The Oceanside City Council is expected to vote Wednesday on whether a hotel can be built on vacant land bordering a coastal lagoon. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.
The Buena Vista Lagoon is a state ecological reserve which juts out to the South Coast Highway between Oceanside and Carlsbad. Developers want to build an 82-room hotel with four condo units and a restaurant on privately-owned land alongside the lagoon. The Buena Vista Audubon Society's nature center is across the street from the proposed three-story hotel. The Society's Dennis Huckabay says the hotel would hurt the long-term health of the lagoon.
Huckabay: We think it's too much for that site and doesn't take advantage of the location at all overlooking the lagoon. What we would like first and foremost is to keep that as open space and enhance the lagoon.
Jim Bartell represents the property's owner. Bartell says the hotel will bring more money to Oceanside.
Bartell: This is going to bring in about $7 million in revenue to the city over a ten-year period and that's why they zoned the property years ago for this use.
The city's planning commission approved an environmental impact report for the project but rejected design plans for the hotel-restaurant complex. The Oceanside City Council decides whether the project moves forward. Bartell says whatever the council's decision, he expects it will be appealed to the state Coastal Commission. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.
