Junior College Given Massacre Site Rights

After failing in two attempts to interest buyers in the San Ysidro massacre site, the city has given exclusive rights to the three-quarter-acre parcel to Southwestern College.

The Chula Vista community college--which has the option of leasing the site for $1 a year or buying it from the city--is planning to put up a two-story satellite campus where James Huberty shot and killed 21 people and wounded 19 others in a McDonald’s restaurant in 1984.

The restaurant was razed long ago, but debate over an appropriate use for the parcel on San Ysidro Boulevard and a memorial to the dead has continued almost since the tragedy. An advisory committee of San Ysidro leaders appointed by the City Council has endorsed the Southwestern plan.

The city’s second attempt to sell the lot, this time for at least $300,000, failed Friday when it attracted only one offer for $125,000. The council voted to give Southwestern rights to the parcel Monday.

Southwestern’s ultimate goal is to build a mini-campus that would include six classrooms, two laboratories, and a financial and academic counseling center for San Ysidro residents, who currently have no higher education facility. Construction of the satellite, which will offer both vocational and academic classes, would follow a survey to determine the community’s education needs, Southwestern President Joseph Conte said.

But a temporary facility could be open by February, Conte said.

The 15,000-square-foot permanent building would include a memorial to the victims. Conte said Southwestern may hold a competition among its design students to develop a memorial.

The facility would have underground parking, would cost from $750,000 to $1.2 million to build and could accommodate 600 to 750 students, Conte said.