State Sees Approval of Coronado Ferry Permit

Officials from the two state agencies required to license a proposed San Diego-to-Coronado ferry service indicated Wednesday that such approvals should be virtually automatic.

“We’ve only had two of these in the last 30 years,” said Gerry Meis, a California Department of Transportation official in Sacramento. Meis was referring to the request by San Diego’s Star & Crescent Boat Co. for the operating license.

In fact, said Meis, requests for franchises have been so rare that Caltrans doesn’t even have regulations on how they should be granted. Because of that, he said, Caltrans will probably follow the lead of the state Public Utilities Commission, the other state agency that must issue a ferry permit.

“It’s an authority we will exercise,” Meis said. “But from what we know, our effort would not be a constraint at all.”

Officials at the PUC said much the same thing. “They would be required to prove that their proposal has some merit to it and can succeed,” said Tom Schwabacher, a San Francisco-based transportation analyst for the PUC. He said the final decision would rest with the commission.

A hearing on the ferry-service proposal would be held before an administrative law judge before the plan is turned over to the commission, explained Schwabacher, who said the entire process would probably take three to six months.

Like Caltrans, the PUC has limited experience dealing with ferries. At most, the agency handles permits for about 15 ferries, all of them small, privately run operations, ranging from those in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Catalina Island service from San Pedro and Long Beach.

The state’s largest ferry service, which provides commuter transportation between Marin County and San Francisco, is not under the PUC’s domain. The San Francisco Bay ferry service is operated by the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District, a public agency.

Even businesses that provide excursion trips, such as those now conducted by Star & Crescent in San Diego Bay, aren’t regulated by the PUC. This is ironic because Star & Crescent proposes using its excursion boats to ferry passengers back and forth between San Diego and Coronado, as well as on a secondary route between the 24th Street pier in National City and the North Island Naval Air Station.

“The PUC only becomes involved when vessels transport passengers or freight between points. Round trips, where you pick up passengers and then let them off at the same location, are deregulated,” Schwabacher said.

Lloyd A. Schwartz, an attorney representing Star & Crescent, said the ferry is an integral part of the company’s proposed $5.5-million waterfront retail development in Coronado, where ferry passengers would disembark.

The option for the development--which will feature a restaurant built on pilings over the water--has been granted by the San Diego Unified Port District. The district must also decide whether to build a $600,000 pier for the ferry next to the Coronado development.

The Port Commission, which put off a preliminary decision on the ferry proposal on Tuesday, is scheduled to review the matter again next week. The commission said it generally favors the ferry, which was abandoned in 1969 when the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge opened.

Schwartz said in an interview Wednesday that Star & Crescent wants to begin construction on its Coronado development, at the foot of C Avenue, later this year and be nearly finished before the next rainy season.

Star & Crescent is pushing to have the pier built at the same time as its Coronado project. “Logistically, it’s much easier,” Schwartz said. “It doesn’t make much sense to have bulldozers going over our new pavement.”

The Port District is already obligated to construct various amenities, such as a paved bike path, an upgraded beach and outside lighting, as part of the Star & Crescent development.

Construction of a pier is estimated to take four to six months.

Although Schwartz said the ferry service would be financed and operated privately, some port officials have raised questions about whether Star & Crescent might later seek a subsidy.

“I certainly would not rule that out . . . we might request it,” Schwartz said. “But we also have to be realistic. All the indications I’ve heard, from the state and the federal government, is that there is just no money around for these things.”

Schwartz also said he doesn’t see a possible subsidy from the tolls from the Coronado Bridge. “Our information is that bridge revenues are put aside solely for (maintenance of) existing structures . . . and not spinoff projects like this,” he said.

But the ultimate use of the $6 million to $7 million in yearly bridge-toll revenues soon to be available is not yet known. Meis said it is now estimated that the $47.6-million bond issue used to build the bridge will be paid off in April, 17 years earlier than first anticipated.

The Legislature has ordered Caltrans to report by July 1 on what should be done with the ongoing bridge revenues, which, even with lower tolls, are expected to reach several million dollars a year. The study is in its early stages, Meis said, and is likely to contain several recommendations.