Economy

Carlsbad Council Approves Quarry Creek Development

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published April 3, 2013 at 1:10 PM PDT

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

The site of the Quarry Creek development in Carlsbad. It is beside Highway 78, yet still retains its rural character. It is the site of early settlers in the region, including a Mexican land grant. February, 2013

The controversial Quarry Creek development will add hundreds of new homes to Carlsbad to meet state mandated housing goals.

The Quarry Creek development next to Highway 78 will add 650 homes to Carlsbad’s housing stock. In the face of a public outcry about developing an historic area of open space, the Planning Commission had recommended building 600 homes and preserving an area known as 'the panhandle."

But the city council compromised by allowing McMillin Companies, developer of the project, to build all the houses in the plan as long as it added a small patch of land near the historic “Marron Adobe.” The structure is the oldest house in Carlsbad, according to the San Diego-based Save Our Heritage Organisation.

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Opponents said the development will forever change a green valley that was home to Carlsbad's settlers.

Carlsbad only needs 500 new homes to meet an April deadline on state mandated housing goals, but Mayor Matt Hall said the city opted for an extra 150 houses to help meet future deadlines.

The neighboring city of Oceanside will be left with most of the traffic headaches caused by the new homes, in spite of mitigation measures the developer will take.

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.