Push On for Coronado Ferry, Landing Shops

A proposal to resume ferry service between San Diego and Coronado was greeted with enthusiasm Tuesday by the San Diego Unified Port District Board of Commissioners, but the board stopped short of approving an operating plan.

Such approval may come next week, however, when the ferry service plan, which would not include cars, is brought back for another look by commissioners. The commission also had questions about building a $600,000 pier off Coronado for the ferry’s operator.

Donald Nay, the Port District’s executive director, said after the commission meeting that final approval of the proposal will probably not come until late February or March, after the port’s staff has had time to study the matter.

The proposal for resuming the ferry service--which ceased in 1969 when the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge opened--is being made by Star & Crescent Boat Co., which now runs harbor cruises from a berth at the foot of Broadway.

Lloyd A. Schwartz, an attorney representing Star & Crescent and Southwest Marine Inc., a shipyard operator, said the ferry-service plan consists of two routes. The main route would be from Star & Crescent’s Broadway berth to the old ferry landing building at the foot of C Avenue in Coronado, a trip lasting less than 10 minutes.

This service, Schwartz said, would be geared primarily toward tourists and bicyclists, who would use the ferry to complete a bike loop that winds around the southern half of San Diego Bay. Cars would be excluded from the 197-passenger ferries. One-way fares are expected to be $1, Schwartz said.

The ferry would run daily and depart once an hour, from 10 a.m. to about 11 p.m.

The second, and more unpredictable, route would be from the 24th Street Pier in National City to the North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, a 35-minute run aimed at people who work at the naval air station. Schwartz acknowledged there are questions about the profitability of this commuter service, which would cost about $1.50 each way, but he said his company would operate the route for a year as an experiment.

The Navy, Schwartz said, has no objection to either proposed route.

Impetus for the ferry service comes from several sources. One of the most important is Star & Crescent’s and Southwest Marine’s option rights, granted by the Port District, to a proposed $5.5-million retail development at the site of the old ferry landing in Coronado. Included in this development plan is a large waterfront restaurant and several shops on land owned by the Port District.

Schwartz said three different financial backers have refused to approve a development loan package unless the renewed ferry service is part of the development. Lenders, Schwartz said, believe ferry service is vital to the success of the retail project, called the Old Ferry Landing.

But for a ferry service to operate, he said, the Port District must go ahead with its tentative plans to build a pier.

Another critical element in the new ferry service proposal is the Coronado Bridge. Competing forms of transportation, such as ferries, were banned by state law when the bridge was built. This prohibition is in force until bonds used to finance bridge construction are paid off. Because more vehicles are using the bridge than expected, it is anticipated the bonds will be paid off sometime this summer, thereby clearing the legal obstacles in the way of a new ferry service.

Another element in the proposal is that Star & Crescent can use the vessels it now operates on its harbor cruises to provide the ferry service. In fact, Schwartz explained, a ferry operation would allow the company to use some of its boats that now rest idle between cruises.

Schwartz wanted the Port Commission to grant conceptual approval of both the ferry service proposal and its willingness to build the pier. Without such assurances, he warned, Star & Crescent risked losing potential loans and defaulting on its option deadline with the Port District.

The Port Commission, while lauding the ferry service project, said it needed more time, and Nay said after the meeting it is likely he will recommend that the Port District extend the option deadline past the end of the month.

This will allow the Port Commission to approve the ferry project in concept next week, but will allow the port staff time to adequately review the details of the pier construction project and other items, such as parking and a consultant’s report that was just delivered to the port on Tuesday.

In fact, Commissioner Phil Creaser said he thought it “highly irregular” for the commission to contemplate approving the ferry project without first studying the consultant’s report.

Several local politicians, including the mayors of Coronado, Imperial Beach and Chula Vista, and County Supervisor Brian Bilbray, whose district covers the South Bay, spoke out in favor of the ferry project. Bilbray called it a “visionary proposal,” comparing it to the San Diego Trolley and Seaport Village.

In other action, the Port Commission approved a change in the lease with National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. that allows another company, Energy Factors Inc., to build a $36-million power plant. The co-generation facility, which would be built next to Harbor Drive, would supply steam power to the Navy and electricity to Nassco and San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

Richard H. Vortmann, president of Nassco, said construction of the power generating facility would enable the shipbuilding company to buy its power at a cheaper rate, saving millions of dollars. The savings, Vortmann said, would be used to make Nassco’s bids for Navy shipbuilding contracts more competitive.