Hearing Today Pits Touristy vs. Homely : Foes to Square Off Over Belmont Park Plan

A pitched battle over the future of a former Mission Beach amusement park is expected today in San Francisco when the state Coastal Commission considers a $14.4-million commercial development on the oceanfront city property.

A coalition of community groups seeking to retain the homely but historic Mission Beach Plunge and roller rink buildings, or turn the entire area into an open park, will oppose a group of local developers and architects who plan to knock down the buildings and put up restaurants, shops and other tourist-serving facilities.

Tough Coastal Commission requirements regulating parking and hours of operation--designed to ease the traffic impact on the congested beach communities of Pacific Beach and Mission Beach--are opposed by developers Paul Thoryk and Graham MacHutchin.

Ellen Lirley, coastal planner, has recommended that all parking (566 additional spaces) be free and unrestricted to the public and that restaurants within the Mission Beach Park complex be kept closed until 5 p.m. during summer weekends. Both special requirements, proposed to mitigate traffic congestion from the commercial complex, are opposed by the developers.

Under the development proposal, the aging swimming pool and roller-rink buildings would be razed and replaced by new structures, including 70,000 square feet of restaurants and shops in an eight-building complex on the site.

Traffic projections for the proposed commercial development indicate that the shops and restaurants would add 4,500 auto trips a day to the congested Mission Beach and Pacific Beach communities on weekends and an additional 3,100 weekday trips. Restriction of restaurant hours to evenings on summer weekends would avoid conflict with high beach-use periods and would mitigate traffic congestion, Lirley said in her report submitted Monday.

If the development plan were approved, the swimming pool and a roller coaster would be the only remaining parts of Belmont Park, built in the 1920s by sugar tycoon John D. Spreckels on a 33-acre oceanfront tract that was turned over to the state and later to the city after Spreckels’ death.

The amusement park once contained a ballroom and rides as well as the roller coaster, skating rink and plunge.

Thoryk and McHutchin won exclusive rights to redevelop the city park in early 1984 and initially proposed remodeling the plunge building to accommodate about 50,000 square feet of commercial space. In June, the San Diego City Council approved amended plans to allow razing the plunge structure and putting up the commercial complex.

The developers are expected to oppose the proposed Coastal Commission restriction on paid parking lots, which spokesmen for the group contend are necessary to make the commercial complex economically profitable.

Brian Wagner, spokesman for the Save Mission Beach Park Committee, said the group is sending about 20 representatives to today’s Coastal Commission hearing to oppose the development plans and to defend preservation of the city park as public open space.

On Tuesday, the group announced that it also is conducting a petition drive to gather 50,000 signatures to place the issue of preserving the park without commercial development on the city’s June primary ballot.