Shops Will Replace Old Plunge Building : 6-1 Vote by Council Angers Naysayers; Gotch Pledges Cleanup of Mission Beach

Drawing shouts and boos from a hostile crowd, the San Diego City Council voted Monday to allow a trio of developers to tear down the historic Mission Beach Plunge building to make way for restaurants and shops.

Council members approved the commercial development by a 6-1 vote, saying that redevelopment would restore the area and bring revenues to the community.

“This is the only project that will clean up Mission Beach,” Councilman Mike Gotch said. “Make no mistake, I am not going to abandon Belmont Park to the derelicts, drug pushers and the decay that is there now.”

Developers Paul Thoryk and Graham MacHutchin said they planned to begin construction of the project in the spring of 1988.

Their $14.4-million proposal would preserve the swimming pool, which measures 60 feet by 175 feet. But it would tear down the dilapidated Plunge building and roller rink to replace it with 98,500 square feet of new structures, 70,000 square feet of which would be used for shops.

The developers argued that the project would bring $1 million a year to the city, including more than $500,000 in sales and property taxes. They said their plans would add 233 much-needed parking places to Mission Beach.

MacHutchin told the council Monday that his proposed development represents a “new vision” for a “deteriorating public park.”

Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, the only dissenter on the council, voiced the same sentiments as many of the project’s opponents.

“A day at the beach should be a day of sunshine and fresh air rather than a day of commerce,” Wolfsheimer said. “I don’t go to the beach to dine in a restaurant. Hot dogs, yes, but crepes suzettes, no.”

The opponents also claimed that destroying The Plunge building would mean the loss of a significant historic landmark, and that added traffic from a commercial development would only exacerbate parking and traffic problems in already car-choked Mission Beach.

A group of opponents calling themselves the Save Mission Beach Park Committee met at a store in the beach area before boarding a bus, one of three that deposited residents at the council meeting Monday. The overflow vocal crowd was warned repeatedly by acting Mayor Ed Struiksma not to applaud and hold up bright yellow signs that read “NO development to our park.”

The Plunge, once the site of Hollywood extravaganzas and performances by motion picture stars Johnny Weismuller and Esther Williams, was built as part of the 33-acre Mission Beach Amusement Center that opened in 1925.

The center, which a city report said was “once one of the West Coast’s most impressive amusement parks,” also included a roller skating rink, a roller coaster, a merry-go-round and ballroom.

Built by San Diego real estate magnate John D. Spreckels, the park was donated to the city by the Spreckels family after his death.

While the roller coaster was eventually placed on the National Register of Historic Places--and a volunteer group given until 1987 to renovate it--the casino was razed in 1959 to make way for a parking lot, and the remaining structures were allowed to fall into disrepair.

A 1982 city study found that it would take about $2.6 million--$3.3 million in today’s dollars--in remedial construction just to bring The Plunge building up to current building codes.

The city opted to permit a private developer to renovate The Plunge, and in February, 1984, it entered into exclusive negotiations with developers Thoryk and MacHutchin.

But opponents said that the city should spend the money to restore The Plunge.

“No other major city in America would allow such a loss,” said Kathryn Lyon, a board member of the Save Our Heritage Organisation. “The Thoryk-MacHutchin Plan implies that San Diego’s history and its buildings are disposable.”

Speaking to concerns about the historic significance of The Plunge building, MacHutchin said it requires a “ton” of maintenance and, with its abundance of lockers, has an “inefficient design.”

Steven Davis, one of the developers, said, “We are very pleased with the council action. We are optimistic about solving the parking problem and we will work with Gotch to that end.”

Brian Wagner of the Save Mission Beach Park Committee said the group will meet soon to see what it can do to stop the project.

“The people of San Diego are going to watch this issue very closely,” Wagner said. “This issue is certainly not dead yet.”