An 11-acre stretch of undeveloped land in South Carlsbad, wedged between La Costa Avenue and Poinsettia Boulevard just east of Ponto Beach and Pacific Coast Highway, is heading toward a decision that will determine whether it becomes 120 rental townhomes and commercial space or the community park that a local grassroots group has spent years pushing for. The city calls the parcel Ponto Open Space Planning Area F, and it is currently undergoing the city's standard development review process after a developer submitted plans for the site.
The proposal, filed by PI Townhomes, calls for 120 rental townhomes, more than 6,300 square feet of commercial space, and 340 parking spaces on the property, according to NBC 7 San Diego. The land is privately owned and was purchased for under $8 million in 2022. It's tied to an entity affiliated with San Diego developer H.G. Fenton, according to The Coast News, the same firm that broke ground with Hallmark Communities in 2025 on an 86-unit luxury rental project next door, replacing a long-abandoned self-storage facility.
Any development still needs sign-off from both the Carlsbad City Council and the California Coastal Commission before it can move forward, and the commission has scheduled the Ponto Planning Area F project for its October 7-9 meeting in Oceanside, per the same NBC 7 San Diego report. Michael Sebahar, who founded the group People for Ponto, said the organization is focused squarely on that meeting because the commission's decision will carry substantial weight. He has warned that the property may be the last opportunity to restore it to open space or coastal use.
A Petition Nearing 12,000 Signatures
People for Ponto has collected close to 12,000 signatures on a petition supporting conversion of the land into a park, according to the station's reporting. Jodi Jones, with the group, said People for Ponto does not oppose development outright but wants housing and commercial construction placed inland instead, freeing up the coastal parcel. She said the group wants Planning Area F used for what she called a spectacular public purpose.
Jones added that she has talked to thousands of people and has not heard a preference for condos over a park. Sebahar has floated the idea that the proposed park could resemble Del Mar's Powerhouse Park. The group's specific proposal is to turn Planning Area F into a six-acre community park, and it plans to host a community meeting on September 17 at 6 p.m. at the Cape Rey hotel in Carlsbad, encouraging residents to make their voices heard.
The City's Position on Zoning History
The City of Carlsbad has said the property has not been designated as open space and that Planning Area F has never carried that designation, even as officials maintain the city remains committed to preserving open space elsewhere. City officials also say the current residential and general commercial land use designations on the parcel were established through prior City Council and Coastal Commission actions and long-range planning, not as a new or sudden shift. Under PI Townhomes' current permit application, the company is not considering having the city purchase the land and convert it into a park or natural open space, and that use is not under consideration as part of the pending proposal.
The parcel's zoning history stretches back decades. It was designated a non-residential reserve in the 1990s under the Poinsettia Shores Master Plan, replacing an earlier unplanned-area classification, according to The Coast News. The broader Ponto coastal area was designated a redevelopment zone by the city in 2000 after staff cited blighted conditions along coastal property with white-water views, per the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. People for Ponto previously spent months urging city officials and the property owner to explore a land-swap or building-swap arrangement for the site, but Carlsbad officials have stated no formal land-swap proposal was ever submitted.
Why the Coastal Commission Vote Looms So Large
The Coastal Commission has rejected Carlsbad's plans for this specific site before. The commission turned down the city's proposed Ponto Beachfront Village Vision Plan in 2010 because it found the city had failed to adequately consider coastal recreational or lower-cost visitor-serving uses at Planning Area F, and it raised similar concerns again in 2016 and 2017, per The Coast News' reporting on the site's history. That track record is part of why advocates see the October meeting as their strongest opportunity to change the property's trajectory.
People for Ponto has also pointed to a broader park shortage in the area, reporting there are no coastal parks west of Interstate 5 anywhere in South Carlsbad — a gap the group says stretches six miles from Cannon Road in Carlsbad to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas. That claim aligns with figures from the city's own 2015 Parks Master Plan, which classified the Ponto neighborhood as unserved for park space and found Carlsbad offers roughly 3 acres of park space per 1,000 residents, compared with the 5 acres per 1,000 residents standard in neighboring Encinitas and Oceanside, according to People for Ponto. By contrast, North Carlsbad has 10 coastal parks totaling 37 acres.
Environmental groups have weighed in as well. The Surfrider Foundation's San Diego Chapter formally urged the Carlsbad City Council in 2021 to preserve the Ponto property for public use, arguing it could serve as a future upland relocation site for the South Carlsbad State Beach Campground given sea level rise threats. The pressure toward denser coastal development is not unique to this one parcel, either — Carlsbad's City Council approved an update to its Local Coastal Program Land Use Plan in October 2021, part of an effort to help meet statewide Regional Housing Needs Assessment obligations by rezoning coastal sites for higher densities.
