Strawberry Fields Forever?

The story is an old one, common to many onetime rural communities, but in Carlsbad, Calif., the decision over whether to turn over farmland to developers is particularly wrenching. The citizens of Carlsbad could face a choice this November between two ballot initiatives, each of which will determine the fate of more than 300 acres of land traditionally planted with strawberries and wildflowers. The Flower Fields in particular are considered an institution in Carlsbad and their Spring blooms are listed alongside Legoland as one of the town’s nearby attractions.

Much of the land is owned by the local utility company, SDG&E, which had planned to allow developers to build a hotel complex on part of the land until members of the city council put forward a plan to rezone the fields to prevent it. A competing plan has proposed a city takeover that would allow the fields to be developed as public space. But an economic study requested by the council released last week said that stopping development would force Carlsbad to pay the current owners for the land, and would cost the city $30 million, including lost tax revenues, each year. The backers of the original initiative say rezoning the land as agricultural would not require the city buy a single acre. The city council votes tonight on whether to put the second initiative on the ballot.