One of the greatest generators of tax revenue for National City doesn’t belong to the city. It’s the tidelands area, which belongs to the San Diego Unified Port District.

The port district follows “an archaic line along the contour of the San Diego Bay,” explains Dick Cloward, executive director of the San Diego Port Tenants’ Association. “It’s anything contiguous to the water below the historic high tide line. Just under 90 percent of the port’s revenue comes from land in San Diego and the remainder comes from four other cities. But that’s an important 10 percent for us.”

The port controls 510 acres that are within the jurisdiction of National City, says Jim Hutzelman, assistant director of community services for the port. Of those acres, 116 are used by the Navy.

“Most of the land is assigned to the marine terminal and marine use business,” notes Cloward. Many of these utilize the port-owned National City Distribution Center, which includes a large warehouse and cold storage. The port has 32 lease agreements with businesses in the tidelands. These leases generated $2.95 million in revenue for the port in 2002, Hutzelman says.

The largest tenants are Dixieline Lumber’s Engineered Wood Products, Pasha Services (which imports new cars), the Knight & Carver Yacht Center and RE Staite Engineering Inc. Pasha handled 332,000 vehicles from Honda, Acura, Volkswagen, Isuzu, Mitsubishi Fiso and Hino Motors in 2001. That makes National City second to Los Angeles in West Coast automobile volume.

Cloward says National City received $700,000 in sales tax revenue in 1998 from port activity. In 2001, that amount had jumped to $1.6 million, he says.

The tidelands area also is the largest employer for the city, providing about 30,000 jobs. “And that’s a conservative figure,” Cloward says. “These businesses provide a lot of jobs that wouldn’t have been there without the port, not only in San Diego, but also blighted areas of San Diego.”

Plans call for developing more recreation areas along National City’s tidelands. “The city is anxious to develop it as a marine recreational and commercial district,” says Cloward. “They’d like a marina built adjacent to the boat launching ramp, but the final funding is not in place. There is some preliminary reconstruction.”

The port continues to lease land to suitable businesses, which in turn creates revenue for National City. “It is an important revenue generator for the city,” says Cloward. “There are a lot of businesses in the tidelands.”