Carlsbad District 1 candidates split on parking, housing, theater

Melanie Burkholder and Nate Larson are competing for Carlsbad's District 1 council seat with opposing plans for parking, housing and preservation.

Voters will decide Tuesday, Nov. 3. As we reported Oct. 29, the district covers northwest Carlsbad, including the Village and the Barrio. In interviews published by The Sage, the candidates detailed specific policy differences.

Parking: structure vs. fewer regulations

Burkholder, a 64-year-old mental health therapist and incumbent council member according to her candidate statement, told The Sage that parking is probably her top complaint. She said she found over 40 spaces in the last four years and wants to build a parking structure for city employees during the day and village visitors in the evening.

Larson, an art director and educator per his candidate statement, took a different approach. He pointed to The Shoppes at Carlsbad, saying 75 percent of its parking lot sits empty. Larson said the city owns that lot and called it an opportunity for affordable housing.

Burkholder wants to cut parking requirements she considers excessive for small businesses. She told The Sage her therapy practice sees one client per hour but must maintain 10 parking spaces.

"There's some regulations that just don't make sense," Burkholder said.

Housing: workforce units vs. pushing back on Sacramento

Both candidates told The Sage they see affordable housing as a priority. They differ on tactics.

Burkholder said Carlsbad has an affordability problem and called for public-private partnerships and workforce housing. She said the city needs more units to bring prices down and cannot keep building only condos that teachers, firefighters and police officers cannot afford.

Larson said the city should push back against state housing mandates. He pointed to a League of California Cities working group that he said is pursuing amendments to state housing legislation and said Carlsbad is not part of that effort.

Burkholder's candidate statement also references fighting state mandates, saying she traveled to Sacramento to testify before the Legislature in defense of local land-use control.

The 1927 Carlsbad Theater

Larson has led the Save the Carlsbad Theater campaign, which he described as an effort to block a real estate development company from redeveloping the historic 1927 theater on State Street. He told The Sage the building is one of the oldest in town.

"It's made it 99 years, and if we're the generation that sees the end of it, then that would be pretty sad," Larson said.

Larson traces his family's roots in Carlsbad to the Spanish land grant era. His candidate statement names Marrón, Pico and Frazee ancestors.

SANDAG mileage tax

Burkholder has campaigned against a San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) mileage tax that would have charged drivers 4 cents per mile, according to The Sage. She said the tax would punish electric-vehicle owners who switched away from gasoline at the government's urging.

SANDAG removed the per-mile charge from its regional transportation plan in 2023 after opposition from local leaders, NC Pipeline reported. The California Assembly advanced a separate bill in early 2026 that would extend a state pilot program studying a per-mile fee through 2035.