Bilbray Issues Plea for a Building Ban in Otay Mesa Area

The imposition of a temporary building moratorium on Otay Mesa was proposed Wednesday by County Supervisor Brian Bilbray, who argued that a ban is necessary to allow more thorough planning of the largely barren South Bay area.

Delivering the annual State of the County address, Bilbray called on the county and the cities of Chula Vista and San Diego to join together and delay growth on “this important frontier” for six months or more to ensure that needed utilities and roads are fully mapped.

“The development of Otay Mesa can provide the region with much-needed jobs, economic opportunity and high quality housing,” Bilbray said in his morning speech. However, “without good planning, development on the mesa will result in massive traffic jams, sewage disposal problems and other infrastructure disasters such as those that have beset the North City during the past year.”

Later in the day, Bilbray, who this year has the rotating title as board chairman, formally proposed the ban to fellow supervisors. On a 3-0 vote with Leon Williams and Susan Golding absent, the board agreed to consider an ordinance imposing a moratorium on all residential, commercial and industrial subdivision maps at a meeting in mid-February.

In addition, Bilbray, whose district includes part of Otay Mesa, will draft letters to the mayors of San Diego and Chula Vista, seeking their endorsement of the moratorium.

Also during his speech Wednesday, which was accompanied by a slick audio-visual presentation and attracted a standing-room-only crowd, Bilbray:

- Recounted San Diego County’s accomplishments in 1986, among them completion of the Los Coches Creek Flood Channel in Lakeside, a $9-million project expected to alleviate chronic flooding; the establishment of a children’s commission to address the needs of youths; the opening of a county Veterans’ Service Office, and completion of the Euclid Avenue trolley line extension.

- Lamented the troubles that have plagued the county’s mental health system and recommended a “top-to-bottom review” of the program by newly hired Health Department Director William Cox.

- Urged supervisors to remain “on the offensive” with respect to immigration issues. Bilbray praised efforts by Golding to obtain reimbursement from the federal government for expenses the county incurs in providing services to illegal immigrants. He said he will advocate creation of a presidential task force to ensure that local governments and Latino groups have a say in implementation of the recently passed immigration reform bill.

- Sounded an alarm over continued pollution problems in San Diego Bay and asked the state Legislature and the San Diego Unified Port District to help fund a clean-up.

- Declared for 1987 the lofty goals of eradicating illiteracy, solving a shortage of waste disposal sites and persuading the public that “the county is dealing with the problems of poverty, crime, disease, drugs, air quality, transportation and jail overcrowding to the fullest extent our limited resources will allow.”

Bilbray’s proposal for a moratorium, by far the most controversial topic in the 12-page speech, drew mixed reactions Wednesday.

While city representatives in Chula Vista, which borders the grassy mesa on the north, have favored the ban, noting that the clogged freeways forecast by regional planners could hinder their own development plans, San Diego officials are steadfastly opposed to the idea.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor said a building ban would be “premature” and could damage the city’s efforts to stimulate industrial development on the city’s southern flank and provide jobs.

In particular, council members and others worry that a moratorium--no matter how brief--might saddle the city with an image problem that could threaten its ability to attract quality developers to the area.

“Any time you send out that kind of a signal, people who are looking for industrial site opportunities hear it clearly,” said Dan Pegg, president of the San Diego County Economic Development Corp. “While we are strong proponents of controlled, well-planned development down there, at this point we don’t see anything on the horizon that would really justify a moratorium.”

Pegg added that a moratorium would probably drive up prices for property in the area, further harming San Diego’s competitiveness in the marketplace.

If history is any indication, the views expressed by O’Connor and Pegg are shared by the remaining San Diego council members. In December, the council unanimously rejected a similar moratorium proposal by the San Diego Assn. of Governments, largely out of fear that such a ban would be “sending out the wrong message,” as Councilman Bill Cleator put it at the time.

Sandag had requested a ban of at least six months to prepare computer models evaluating future traffic patterns in the area. Previous Sandag studies of the mesa predict gridlock on freeways and roads crisscrossing the region if growth occurs according to existing plans.

San Diego officials concede that the studies forecast congestion. But they say they are revising plans for the 7,000 acres proposed for development on the mesa in response to the traffic forecast. Planner Michael Strang said such revisions would include improving streets in congested areas, adding new routes or possibly phasing in development in a manner that stops building when traffic levels reach a certain peak.

Bilbray, the former mayor of Imperial Beach, says such adjustments are not sufficient. He argues that “there is a very strong possibility that we may have to lower densities dramatically” in the area.

Asked whether there is a chance that the San Diego City Council will endorse a moratorium it rejected just last month, Bilbray said, “We’ll just set the example by going ahead with it and hope they follow it. I believe firmly we must do this to avoid mistakes that have been made in North City.”

Otay Mesa consists of about 21,000 acres of grassland surrounding the Brown Field airport and bounded roughly by Tijuana, the San Ysidro mountains, Interstate 805 and the Otay River. Most of the land is in the City of San Diego, which is planning industrial and residential development in the area. The county controls more than 5,000 acres.

Only one project--a manufacturing plant for Sanyo Industries America Corp.--has been built to date. Strang said tentative development maps covering about 2,200 acres have been filed with city planning officials.