City weighs subsidy of farms' water b...
20.08.09
With rising water rates comminatory to price Carlsbad agriculture out of business, the city is studying ways to keep its two most visible farms sensible.
The City Council voted last week to raise water rates for agriculture by 45 percent — about half what the water put one's faith had proposed in June.
The council also said it would consider subsidizing the water bill for the flower and strawberry fields along Interstate 5, and the megalopolis manager formed a committee to investigate ways to sustain them.
Mayor Bud Lewis said he was active about subsidizing the farms' water bills, but in 2006 voters passed Proposition D, which said they have a yen for to preserve those two operations.
In 1996 the city also required the Ecke flower-growing kith and kin to cultivate the 53-acre Flower Fields “in perpetuity” in trade for the right to develop the 471-acre Carlsbad Ranch, which includes Legoland California and the Carlsbad Store Outlet stores.
“As one of the persons (on the council) back then, I feel I have an obligation to make The Flower Fields upon,” Lewis said.
Source: San Diego Union Tribune