CARLSBAD — A judge ruled this month that the Environmental Impact Report, or EIR, for the Ponto Beach area needs more work. A portion of the report concerning traffic, which is required under the California Environmental Quality Act, must be amended before any development plan can move forward.

Superior Court Judge Robert Dahlquist agreed, at least initially, with the city of Encinitas and issued a tentative ruling that EIR did not adequately address traffic and the issue of which city would pay for road improvements.

The two cities were scheduled to meet again Aug. 22, but the date has been continued until Sept. 19, City Attorney Ronald Ball said.

“We reserve the right to persuade the judge, but we are engaged in settlement discussions without the necessity of further court hearings,” Ball said.

The Ponto Beachfront Village Vision Plan, an outline for development to be built in phases along 50 acres of coastal property in the southern part of the city, was given the green light last November after years of delays.

However, in January the city of Encinitas filed a lawsuit alleging that the city of Carlsbad had not adequately addressed traffic problems the new plan will create.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court on Jan. 3, alleged that the EIR on the project failed to “analyze or propose mitigation measures for a number of impacts that will result from the implementation of traffic measures recommended.”

However, according to Ball, there is substantial evidence to show the city did address those impacts and proceeded in accordance with those requirements by law.

The plan allows for hotels, retail businesses and mixed-use housing and shops to be built along 50-acres between Carlsbad Boulevard and the railroad tracks, from La Costa Avenue to the Hanover Beach Colony development.

Although the property is located in the city of Carlsbad, it is estimated that as much as 70 percent of the new traffic generated by the development would travel down a portion of La Costa Avenue located within the city of Encinitas.

The city of Encinitas is asking Carlsbad to pay “proportionately” for the cost of improvements needed to handle the increase of traffic on La Costa Avenue, as it intersects with both the Coast Highway 101 and Vulcan Avenue.

According to Patrick Murphy, senior planner for the city of Encinitas, only 27 percent of the “significant and adverse impacts” of traffic were mitigated.

“The EIR for the Ponto Vision Plan fails to address the proposed increase of 5,000 cars per day on La Costa Avenue,” Murphy said.

“There is a wide discrepancy between the 70 percent and 27 percent,” Ball said. “But the percentage is based on the best information supplied to the city of Carlsbad at the time the EIR was done.”

Encinitas estimates the cost of the improvements could be as high as $9.3 million. The city of Carlsbad estimated $5.3 million, but agreed it could be as high as $7.3 million.

Eventually some of the costs will be passed onto the developers, Ball said. However, because there is no actual development approved at this time — only a plan — that will be decided at a future date.