Environmental Groups Appeal Oceanside Lagoon-Front Hotel

North County Times

By Paul Sisson

March 13, 2007

Several local environmental groups have appealed a controversial hotel project slated for the banks of Buena Vista Lagoon to the California Coastal Commission.

Encinitas attorney Marco Gonzalez said Tuesday that he filed an appeal with the commission on grounds that the project violates Oceanside's coastal plan ---- guidelines for developments close to the beach ---- and that it will block views of, and access to, Buena Vista, the lagoon shared by Carlsbad and Oceanside.

"They are putting a gigantic structure, completely out of character with the neighborhood, right on the edge of the lagoon," Gonzalez said.

Roxayne Spruance, a spokeswoman hired by developer Oceanside Three, said Tuesday that the appeal does have her clients concerned.

"We've already met with Coastal Commission staff, and we've met with (the state Department of) Fish and Game, and they have told us that what we have proposed is adequate," Spruance said. "In our own minds, we are complying with everything the resource agencies have asked us to do at this point."

A well-known coastal activist connected to the Surfrider Foundation, Gonzalez is working for two local organizations: The Buena Vista Audubon Society, which operates a nature center on the shore of the lagoon, and Friends of Buena Vista Lagoon, a coalition of neighbors who live nearby.

The City Council approved the project Feb. 14 after a three-hour meeting at which 140 supporters and opponents clashed over its potential impact on the lagoon.

Plans call for an 82-room, three-story hotel on a 3.8-acre site at Coast Highway and Eaton Street in southwestern Oceanside. The hotel would include a restaurant and four separate condominiums. Seventy of the hotel rooms would be sold as condominiums that owners could occupy 90 days a year and for no longer than 29 consecutive days.

The appeal refers to the scale of the proposed hotel as "monstrous," noting that plans call for a height of 46 feet. The height and positioning of the hotel's buildings, the appeal states, would block "public view corridors" from Coast Highway to the lagoon.

Danny Dimento, who leads Friends of Buena Vista Lagoon, said Tuesday that the twin issues of public views and access to the protected body of water are highest on the list of problems for neighbors.

"Those are the big-ticket items. We feel they have violated the local coastal plan in passing this project," Dimento said.

Dennis Huckaby, president of the Buena Vista Audubon Society, added that he and others in his organization are concerned that the state continues to work on an environmental impact report for restoration of the lagoon to its natural state.

He said restoration plans, some of which call for raising the water level in the lagoon, could push existing wetlands closer to the hotel, gobbling up a 100-foot buffer that will be put between the waterway and the project.

"It would be far better to hang on for awhile until it is clear what's going to happen with the restoration plans," Huckaby said.

Spruance said the developer has tried to meet the city's environmental and view concerns by including the 100-foot buffer between the hotel and the lagoon and also by including an 8-foot-wide walking path along the lagoon's edge. She added that the hotel project's size has been reduced significantly and that buildings have been designed to decrease in size as they get closer to the lagoon.

Spruance noted that, in the end, the property is zoned for commercial development, not open space.

"If you were to put any building on that property, you are going to block some of that view," she said. "That's unavoidable."

The appeal also addresses the number of condominium-hotel rooms in the project. Gonzalez noted that the Coastal Commission recently stated in a public letter that it sees condo-hotel projects as potentially restricting public access because they can be owned by a private party.

"I think they are really exposed on this one," Gonzalez said.

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