as housing, but the question is, what’s New York worth after that?”

Not enough park space

Residents say South Carlsbad is starving for park space. 

They cite  data from park advocacy nonprofit Trust for Public Land that puts Carlsbad as the worst area for park space per resident along 250 miles of Southern California coast between Santa Barbara and the U.S.-Mexico border: Just under half of the city’s residents are a 10-minute walk from a park. 

Lemons said the city is meeting its open space and park obligations according to its own Growth Management Plan. 

She cited a court ruling in 2025. A nonprofit called North County Advocates had accused the city of not complying with its growth management plan and a judge ruled in the city’s favor. The ruling said that the city is properly monitoring and reporting its compliance with parks, circulation and open space performance standards.

The People for Ponto advocates say a park would not only benefit neighbors, but tourists and surrounding communities as well. 

“People travel from out of state, out of the country, to come to Southern California, and it’s not because they want to see condos,” Jodi Jones said. “It’s because they want to see beautiful coastline and hang out in the beach park.”

Jones said it is critical to take care of the land. 

“We have an obligation to protect this land and to do something spectacular with it,” she said. “And that’s not creating a wealth magnet for the Fenton developers out there.”