A recently begun construction project that’s going to double-track the railroad segment across Batiquitos Lagoon won’t be able to use a newly purchased, city open space area as a construction access point. In a 4-0 vote Wednesday, the Encinitas City Council rejected a request by the San Diego Association of Governments to run an access road across the city’s coastal bluff-top property, allowing construction traffic to use Carlsbad Boulevard. Also Wednesday, the council denied an appeal filed by opponents of the Bella Vista housing project. Councilmember Luke Shaffer, who represents the district that includes both the housing project site and part of the railroad project, said that the new housing project wouldn’t be that much different from the surrounding neighborhood, and he noted that a project representative has said she already is in negotiations with some neighboring property owners to mitigate their concerns. “She’s willing to work with you, she said it on the record,” he told project opponents before the council’s vote. The 10-acre site, which was previously agricultural land, is located near Bella Vista Drive and La Costa Avenue and overlooks Batiquitos Lagoon. Owned by The Kira Family Trust, the property is proposed to contain 17 homes, including two set aside for very low-income families. Setting aside some structures for low-income people allows the developer to put more homes on the property than might normally be allowed. Neighbors, who have said they were expecting something more like 1 home per developable acre, rather than 17, banded together to form the opponents’ group United Citizens for the Responsible Development of Bella Vista. After the city Planning Commission approved permits for the project in October, the group appealed the decision to the City Council, arguing that the project had unaddressed environmental, fire safety, traffic congestion and Native American cultural issues. Council members said they didn’t believe the opponents had met the standards for a successful appeal. Councilmember Jim O’Hara said the appeal “would be challenging to … accept,” while Mayor Bruce Ehlers said he would be voting “begrudgingly” to deny it on legal grounds. When it came to the railroad access route request, O’Hara and Ehlers both initially said they were inclined to grant it because it would reduce construction traffic on the already heavily congested La Costa Avenue, as well as eliminating a proposed wall on the railroad construction site and allowing the city later to have access to the property for a habitat restoration project. The plan put forward by SANDAG — the regional planning agency managing the project — and backed by railroad property owner North County Transit District had called for bisecting the 1.43-acre, “Surfers Point” open space area, which the city purchased earlier this year. Doing this cut-across would allow construction vehicles to gain access to the north-south Carlsbad Boulevard route, making it a primary exit point, instead of east-west La Costa Avenue. City Engineering Department Director Jill Bankston said SANDAG originally planned to use its existing access point on La Costa Avenue, but once the city purchased the adjoining land, SANDAG officials “saw an opportunity” to shift traffic onto Carlsbad Boulevard. In exchange for a road easement across the city’s land, SANDAG was willing to give Encinitas $300,000 worth of improvements to the city-owned property, Bankston said. David Cortez, SANDAG director of engineering and construction, told the council that if it didn’t want to proceed with the deal, SANDAG would pursue its original plan to just use its existing access point off of La Costa Avenue. In order to make that a better-quality, permanent roadway, SANDAG will need to build a 10-foot retaining wall, he said. And, the cost of the retaining wall was the figure that SANDAG was willing to give Encinitas in exchange for the easement right. Councilmember Joy Lyndes said the city had just spent $6 million to purchase the open space area and shouldn’t now grant an easement across the middle of it for a road. “We don’t need to do this, there are other options,” she said. She also noted that the road was proposed to be a permanent addition, not a temporary construction access route. Told that it would be permanent, O’Hara and Ehlers then changed their position. Work began on the $166 million, 0.6-mile double-tracking project in August and it’s supposed to last for the next four years, with seasonal breaks to accommodate the nesting season of the endangered least tern seabird. It’s part of a regional effort to accommodate two-way train traffic along the San Diego County railroad corridor. In addition to the current Encinitas access point on La Costa Avenue, there is an access point at the northern end of the work area, located near Avenida Encinas in Carlsbad.