A California coastal commission is set to vote Thursday on whether to green-light 120 rental townhomes beside a popular surfing beach, a decision that could end a 10-year tug-of-war over one of the last undeveloped oceanfront parcels in Carlsbad.
The California Coastal Commission will take up proposed amendments to the Poinsettia Shores Master Plan and Local Coastal Program at its Oct. 8 meeting in San Francisco. Developer H.G. Fenton, which bought the 11-acre site in 2022, cannot break ground on its PI Townhomes project until regulators sign off. The 120-unit rental complex would include more than 340 parking spaces on a vacant wedge of land between Coast Highway and Interstate 5, just south of South Ponto Beach and adjacent to the South Carlsbad State Beach campground.
The city of Carlsbad insists the path is already partly cleared. Municipal officials note the property has carried residential and commercial zoning since 2016, when both the city and the Coastal Commission approved that designation. The amendments before commissioners Thursday would simply align the master plan with that earlier decision, replacing the parcel’s current “unplanned” label. If the commission approves, the matter would still return to the Carlsbad City Council, expected to vote early next year.
Michael Sebahar, a leading voice with the grassroots group People for Ponto, has spent years pushing back against any development on the site he sees as irreplaceable.
“I’ve never lost the vision of what it could be just this beautiful open space where we can host concerts where people can watch sunsets where we can have marathons start and finish, where people can come and just hang out with their kids,” Sebahar told ABC 10 News.
People for Ponto frames the fight as a geographic equity issue. The group points out that North Carlsbad boasts 10 coastal parks totaling roughly 37 acres west of Interstate 5, while South Carlsbad has none. The organization has gathered more than 20,000 petition signatures and is pressing for at least 7 acres of the property to become a community park.
“Planning Area F at Ponto is the last vacant, unplanned coastal land in this area. This is a “now or never” opportunity to provide a meaningful public coastal park,” the group’s website reads.
The city counters that no open-space designation exists for the property, and that neither the commission, the city, nor Fenton is pursuing one, according to ABC10 News.
The roots of the conflict stretch back to at least 2010, when the Coastal Commission rejected Carlsbad’s Ponto Beachfront Village Vision Plan. Commissioners found the city had failed to adequately weigh public park and visitor-serving uses for what was then called Planning Area F. Similar objections flared again in 2016 and 2017. People for Ponto contends Fenton’s current townhome proposal bears a striking resemblance to the development blueprint regulators spurned years ago.
Fenton purchased the land two years ago and unveiled its PI Townhomes plan, betting that the political and regulatory climate had shifted enough to succeed where prior efforts stalled. The project represents a significant density play on a coastline where empty parcels have virtually disappeared.
The commission’s Thursday vote will signal whether the developer’s gamble pays off or whether the long-running battle for Ponto’s final open tract enters yet another round.