Photograph by Matthew Suárez
Though state officials have dubbed this pond on private property in Carmel Valley “high quality wetlands,” the Coastal Commission ordered it drained, but insisted the property owner create more wetlands.
- More than 17 years ago, land owner Robert Barczewski had a grading crew push a pile of dirt into a dip in a dirt road on his private property in northern Carmel Valley. The dip flooded every rainy season and made the road impassable until it was built up, says Paul Metcalf, a consultant who works for the Barczewski family and its entities. “When he placed the fill there it was to get from one part of his property to another,” Metcalf says.
- By Marty Graham, Dec. 12, 2018
- A group of residents have begun organizing a fight against a proposed‘fly-over freeway ramp from westbound state route 56 to the northbound Interstate 5, a ramp they fear will bring noise, soot and cut-through traffic to the Torrey Pines and Carmel Valley neighborhood.
- By Marty Graham, Aug. 10, 2017
I-5 and 56. CalTrans says the project won’t be started until 2035.
- "So, is it affordable then?" someone asked Jim Rivard of SRM Development. "No," Rivard uttered curtly. The room erupted into laughter. What Rivard was referring to was the posh senior residential care facility he wants to build where horses currently call home. Chad Harris, owner of Seabreeze Farms, was at the June 22 Carmel Valley community planning board meeting.
- By Julie Stalmer, July 3, 2017
Seabreeze will house around 25 retired horses versus the current 80-horse capacity.
- Misty Jones, San Diego Public Library director, talked to the Carmel Valley community on April 27 about the future of the Pacific Highlands Ranch library. At present, the library doesn't exist. According to Jones, the full funding isn't scheduled to come in until 2019, so it's likely that breaking ground won't happen until then. Per Jones, the budget is approximately $22 million.
- By Julie Stalmer, May 7, 2017
Entrance to the Ranch. Residents thought the library was trying to muscle in by building on three acres.
- Every day that she works at home, Niveen Farmer hears the screeching brakes of cars nearly crashing at the entrance to her Carmel Valley condo complex. Her home in the Sunstream complex — 259 townhomes built in the 1980s — is close to the main street into the complex, Caminito Mira del Mar, which empties out onto Carmel View.
- By Marty Graham, March 30, 2017
Roughly 90 Sunstream residents signed a petition for a stop sign at the heavily used intersection in front of their complex.
- Carmel Mountain Preserve encompasses about 300 acres overlooking Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve with views of the ocean and, in wet springs, the trail passes within close proximity to several small vernal pools. This is generally an easy trail with only a couple of spots that are steep and rocky. It is best to visit in the late winter/early spring months to see the vernal pools.
- By The Canyoneers, March 8, 2017
- On November 14, the city was slapped with another lawsuit for violating the California Public Records Act. In the latest lawsuit, Presidio Soccer League, San Diego County's largest competitive youth soccer league (with over 15,000 members), accuses the city of ignoring the records law by refusing to turn over copies of a lease agreement it entered into with the San Diego Polo Club in Carmel Valley.
- By Dorian Hargrove, Nov. 18, 2014
It might be referred to as "the polo fields," but it's leased city property
- The bell has sounded in a heavyweight battle between two Carmel Valley developers and the City is caught in the middle of it all. Kilroy Realty, the Los Angeles–based developer of the massive One Paseo project filed suit on May 28 against the city and the owner of the large shopping center across the street for sidestepping environmental review on an upcoming expansion project, one which could potentially impact the approval of One Paseo.
- By Dorian Hargrove, May 29, 2014
Architect's rendering of the Kilroy project in Carmel Valley
- I don’t claim to be a competent speaker of anything other than English, but when I hear Mandarin spoken, I’m often able to discern at least the topic of conversation. Thus, when I’m strolling past a group of Chinese moms at the playground in our neighborhood park here in Carmel Valley, the overheard phrase “1.2 million” is enough for me to know they’re discussing the market value of homes.
- By Stephen Gallup, Jan. 26, 2012
- California State Parks and the Los Peñasquitos Lagoon Foundation have been working on habitat restoration along the southern side of Carmel Valley Road since mid October 2008....The area was covered in one to three feet of Carpobrotus edulis, commonly called ice plant. Removal entailed first killing the ice plant and then pulling it out by hand after it had dried up.
- By Stephen Scatolini, Dec. 1, 2009
- When asked where I’m from, I often hesitate to respond. I pause and vacillate between versions of the truth before finally settling upon “San Diego.” But often this answer is too vague and requires further specification. A more precise, slightly more glamorous response would be “Del Mar”; however, this is borderline dishonest — as in across the borderline of Interstate 5. The un-vague, less-glamorous, honest truth is this: I’m from Carmel Valley.
- By Hailey Moore, Sept. 30, 2008
- On the surface, Carmel Valley is not the most charming town. It is a village of strivers: young professionals pushing to move up the ladder, students scrambling for accolades, parents and high schoolers pumping away at health clubs. In Carmel Valley there are no historical buildings, only long curving strips of Pardee tract housing. There are no colorful residences, thanks to homeowners' association dictates. Carmel Valley is almost — not quite — on the water.
- By Dorothy Kronick, Dec. 30, 2004
Carmel Valley
- There they are, the heads of two of San Diego's most powerful and highly regarded environmental organizations telling us, in the sample ballot argument and in a slick spot-color mailer, to vote yes on Proposition M and allow Pardee Construction Company to build up to 5470 homes in the Black Mountain area of northeastern San Diego, 12 times the 455 homes permitted under the area's current zoning.
- By Mark Gabrish Conlan, Oct. 29, 1998