Taking It to the Max in Coronado? : Newest Growth Spurt Could be Small City’s Last as Land Vanishes

This seaside city, where construction of almost any kind is viewed with apprehension, is on the verge of its biggest building boom since the early 1970s, when 10 massive, Miami-style condominium towers were erected on the beach.

The focus of development is again the shoreline, though this time it’s San Diego Bay rather than the Pacific Ocean.

Either planned, under construction or partly completed are two major hotels, a 220-foot fishing and boat pier, a 22-acre bayside park, a waterfront restaurant and commercial complex, a luxury condominium project and resumption of ferry service to San Diego.

Though some residents and their elected officials view the impending projects with a traditional ingrained wariness, they believe that, once this surge of construction is finished, that will be the end of it for a long time.

Others, however, think the developments are the precursor of a major transformation, a future “yuppie-izing” of the many existing mom-and-pop businesses, similar to what has occurred in other upscale waterfront locales such as Carmel and Santa Barbara.

“The bottom line is once they (developments) are completed, that’s it. There is no more room,” said Mary Kay Forsyth, a Coronado resident for 40 years who is executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce as well as director of the town’s visitors bureau.

To a large degree she’s right: Natural and man-made obstacles prevent the town from expanding out or going up.

With the main part of town encompassing an area of only six square miles--hemmed in by Navy bases to the north and south, and by ocean and bay to the east and west--land for development is scarce and at a premium.

And city ordinances--pushed through as a reaction to the high-rise condominiums--prevent construction of anything higher than 40 feet.

Although there may be little available vacant land left for development, that won’t stop the pressure to build or redevelop buildings, some residents believe.

It’s possible, for example, that the new projects will hasten change in downtown Coronado, now characterized by businesses that cater more to residents than tourists, creating a small-town quaintness many say is Coronado’s most precious resource.

“While I think Coronado will retain much of its present character . . . the developments will open a really large market,” said Josef Citron, who along with his wife, Lenore, is building the 450-room Coronado Bay Hilton adjacent to the Coronado Cays.

“There will be opportunities if other business owners want to come in and create something,” he said diplomatically.

For years the perception of Coronado among developers was one of opposing growth. Citizens were ever vigilant to protect the city’s quiet, residential ambiance of palm-lined streets, neatly trimmed lawns and tidy homes valued at an average of $200,000 apiece. In that regard, little has changed.

Earlier this year, the City Council rezoned portions of the town to stop developers from razing single-family homes and replacing them with apartments and condominiums.

“Just try getting a permit to remodel your living room and you’ll get 15 people at the City Council to contest the permit,” Jim MacArthur, project manager for one of the Old Ferry Landing developments, said--only partly in jest.

“They do love a fray over there,” said Don Nay, executive director of the San Diego Unified Port District. “I’m not criticizing them. There’s limited land available over there, and they take a great interest in their land. Each community is a little different . . . they have a lot of community meetings in Coronado.”

Much of the residents’ apprehension over growth is based on the feeling that their community is under siege because many of the most important land-use decisions affecting Coronado’s quality of life are the domain of outside agencies such as the Navy, the Port District and Caltrans.

“We think it’s hard to get their attention,” said Mary Herron, longtime Coronado City Council member, referring to the outside agencies. “As a small city, it’s hard for us to have clout.”

The Navy controls the bases, which employ about 9,000 civilians and at least an additional 11,000 military personnel, most of whom live outside Coronado.

The Port District by state law has jurisdiction over the tidelands--where most of the new construction will occur. And Caltrans has responsibility for the town’s busiest streets--3rd and 4th streets leading to North Island Naval Air Station and Orange Avenue, the town’s equivalent of Main Street--and one of the town’s two landmarks, the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge. The other landmark is the venerable and renowned Hotel del Coronado, which is privately owned.

The toll bridge is both Coronado’s curse and its blessing. Opened in 1969, the sweeping 11,000-foot span replaced the ferry. It now carries an average of 49,000 cars a day, double what it carried 15 years ago, and the volume keeps growing, sometimes to as much as 60,000 a day, according to Caltrans.

Perhaps the most dramatic illustration of this increase is that enough tolls were collected to retire the bridge’s construction bonds 17 years earlier than anticipated.

Along with commuters who work at North Island, the bridge brings tourists, attracted by the Hotel del Coronado and the town’s broad beach. At least 1.4 million tourists--not counting a substantial number of “day trippers”--visited Coronado last year, according to the Chamber of Commerce.

With numbers like that, it’s not surprising that tourism is Coronado’s No. 1 industry. The combination of commuters and tourists explains why the town’s permanent population of 19,000 is easily doubled on most days, city officials say.

And while residents, even those most concerned with growth, acknowledge the bridge as a critical convenience enabling many to work in San Diego, they also say it has brought Coronado its public enemy No. 1: traffic.

The town’s mayor, R.H. Dorman, says the noisy, dirty stream of cars and trucks coming off the bridge has ruined the quality of life on 3rd and 4th streets, the main thoroughfares linking the bridge to North Island.

Dorman, who wants the state and federal governments to build a tunnel from the bridge to the base, is relatively unconcerned about the traffic created by the new hotels, residential and commercial developments.

“They don’t add enough to have that much of an impact,” he said. “The real, real problem is the commuter traffic. We’ve got three (aircraft) carriers home ported here and I hear we might get a fourth. That’s too much.

“We have a right to retain our residential character.”

Traffic growth, however, is not confined to the two main streets leading to the Navy base. For example, Caltrans figures show that traffic volume on Orange Avenue has increased by about 16% since 1981.

Other residents say the cumulative effect of the developments and the increase in both tourist and commuter traffic “is going to choke the residential areas to death,” in the words of Doris Pray, a Planning Commission member who has been involved in growth-related issues for many years.

“Unfortunately, there are elected officials who are accommodating the outsiders . . . at the expense of their residents,” said Pray, who has lived in Coronado off and on since 1937. “I think what we’re really doing now is moving the deck chairs on the Titanic.

“We want to be pleasing to everyone . . . that’s what got us in trouble.”

Tony Pena, Coronado’s director of community development, who has worked for the city since 1972, said: “The main concern that citizens have over here is maintenance of quality of life. This is essentially a quiet, residential environment that is conducive to raising kids and recreational activities.

“Some see the spillover of traffic, noise and the inconvenience of getting from one place to another . . . and there’s the feeling that things are happening that are starting to erode that quality of life.”

The construction in the early 1970s of the 10, 15-story Coronado Shores condominium complexes on the beach just south of the Hotel del Coronado angered many residents, some of whom organized and helped push through the city’s 40-foot building height limit law.

Thus galvanized, the city--which for years had attempted to remove the Port District’s jurisdiction of the tidelands but to no avail--bargained hard with the Port District over development of the shoreline.

For many years the city and the Port District were at odds over what was to be built, principally on the vacant land immediately north of the Coronado bridge, an important piece of property because it serves as the town’s front door.

There were those who wanted no construction whatsoever and wanted the area preserved as open space; others supported creating a park, and then there was the Port District, which wanted to maximize its revenue by allowing development of a large hotel.

Scores of meetings and bitter arguments later, the city and the Port District reached a compromise that culminated in last week’s ground breaking for a 22-acre public park and a 300-room luxury hotel, the Meridien.

Nearby and to the north, taking a crescent-shaped path, the city and the Port District reached another compromise on the Old Ferry Landing complex, which when completed will consist of a restaurant built out over the water, retail shops, a pier and a small park.

Next to it is yet another new building, The Landing condominium development, where the first units are now for sale.

Councilwoman Herron said, “The downside to this is that it will impact our traffic. The upside is there will be more park and recreation facilities . . . a bicycle path, playing fields and a fishing pier, and more (tax) revenue.”

Mayor Dorman said, “It’s my opinion the developments we’ve achieved are about as good as we can get.

“I know there are people who don’t want anything at all, but we can’t put up a gate at the bridge either. What you have to do is get the best deal you can, and I think we did.”