Resort Plan Waiting for OK on Road

Approval of a proposed road through environmentally sensitive Gunpowder Point may hold the key to Chula Vista’s ambitious plans to build a tourist mecca on San Diego Bay.

The route is now nothing more than a dirt path through marshland but city officials hope they will be able to turn it into a two-lane road leading to a 400-room hotel, shops, restaurants and a nature center.

City officials had a goal of finishing the project by the end of October.

Chula Vista needs the approval of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers to build the road. Whether the Corps of Engineers grants approval rests largely with the decision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mayor Greg Cox said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to make a decision by the end of the month and the Corps of Engineers is expected to make its ruling within 90 days, Cox added.

If the two federal agencies decided against the road, it would block construction of the hotel but not the nature center, which could be reached on foot.

The road is part of a larger issue that has been disputed by city officials and environmentalists for 17 years. Chula Vista claims the development would give the city’s bayfront a much-needed face lift and create more than 3,000 jobs.

Environmentalists oppose all development on Gunpowder Point and are cautious about any other bayfront development because they believe it would threaten several endangered bird species. Ironically, the proposed name for the access road comes from one of those birds, the light-footed clapper rail. The other endangered birds are the least tern and the California brown pelican.

Chula Vista’s plans for Gunpowder Point moved into high gear in 1984 when the state Coastal Commission reversed a decade-long prohibition on development of the area.

Sierra Club activist Joan Jackson said environmentalists believe that if development is allowed on Gunpowder Point, “You may end up destroying a species. The decision that they (the California Coastal Commission) made (to allow development on Gunpowder Point) was over the objections of the Department of Fish and Game, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and their own staff.”

The Sierra Club filed a suit seeking to have the size of the development scaled down and buffer zones created to protect sensitive marshland.

The city’s present plans call for creation of 50 acres of buffer zones, said Community Development Director Paul Desrochers. “We plan to set back everything at least 100 feet from the marsh itself,” he said.

The hotel and its grounds have been designed not to interfere with the flight paths of the birds, Desrochers added.

A Chula Vista study says the hotel alone would provide 400 jobs. The new stores, restaurants and parking that would share the 14-acre site are expected to draw 7,450 people a day to Gunpowder Point.

Retail sales taxes are expected to bring the city at least $200,000 a year.

The Chula Vista Bayfront Land Use Plan covers 681 acres. Of that, 172 acres, or 25%, is proposed for new development. Existing uses, such as by San Diego Gas & Electric and Rohr Industries, take up 143 acres, or 20%. Proposed for wetlands preservation is 222 acres. Of the remainder, 40 acres is targeted for parks, 50 acres for buffer zones and 54 acres for rights-of-way and parking.

The nature center would include an auditorium, classroom, library, gift shop, bookstore, exhibit hall, darkroom, administrative office, observation tower and restrooms. Chula Vista spokesman Mark Cox said estimated cost of the center is $903,000.

“It will provide a place where people can view the marsh. Right now there is none,” he said.

Construction of the nature center, which will be built on 2.27 acres, will be funded by the Chula Vista Redevelopment Agency with an assisting grant from the California Coastal Conservancy, he said.