Lagoon Resort Gets OK

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 15, 2007 at 12:38 PM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

A controversial plan to build a resort hotel-restaurant on land bordering a coastal lagoon was approved by the Oceanside City Council Wednesday night. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce tells us the project likel

A controversial plan to build a resort hotel-restaurant on land bordering a coastal lagoon was approved by the Oceanside City Council Wednesday night. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce tells us the project likely faces another hurdle before construction starts.

Before a standing-room only crowd, the Oceanside City Council gave the OK for the Coastal Lagoon Hotel project on a 3-to-2 vote. The 82-room hotel would be built on four acres west of the Coast Highway and alongside the Buena Vista Lagoon. Mark Massara is the Sierra Club's Director of Coastal Programs. He says the council made a bad decision.

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Massara: We're terrifically disappointed. It's a lost opportunity for a critically important wetlands and estuary conservation efforts.

Massara says the decision will likely be overturned on appeal to the California Coastal Commission. Jim Bartell represents the property owner. He's confident the project will survive any future challenges.

Bartell: Based on the fact that both the planning commission and the city council certified the environmental impact report.

Oceanside estimates the project would bring in $7 million in taxes over a 10-year period. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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