Construction Boom Turns N. County Into Hotbed of Hotel, Motel Building

Time was, a road-weary traveler passing through coastal North County had little luck when it came to finding a hotel room for the night. From Orange County to the San Diego city limits, pickings were few along the heavily traveled Interstate 5 corridor.

Typically, a motorist or family of sightseers would be forced to pull off the highway and prowl the streets to find a bed in some decidedly spartan lodge near the seashore.

Not so anymore. Today, a wide array of lodging--from family-style budget motels to luxury hotel suites catering to the business executive--has sprouted along the North County coast.

In the last five years, more than a dozen motels and hotels have been built in the area, nearly doubling the number of available rooms while making North County a heavyweight contributor to the San Diego region’s tourism market.

Analysts point to the northern coast as one of the hotbeds of hotel construction in the nation. Aside from the more than 1,650 extra rooms that have been added to the area during the recent hotel boom, another half-dozen large projects are on the drawing boards, from a 264-room luxury hotel at the Oceanside harbor to a 400-room Sheraton at the Torrey Pines golf course.

By 1991, more than 2,500 more hotel and motel rooms are expected to join the menu of accommodations along the county’s northern coast. If all the projects are built, the stock of rooms in the area will have grown more than 300% in the matter of a decade.

“We get a lot of calls from an awful lot of people looking to do things in San Diego County,” said Bruce Goodwin, a San Diego-based consultant with the big-eight accounting firm Laventhol & Horwath. “When they get here, they find where the growth pattern is, and the growth path is toward North County.”

While many city fathers are ecstatic about the proliferation of hotels and the consequent “touristization” of North County, some residents resent the trend, arguing that it is spoiling the appeal of a region that, until recent years, has been little more than a patchwork of bedroom communities.

Moreover, some of the new projects, in particular the economy-class motels popping up beside the freeway, are architectural eyesores better suited for the urban sprawl of Los Angeles than the quaint beach towns dotting the northern coast, some homeowners grouse.

“Some of them are OK, but a lot them are pretty cheap-looking,” said Tom Smith, co-chairman of Concerned Citizens, a Carlsbad-based slow-growth coalition. “I think they’ve gone overboard on it. They’re definitely traffic inducers, and let’s face it, we’ve got one freeway, so it’s going to be a problem if it isn’t one already.”

Opposition Mounting

Although such griping is scattered at best in Oceanside and Carlsbad, fervent opposition movements have surfaced in communities to the south, with residents battling to stop hotels planned for Solana Beach, Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar and the Torrey Pines area.

Opponents filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to block the Torrey Pines Sheraton and also sent out mass mailers in opposition. In Rancho Santa Fe, residents are currently fighting tooth and nail to block an 82-unit resort, lobbying county officials and pleading that the resale value of their homes will plummet. And environmentalists battled unsuccessfully to derail a 243-room deluxe hotel now under construction near the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

“I think the majority of people are against hotels and more tourists coming to town,” said Bill Malone, a Del Mar resident and opponent of a 125-room hotel rejected Sept. 22 by the city’s voters. “It just means more traffic, more noise and more people dumping trash on the beach and our front yards.”

Such complaints contrast sharply with the attitude in cities such as Oceanside, where officials have rolled out the red carpet for a Radisson hotel planned at the municipal harbor, a project they hope will spur the city’s sagging downtown economy.

“It will bring some money into downtown Oceanside,” said Councilwoman Lucy Chavez, a lifelong resident of the city. “It will mean people coming in and buying, coming in and staying.”

Aside from the spinoffs of tourists spending money at local restaurants and boutiques, the economic allure of hotels shines brightest from the bed taxes a city government can glean from a profitable operation.

In Carlsbad, the hotel kingpin of North County cities, the 6% tax a visitor pays on a nightly room bill accounted for $1.7 million during the 1986-87 fiscal year, up more than 450% over what was taken in a decade ago.

Natural Growth Area

Consultants and financial analysts say the North County hotel boom has sprung from a variety of factors, among them the pleasant year-round weather, the availability of relatively inexpensive land and the growth of residential areas as well as office and industrial parks, which provide a ready clientele.

Joseph Kordsmeier, a Carmel-based lodging industry consultant, said many hotel operators began turning to San Diego County as the market became saturated in Los Angeles and Orange counties as well as perennial boom towns like Orlando, Fla., and Hilton Head, S.C.

“There’s just no more room over there,” Kordsmeier said. “San Diego County has one of the few coastlines that’s left.”

While the city of San Diego continues to represent the prime draw for tourists to the region, some North County business and civic leaders believe their coastal area is increasingly being recognized as a destination spot.

Tony Howard-Jones, a longtime motel operator in Carlsbad, said many visitors, particularly those from Europe, are setting up base in North County, which is within easy driving distance from traditional attractions such as Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo.

“They want to be in an area that’s laid back, not in a metropolitan area with traffic and hustle and bustle,” Howard-Jones said. “North County has the best of both worlds. We have the attractions right on our doorstep, yet we’re more tranquil and rural.”

Aside from the bed taxes generated by the new hotels, municipal officials have few reliable statistics indicating the economic benefits of putting up more visitors in their communities. Nonetheless, they insist that the benefits are there.

In Carlsbad, for example, redevelopment officials say the volume of downtown foot traffic has jumped significantly since a pair of hotels were completed about two years ago.

“It’s hard to isolate the spending patterns, but there have been a lot more people,” said Chris Salomone, Carlsbad’s redevelopment director. “If you pressed me to point to the single thing that had the greatest impact on the downtown, I’d have to point to those two developments.”

Residents in some areas, however, are far more apt to point to the negative impacts of the hotel boom. Opposition movements typically have arisen when a hotel project has been proposed for an area neighbors consider to be inappropriate.

In Solana Beach, residents grew angry when plans were announced for a 161-room hotel beside the environmentally sensitive San Elijo Lagoon. Although the project was ultimately approved, leaders of the newly incorporated city negotiated with the developer to significantly reduce the visual and environmental impacts of the project, which is not yet under construction.

“I’d hate to turn this completely into a tourist town, with hotel units up and down the street,” said Steven Apple, planning director in Solana Beach. “But it’s good to have a well-balanced community, to have a mix of uses.”

Rancho Santa Fe residents, meanwhile, contend the hotel planned in their community is an inappropriate commercial enterprise that would jeopardize the tranquility of a quiet residential neighborhood. Two weeks ago, the county Board of Supervisors set a Dec. 2 hearing date for the 16.5-acre project.

Boom Called Inevitable

Mostly, however, North County residents acknowledge that it’s inevitable that hotels will be built, whether they like it or not.

Although Del Mar voters defeated the hotel proposed for a key vacant lot at the town’s northern entryway, the city is virtually surrounded by half a dozen projects proposed just outside its city limits. In addition, the City Council has discussed putting the defeated hotel deal on some future ballot.

“We have no control over what goes on outside our borders, so we just have to roll over and take that,” Malone said. “I guess Del Mar is a tourist attraction and hotel owners are trying to exploit that.”

One lingering question facing supporters and opponents alike is whether there is enough business to keep the spate of new hotels and motels afloat.

Howard-Jones said many of the recently completed motels fronting Interstate 5 in Carlsbad and Encinitas are suffering a slow period as the area struggles to increase its presence in the tourism market. While the occupancy rate for hotels and motels along the North County coast has hovered around 70% for the last two years, hotels in downtown San Diego are at 76%, San Diego Bay hotels are at 87%, and Mission Bay, La Jolla and Golden Triangle hotels average 82%.

Nonetheless, even slow-growth advocates like Smith concede it’s only a matter of time.

“All these motels and hotels have been put in with future growth in mind,” Smith said. “They know what they’re doing. They’re looking to five years from now, for the big growth crunch that they know will come.”

HOTELS PLANNED IN NORTH COUNTY 1. OCEANSIDE--Current total: 1,075 rooms. A 264-room Radisson hotel with conference facilities, restaurants, pools and tennis courts is planned at Oceanside Harbor. It will have a satellite building with 32 suites near the beach. Long-range plans for the foot of the city pier include a major hotel. 2. CARLSBAD--Current total: 1,700 rooms. Nine hotels totaling 1,000 rooms have been built since 1982, most of them along Interstate 5. An additional 1,200 rooms are planned. Among those projects are large hotels to be built by Hunt Properties and Sammis Properties at Batiquitos Lagoon, a 150-unit Ramada Inn on I-5, and a 240-unit hotel near Carlsbad State Beach. 3. ENCINITAS--Current total: more than 500. Three hotels totaling more than 330 rooms have been built along the freeway in the last few years. In addition, the 94-unit Sanderling Place Inn on Encinitas Boulevard opened three years ago. A small hotel is nearly finished along the coast highway in Leucadia. 4. SOLANA BEACH--Current total: 44 rooms. A 161-room hotel is to be built on the southern shore of San Elijo lagoon featuring conference rooms, a restaurant and spectacular views of the Pacific. A 120-unit hotel is proposed for the coast highway in the heart of town. 5. DEL MAR--Current total: 250 rooms. Although a 125-unit hotel was rebuffed by voters last month, several projects are planned just outside this city’s boundaries in territory controlled by the City of San Diego. Among them are a 243-room Hilton near the fairgrounds and another large hotel at Carmel Valley Road and Interstate 5. 6. RANCHO SANTA FE--Current total: 80 rooms. Even this exclusive unincorporated community has been hit by the hotel boom. Developer Daniel Bunn wants to build an 82-unit hotel on 16.5 acres, but faces unwavering opposition. Goes before the County Board of Supervisors in early December. 7. TORREY PINES--After years of negotiations and wrangling, the San Diego City Council approved a 400-room Sheraton in June. The go-ahead came despite complaints that the hotel would flood the already-crowded Torrey Pines Golf Course with more golfers, increase traffic and create a serious risk because it will be under the flight path for Miramar Naval Air Station.