On Tuesday, the City Council received a report with recommendations from a resident-led committee on issues and standards that will help ensure Carlsbad retains an excellent quality of life as it continues to grow.

The year-long committee process was the first step in the development of a new long-term approach to maintaining Carlsbad’s quality of life and financial health while complying with new state laws that will result in more land being zoned for housing in Carlsbad and other cities throughout California.

Why now?
The City of Carlsbad’s growth management program was created in the late 80s and is largely credited with maintaining the city’s excellent quality of life, well-planned infrastructure and financial health over the past 35+ years.

• In recent years, new state laws have been passed that render some parts of the city’s growth management program unenforceable, including putting a limit on how many new homes can be built in the city.
• The state laws are meant to address a critical statewide shortage of housing by making it more difficult for cities to deny new housing projects.
• Affordable housing, which is usually apartments and condos, is a big focus of the new state laws, as is locating new housing close to transit hubs.

About the committee
For the past year, the Carlsbad Tomorrow Growth Management Citizens Committee learned about and discussed each of the existing growth management program’s 11 “performance standards,” along with other issues the group felt were important to maintaining Carlsbad’s quality of life. Performance standards refer to the desired level of service for facilities like roads, sewer pipes, parks and libraries. Currently, developers pay fees or build infrastructure needed to ensure standards are met as new residents move into the housing they build.

The 38-member committee represented a diverse range of community perspectives, including residents from each of the Carlsbad’s four City Council districts, as well as members of the city’s appointment commissions.

What did the committee recommend?
The committee recommended removing standards related to fire stations, schools, wastewater treatment capacity and city administrative facilities because other plans are already in place to ensure the city’s needs are met in the future. The committee recommended keeping or modifying the following standards, which address:

• Water
• Wastewater
• Parks
• Open space
• Traffic and mobility
• Drainage
• Libraries

The committee also discussed several issues outside the scope of a growth management program but important to the city’s future quality of life. A summary of these issues is included in the committee’s report and include:

• Arts and culture
• Energy
• Open space
• Homelessness
• Seniors/aging community
• Transportation and mobility
• Public facility fees
• Updates to Proposition H
• Carlsbad’s coastline

You can read the committee’s report which details the committee’s specific recommendations.

Next steps
The City Council accepted the committee’s report and asked staff to return with more information about two committee suggestions. One is to return to the City Council with options for how a Carlsbad-specific law, called Proposition H, could be updated to better account for inflation and increasing project costs. This law requires voter approval for certain construction projects that cost more than $1 million in general city funds. Carlsbad voters passed this requirement in 1982 to have more direct oversight of city spending. 

The other suggestion was to explore whether the city should create an additional standard that all homes should be within a certain distance from a park. The committee recommended keeping the current 3 acres of park space for every 1,000 people standard. This will be discussed when the city’s Parks & Recreation Department presents a new Parks & Recreation Master Plan Update in the coming months.

Staff will now develop a timeline and cost estimate for the next steps in updating development standards, including technical and fee studies. This will be presented to the City Council in spring 2024.

Background
In 1986, the Carlsbad City Council passed a growth management ordinance, which put conditions on how growth could occur, including requiring development pays its own way. That November, Carlsbad voters passed Proposition E, which affirmed the principles of the Growth Management Program and established caps on the number of housing units that could be built in Carlsbad.

Now, 37 years later, the major new planned residential developments in Carlsbad are mostly built, and new state laws have changed how future housing will be approved. As such, the city is entering a new phase where different tools will be needed to effectively manage growth.

More information
Carlsbad Tomorrow Growth Management Citizens Committee report
Growth Management in Carlsbad
Growth Management Citizens Committee webpage
New state laws