Carlsbad turns 70!
Bret Schanzenbach
President & CEO
Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce
Lucille Ball once said, “The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.” For the City of Carlsbad, however, there is no reason to lie about its age. 2022 marks 70 years as an incorporated city and Carlsbad is thriving as a high-quality tourist destination and a center for industry. Ironically, one of the key issues that drove Carlsbad to incorporate 70 years ago was removed from our community this year. In 1950, Oceanside wanted to annex a strip of coastal Carlsbad where a power plant was going to be built. However, with the Chamber and other local leaders help, Carlsbad rebuffed the annexation attempt. Instead, the community decided to incorporate and take advantage of the economic boom that the power plant would bring. The Encina Power Plant, as most know, was decommissioned several years ago and replaced with a much more efficient power generating facility on a small portion of the property. And this year, as we celebrate Carlsbad’s 70th birthday, the Encina Power Plant’s smoke stack that graced Carlsbad’s skyline for all 70 years of its existence, has been demolished.
One of the key leaders for Carlsbad’s growth and success these past decades has been Mayor Matt Hall. As Carlsbad moves into the future, Mayor Hall will say goodbye to a decorated life of service here. Mayor Hall served for 10 years on the Planning Commission, 16 years as a City Council Member and now 12 years as our Mayor. That’s 38 years total of service to the community of Carlsbad. And in August, he gave his final “State of Carlsbad” address. Here are some highlights:
Carlsbad has grown from a sleepy bedroom community to a thriving city of over 115,000 people that is second only to the City of San Diego in tourism revenue annually. The city’s growth was primarily done through a “Growth Management Plan” that city leaders (including Matt Hall) put into place in 1985. As Mayor Hall stated, “The onus was on developers, not on our citizens… Developers had to provide for local fire protection, water, sewer, drainage, traffic, libraries, parks, schools, and open space.” And speaking of “open space”, at that time, “the city set a goal of around 40% of the city to be open space in perpetuity, areas that growth could not occur in,” recounted Mayor Hall.
The Mayor shared how Carlsbad’s “master planned community” accounted for where our business park, retail centers, and golf courses would be located. Mayor Hall reported that, “Today, we have $99M in unrestricted reserves.” He also announced that last week the City Council “approved building a new City Hall at the current site on Carlsbad Village Drive.” This will replace our current 1960’s era city hall. 
The future of Carlsbad is definitely bright. However, Mayor Hall recounted that the “local control” that Carlsbad fought for back when it incorporated in 1952 is in jeopardy again, this time from the State of California usurping it. And even though Carlsbad is now mostly “an infill community”, a new Growth Management Plan is being put into place through a process called “Carlsbad Tomorrow”. Carlsbad Tomorrow “will focus on community infrastructure development standards and the financing mechanism for future growth, those things that our Growth Management Plan did exceedingly well,” stated Mayor Hall. He encourages all of YOU to provide your input into Carlsbad Tomorrow as it will create a “roadmap for future generations.”
Mayor Hall, thank you for your incredible leadership and service to Carlsbad. The positive impact of your service will be felt for many more generations to come.