The final vote count on Carlsbad measured eight last night is still days away, but the unofficial tally has opponents leading by a small margin of 186 votes. That leaves the fate of an outdoor dining and shopping center on the ugly out a heady lagoon heading in the balance. KPBS North County St. John Alison St John joins me. Ellison, thank you. Glad to be with you, Tom. What are we still waiting to hear about in terms of votes? It's so interesting because last night that it look like people in favor of the project were leading by a healthy margin, almost 10 points. As the evening went on that margin became slimmer until the final count, there is literally about 186 votes between them. There is still 7000 votes to count. Bear in mind 33,000 votes have been counted, but there are still 7000 to count. The trend has been towards the measure being defeated. And if that trend continues combat White white. It's interesting that early on it look like they were leading. I guess the balance -- Mena balance were more favored? Yes it seems like the people who actually showed up on election day were more negative. And the neighborhoods that voted against them for it showed not surprisingly that the people who live around the lagoon were more heavily prone to vote against it. It is one of those situations where people before hand really were not sure which way it would go. Even people who thought it was a good project had doubts on how they were going to get a through. Alison, what you think the vote was so close? Many folks I spoke to were really quite angry. They felt duped by the developer. The initial initiative as it were back last year, the citizens of initiative, the developer collected signatures. And many of the people who signed the ballots said they thought that it was going to go to the ballot at that point. Instead it went to the city Council and the city Council just approved it. Somehow that meant that the developer got off on the wrong foot. People thought what -- that he was not coming to us for opinion. The developer is avoiding a much more rigorous process, the quality act process, and there is less give and take in the initiative process. You get the initiative, you vote on it, it's ticket or leave it. I think that is one of the things that drifted up. Despite that it's actually an unusual and innovative and probably would have been a very beautiful project, but the way that it was presented to the voters left many people feeling that they were not involved in the process and that something was being pulled -- Uno was being pulled off on them. Alison tell us more about the project. Was this going to be a shopping mall? Well the developer rejected the word mall. He had built several shopping and dining entertainment centers, especially in Los Angeles, the groping one many have heard of. They are destination locations. This of course on the shores of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon was a very beautiful spot. He was looking at developing this very beautiful spot. Of the idea would have been for people to come, stay, eat, shop, and maybe even spend the day there and walk in the open space on the edge of the lagoon because 85% of the property was going to remain open. It was not your average mall. It could have drawn visitors from far and wide, which is another reason that many people in Carlsbad were not so happy with it. The developer said this is being built for you but naturally it will bring a lot of visitors and a lot of traffic to our village. Right. As a result of not having to go through the SQL process, does that mean that there was no thorough environmental review on this project? The developer disputes that. Keep both of 4000 page report in the city staff reviewed it. It's a process we will become more familiar with is more of these initiatives go through. There was a report and review. That it did not have the level of give-and-take that the process has the people from all over and many agencies can comment. In this case only Carlsbad voters can vote and this would affect people all over the coast a North County. Interstate 5 would of been quite impacted. But only the folks in Carlsbad could vote. There was not much chance to weigh had. That was what you got. Alison St John is the KPBS North County reporter. She is talking about yesterday's vote on proposition eight in the city of Carlsbad. Alison this was a special election only one thing on the ballot, but yet it looks like they had a pretty remarkable voter turnout. Yes. And the registrar of voters was very excited because he is white distressed for the lack of voter turnout for many elections. And here we have a very small local action that can really galvanize the city, but 52% of the registered voters have so far responded with their votes. By the end of the count, it could be up to 56%. In case you're wondering, that is quite a lot for special election. Yes. The special election to replace Bob Filner was down and the 30 percentile. Most special elections are in the 30 or 40 percentile. To get over 50% is a very unusual. And there have been a couple of big special elections in the past up for like the convention center in the 1980s the got a little more than that, but it is rare. Alison, just a couple more questions, would you think will have the final numbers? The next lot of numbers will come out on Thursday. There will be another batch on Friday. And then again on Monday, we might know. I think one of the implications of this is that the rest of the region would be watching with interest. If this were to fail, what does it take -- say to developers who are trying to find ways to get their projects approved. The processes hard. Now it turns out this is -- citizens initiative process is also very hard. This was a shopping mall so it's not quite as crucial perhaps as a housing development. But in a region that really is suffering from a lack of affordable housing, I think a lot of developers are looking at this and wondering how they will get their projects approved. Once again, Alison St John is a North County Bureau reporter for KPBS. Alison, thank you very much. Thanks, Tom.
Final results of a special election to decide the fate of a retail and dining center to be built along the shore of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad may not be known until next week, county Registrar of Voters Michael Vu said Wednesday.
Measure A was trailing by 186 votes Wednesday, but around 7,100 mail and provisional ballots remained to be counted, he said.
At the end of Tuesday night's counting, the "no" votes totaled 16,727, or 50.28 percent, to 16,541 "yes" votes, or 49.72 percent.
"We are so proud of the people of Carlsbad. They demonstrated their passion for this community and their intent to leave a valuable legacy to the next generation," said DeAnn Weimer of the No on A campaign.
Turn out for the election was high with more than 52 percent of registered voters going to the polls. Registrar of Voters Michael Vu said that in the San Diego mayor's race to replace Bob Filner, turn out was about 35 percent. He said turn out for the Carlsbad election could be more than 56 percent when all of the votes are tallied.
The development planned by Los Angeles-based Caruso Affiliated has drawn opposition from environmental groups and mall owner Westfield, until recently the owner of a shopping center near Carlsbad's northern city limits. Westfield still owns UTC, which is 20 miles away.
Caruso planned to build on 15 percent of the 203-acre property and leave the rest as open space. A popular family-owned strawberry farm alongside Interstate 5 would be allowed to remain in operation.
The plans were approved last year by the Carlsbad City Council, but opponents — concerned about the size of the proposed buildings and worsening traffic congestion — collected enough petition signatures to force it to a public vote.
Opponents were also concerned that the developer sidestepped the rigorous California Environmental Quality Act process by using a citizens' initiative to get approval for the plan.
In a statement the city of Carlsbad said: "As we await the final election results, we remain committed to working with residents on all sides of this issue so we can better understand each other’s perspectives and use that understanding to make sure Carlsbad remains a place we are all proud to call home."
Vu said updated results would be posted by the close of business Thursday and again Friday. Staff will also work through the weekend, with more results posted Monday, he said.
"Monday won't be the last report, but the majority of the mail ballots should be in the count by then," Vu said. "Provisional ballots take longer to process and I don't see that being complete until the end of next week, if not longer."
