San Diego

Mayor Maureen O’Connor was the lone City Council member against including Otay Mesa property owned by Roque de la Fuente in the city’s application for duty-free foreign trade zones along the Mexican border.

O’Connor, who earlier objected to De la Fuente’s inclusion in the city’s trade zone application because he would not name all of his potential industrial park clients, admitted she still had reservations, “but it has all been argued to death.”

Without discussion, the council voted Monday to include the De la Fuente Business Park in the city’s application to the federal Foreign Trade Zone Board. Three other private developments--Otay International Center, Brittania Commerce Center and San Diego Business Park--also are included in the city’s application for trade zone status for its own property at Brown Field on Otay Mesa.

If trade zone status is granted, industries may warehouse imported raw materials in the United States without paying duty taxes. The tax-exempt warehousing is an essential part of the growing twin-plant border industries along the U.S.-Mexican border.