“The city has, in practice, taken the position that if the city’s roads and intersections become too congested to meet the original performance standard, then the city can modify the performance standard and/or choose to exempt any roads and intersections that do not meet the standard. The court doubts that this is what the citizens had in mind when they voted to approve Proposition E.”
“From the court’s perspective, this appears to be a questionable manipulation of the performance standard, designed to excuse the city from timely completion of the community parks contemplated by citizens when enacting Proposition E.”
“The city has chosen to exclude those zones that were ‘already developed’ in 1986 from compliance with any performance standard pertaining to open space. The court doubts this is what the voters had in mind when they enacted Proposition E.”
“From the court’s perspective, the city has implemented a purported growth management plan that is largely illusory because the city simply changes the plan or exempts itself from compliance whenever it cannot comply with the previous version of the plan.”
For more information see on legal case background, NCA press release on court decision , traffic studies in public records which show Carlsbad noncompliance, and other pertinent documents click to download pdf files below: