Port Officials Set to Vote on Bayfront Park

After listening to appeals from Logan Heights residents and activists Tuesday for a small bayfront park at the foot of Crosby Street, San Diego Unified Port District commissioners set Dec. 16 to act on a master plan amendment for the area.

The Port District may approve, reject or modify the plan, which calls for a split of the vacant site into a 3.2-acre park and a 2.2-acre ship repair yard.

The amendment and its accompanying environmental impact report will then go to the California Coastal Commission, which twice--in July, 1983, and March, 1984--rejected a similar split of the land. In both cases, the commission questioned the need for more ship repair facilities and the possible health risks of combining industrial and park uses.

Arguments over dividing the site have led to divisions in the community.

The Chicano Park Steering Committee, which for 16 years has tried to extend Chicano Park “all the way to the bay,” supported an earlier compromise it reached with the port officials that resulted in the current plan for a smaller park.

In contrast, the Harborview Community Council, a group of area residents that has been involved in the park issue for three years, still envisions a 5.4-acre park. That group brought to the hearing a 1,700-signature petition and a list of 35 organizations opposed to splitting the land.

Chicano Park Steering Committee Chairman Ron Trujillo said his organization started out with the idea of a 5.4-acre park in 1970, but after years of negotiations with the Port District decided to settle for a compromise. “It’s the only place we have left and it’s good enough for us,” Trujillo said.

“The park would be three years old,” he said after the hearing, if other people hadn’t jumped on the bandwagon and then insisted on using all the acreage for a park.

Al Ducheny, chairman of the Harborview Community Council, said: “The residents feel they can’t get anything. We’re not willing to accept anything less than other neighborhoods receive.” Accepting a 3.2-acre park with its 200 feet of bay frontage “is accepting nothing,” he said.

Port Director Don Nay recommended conserving 2.2 acres of the site for a shipyard because of the area’s deep water. He said it is becoming increasingly difficult to dredge shallower areas because of environmental concerns.

However, representatives of San Diego shipyards at the hearing said an additional repair facility would further damage companies in an already ailing industry and that it would be unwise to locate a park downwind from a shipyard, where sandblasting dust would be produced.