Petition drive aims to force vote on Caruso project

A group of Carlsbad residents launched a referendum drive Monday aimed at forcing a public vote on a Los Angeles-based developer’s plan to build a shopping, entertainment and open-space destination on the south shore of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

The nonprofit Citizens for North County must scramble to collect nearly 10,000 signatures needed by Sept. 24 to force a special election on Caruso Affiliated’s so-called 85/15 plan, which was approved by the Carlsbad City Council last week and is awaiting a vote by the California Coastal Commission. The Caruso project would encompass roughly 203 acres east of Interstate 5 between the lagoon and Cannon Road.

Caruso officials say the referendum effort is being fueled by shopping mall rival Westfield Corp. — an assertion that the citizens group and Westfield officials both deny.

“We are disappointed by the efforts of Caruso Affiliated and its supporters to fabricate stories about Westfield, and create a ‘straw man’ so as to divert attention away from the legitimate concerns of the citizens of Carlsbad and North County,” Westfield Executive Vice President Katy Dickey said in an email Monday.

“Westfield is not providing any support, financial or otherwise, to the referendum drive,” Dickey said. “Further, the company never intended to engage in the referendum process on this matter.”

The Carlsbad City Council unanimously approved Caruso’s 85/15 initiative Aug. 25 after listening to six hours of comment from more than 130 speakers. Residents were about equally divided between those who wanted the project approved and those who asked the council to call a special election to decide the initiative.

Caruso has spent years crafting its lagoon proposal, meeting with hundreds of Carlsbad residents, conducting extensive studies and assembling a team of high-profile supporters. The company spent at least $2.5 million on the campaign behind its initiative and used paid solicitors to collect more than 20,000 signatures in support of the initiative — more than double the 9,784 valid signatures required by law. The City Council had two options: approve the measure outright or schedule a costly special election.

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Westfield officials have said they believe the environmental analysis Caruso prepared was deficient, flawed or inaccurate in numerous ways. Dickey said Monday that Caruso chose the initiative process “as a tactic to evade proper environmental … review, simply to save on costs and increase its own profit.”

Citizens for North County President De’Ann Weimer said Monday that the group’s referendum seeking a public vote “is a true citizen-led, grass-roots effort.”

“The referendum has nothing to do with Westfield, and everything to do with what the voters of Carlsbad want,” Weimer said via email. “Why does Caruso Affiliated apparently want to pretend they are fighting this Westfield boogie man?”

She called the referendum “a modern-day David versus Goliath confrontation.”

“This time the people asking for your signature will be your neighbors and friends,” Weimer said.

Caruso held a news conference at 11 a.m. Monday to point the finger at Westfield. Participants included Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall, Carlsbad Strawberry Company President Jimmy Ukegawa, Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Ted Owen, former Carlsbad Planning Commissioner Bill Dominguez and Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation Chairwoman Maureen Simons.

“This plan has been developed in collaboration with the community and goes above and beyond what is required by law,” Hall said in a copy of a letter addressed to Westfield Chairman Frank Lowy. “Because it ensures the future of the strawberry fields, provides public access to open space in perpetuity, and results in a cleaner lagoon, the Agua Hedionda 85/15 Plan has tremendous value and will enhance our community for years to come.”

The initiative calls for the shopping center to be built on 27 acres of 48 acres nearest the freeway that have been zoned for commercial development since the 1980s.

Caruso’s plan would designate the rest of that property open space where strawberry farming would continue, along with the creation of public trails and the preservation of wildlife habitat.

Ukegawa, whose family has grown strawberries and tomatoes along the lagoon for 50 years, also released a letter in which he asked the Westfield chairman to stop the opposition.

“What you are doing is harmful to me personally and also harmful to Carlsbad’s coastal agricultural tradition,” Ukegawa wrote.