Conservation Matters

Buena Vista Creek Wins Reprieve

Carlsbad and Vista residents won a major open space victory at the Oceanside Planning Commission in July. The Commission voted 5-2 to protect a wide swath of Buena Vista Creek as part of the reclamation of the South Coast Quarry property. This property along Highway 78 at College Boulevard starts just above El Salto Falls and extends west to the already protected 134-acre Buena Vista Ecological Reserve. (BVAS members will remember that BVAS and Cal Audubon raised close to $20,000 towards the purchase of the ecological reserve back in 2006.)

Most of the 105-acre Quarry property is in Carlsbad, with only a 4-acre portion in Oceanside. Carlsbad, however, doesn’t have a mining ordinance in its regulations. Oceanside does have the appropriate ordinance, and was thus designated as the lead agency tasked with preparing and approving the reclamation plan.

At their July meeting, the Planning Commission determined that Buena Vista Creek must be restored to a natural condition, with a 100-foot buffer planted in native vegetation on either side of a terraced, meandering channel. The Commission also insisted on the preservation of an additional 50-foot planning buffer on each side. The owners of the property, Hanson Aggregates, will be required to put in place a management plan to keep the property within 200 feet of the Falls free of graffiti, trash and vandalism. The Planning Commission’s decision has not been appealed to the Oceanside City Council.

The Planning Commission’s actions closely mirrored suggestions contained in comment letters submitted prior to the hearing by BVAS Conservation Chair, Joan Herskowitz and Preserve Calavera president, Diane Nygaard.

It remains to be seen what will happen to the rest of the property. McMillan Land Development Company has a contract with Hanson to buy the property once it has been restored according to the approved reclamation plan. The City of Carlsbad wants to put 500 low cost homes there. It’s now difficult to see how such high density development can be shoehorned into the limited remaining developable acreage. Our dream – to save it ALL from development – may now be closer to reality. Funds would need to be raised to purchase the entire site, but the impetus and resources seem to be lining up. The Oceanside Recreation and Parks Commission and City Council support keeping the four acres in Oceanside as a park. The Trust for Public land is now actively involved, and the City of Carlsbad has already set aside $5 million that is available for purchase of open space. Carlsbad’s Citizens’ Committee for Open Space identified the Quarry property as its highest priority for funding. Now if only the Carlsbad City Council can be convinced to allocate those funds!

Together with the evolving plans for restoration of Buena Vista Lagoon, we are now closing in on an open space corridor alongside busy Highway 78 that could stretch almost 6 miles, from the waterfall to the waves. If we can provide the habitat, endangered Bell’s vireos and California gnatcatchers will come. Yellow warblers, yellowthroats, yellowbreasted chats, and maybe someday even a yellow-billed cuckoo, will be nesting in the willows. Imagine an interpretative trail that starts at El Salto Falls, the highest waterfall in coastal Southern California, and winds past rare riparian lands, lands rich in Luiseno and Californio history (here is the only California rancho still in the hands of the original family), through Buena Vista Creek Ecological Reserve, on alongside Buena Vista Lagoon, and past our Nature Center to the Ocean.

We can make this happen!

—By Dennis Huckabay