The Tidelands Archive

The San Diego Port Commission has approved the EIR for redevelopment of America’s Cup Harbor, an area of recreational and commercial boatyards and marine businesses off the north end of Shelter Island and Harbor Drive. “The port took action, moving forward while allaying tenants’ concerns over parking,” says Richard Cloward, executive director of the San Diego Port Tenants Association.

The $41 million effort will add more visitor amenities such as parks and a plaza for shops and restaurants. “They need to come up with a mutually agreeable parking plan not just for the tenants (and their employees) but the public at large,” Cloward adds. The plan next goes to the California Coastal Commission but probably not before August, says port spokesman Steve Shultz.

One element that won’t be a part of the Shelter Island scene is a bait barge. The Port Commission voted 4-3 against a summer trial run for the enterprise favored by Commission Chairman Steve Cushman. Some sportfishing businesses also were for the idea; hotels and others were vehemently not. “The tenants were divided on the issue,” says Cloward. “Historically, we don’t get involved in issues where our members are on both sides.”

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The International Longshore & Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, representing West Coast port companies and carriers including those in San Diego, are in contract negotiations in San Francisco, with the three-year pact set to expire June 30.

The union has more than 10,000 members but only about 150 full-time workers at the three Port of San Diego terminals, reports Jim Pugh, the port’s senior director of maritime. “We do not directly employ the longshoremen; the stevedore companies do,” Pugh explains. “From the port standpoint, we’re optimistic about an agreement. We encourage both sides to get together.”

“We’re looking forward to them having a new contract,” says Jerry Butkiewicz, secretary-treasurer of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council. “We’re looking forward to growing the port business and we believe under the leadership of Steve Cushman that’s going to happen.”

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The Port Commission has selected Hilton over three competitors to develop a 1,000- to 1,200-room waterfront hotel at the former Campbell Shipyard. The May selection allows 90 days to cement a development agreement for what Cushman calls “the best new hotel site in the nation” — 13 acres off Eighth Avenue and Harbor Drive, just south of the San Diego Convention Center and southwest of the Ballpark Project.

The development plan will consider tax-exempt financing. Estimated annual rent to the port from such a hotel would be $6.7 million — especially vital once San Diego International Airport is transferred from the port to the new Regional Airport Authority in December. Hilton Hotels Corp., Lankford & Associates of San Diego, and national hotel developers Phelps Program Management, Portman Development and Waterford Development Co. (Del Mar Gateway Marriott) form the Hilton San Diego Convention Center proposal.

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Michael B. Bixler takes over as Imperial Beach’s port commissioner this month, filling the term that expires in January of Frank Urtasun, who is moving to Coronado. Bixler, a financial consultant in the Coronado office of Merrill Lynch, was formerly chairman of Sandag and mayor of I.B.

“I’m a regionalist, coming from a Sandag background,” says Bixler, who also was a lieutenant commander as a Navy pilot. “These agencies have an important regional goal that benefits everybody. The airport is a regional asset; we shouldn’t be fighting over who runs it.”

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San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy has nominated Centre City Development Corp. Chair Peter Q. Davis to replace El Cortez redeveloper Peter Janopaul on the Port Commission. Janopaul, weary of port politics, will have served only a third of his four-year term.

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The San Diego-Coronado Bridge will toll no more. “The toll will stop being collected June 27 at 10 p.m.,” says the minute-minding Jim Rundle, Sandag regional planner.

Bridge tolls began in 1969. Until 1980, when one-way collection began, it was 60 cents each way to recover the bridge’s construction cost. The tariff dropped to $1 in 1988. “The reason the toll continued after the bonds were retired in 1986 was to cover retrofitting and other capital expenses.” The fee now has even paid the local share of the $95 million retrofit.

As for the ticket takers, only 12 full-time tollbooth personnel are left. “They will all transition to new jobs — it’s their choice: Caltrans or other government agencies,” says Lt. Patricia Young, who still maintains her rank from the time toll collectors had peace officer status. Young also remembers when the J-shaped bridge had booths on both ends and employed 21 ticket takers; she’s been at the bridge since 1975.

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The San Diego-based aircraft carrier Stennis has returned from its six-month deployment to the Arabian Sea to a new $51.3 million, 1,300-foot long concrete berthing wharf constructed by the Southwest Division Naval Facilities Engineering Comm-and.

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Summer is the down season for cruise ships in San Diego. Only one ship is scheduled to arrive this month at the B Street Pier Cruise Ship Terminal, but it’s a leviathan. Royal Caribbean International’s 2,446-passenger Grandeur of the Seas makes its weekly series of round-trip cruises to the Mexican Riviera June 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30. The port estimates each port call generates $750,000 in economic impact.

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Another ship gearing up for a voyage to San Diego Bay is the Midway, finished as World War II ended and repeatedly called into service since. The San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum expects to complete all the Navy paperwork and other rigamarole this year and move the flattop from Bremerton, Wash., to the south side of Navy Pier along the North Embarcadero by next year.

When the Midway arrives, a vintage air squadron should be ready to attach to it. The planes include two F-4 Phantoms and F-9F Cougars, an A-6 Intruder, A-7 Corsair, H-2 Seasprite, E-2C Hawkeye and others. “The aircraft are being restored at North Island,” says the museum’s Theresa Randall. Will they all fit on the Midway? “There’s a lot of room on it — some on the flight deck and some in the hangar bay in appropriate exhibits.”

If you want to see the Midway in the meantime, visit the Downtown train station, where a large model of the carrier is on display.