New shopping center-La Costa Town Square gets underway

The developer of La Costa Town Square, a combined commercial, office and residential project at Rancho Santa Fe Road and La Costa Avenue, has begun preparing the 83-acre site for grading. The project website is www.lacostatownsq.com.

It also will include 63 single-family, detached residences and two office buildings consisting of a total of 50,000 square feet.  The project will feature a main-street feel with a clock tower and open-air plazas that can be used as community gathering places. The project, which has been compared to the popular Forum shopping center in South Carlsbad, is also designed to be easily accessible to surrounding neighborhoods with new sidewalks, trails and bikeways. Traffic to be generated by the project was accounted for when Rancho Santa Fe Road was widened and realigned several years ago. The developer has committed to pay $9.5 million in traffic fees, much of which would go toward street improvements, new traffic signals and synchronizing signals to improve traffic flow in the area. 

The city’s General Plan has designated the project site for commercial and residential uses since the early 1970s as part of the La Costa Master Plan. The General Plan sets out a long-range vision and comprehensive policy framework for how the city should plan for projected growth and development and provide public services.

The City Council placed restrictions on the project when it was approved in 2009, to eliminate the possibility of certain mass retailers moving into the center. The developer estimates that the project will generate almost $1 million in new yearly sales tax revenues for the City of Carlsbad’s general fund, which pays for such basic city services as police and fire protection, library services and parks.

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