Council to Sell Massacre Site to College for $40,000

Closing a long chapter in one of San Diego’s worst tragedies, the City Council on Tuesday voted to sell the site of the 1984 McDonald’s massacre to Southwestern College for $40,000--less than one-tenth of what the city originally asked for the land.

The council’s 5-4 vote ends months of indecision over what to do with the three-quarter-acre site since a crazed gunman strode into a crowded McDonald’s restaurant at 522 W. San Ysidro Blvd. on July 18, 1984, and opened fire, killing 21 and wounding 19 others before he was slain by a police sharpshooter.

McDonald’s razed the ill-fated restaurant two months after the incident--the largest single-incident mass killing in American history--and deeded the land to the city as a gift.

San Ysidro residents have made angry and emotional appeals to convert the land into a memorial to the slain, but no one from the public uttered a syllable on Tuesday when council members approved the sale.

“There is an ambivalence in the community still about the site and I think people want the decision to be made and move on,” Councilman Bob Filner said after the council meeting. “They don’t want to invest their emotions in it anymore.”

Given 15 Years to Build

Under terms of the sale, Southwestern College has 15 years to build a satellite campus on the site or the land will revert to the city.

College officials say they plan to eventually construct a $1.5-million, 13,300-square-foot permanent educational building that will accommodate more than 1,000 students and house a satellite operation with a $425,000 annual budget, council members were told Tuesday.

Classes are expected to begin this fall, however, and Southwestern is ready to spend $300,000 for 7,000 square feet in temporary classrooms until the permanent building is constructed, council members were told.

To prepare for the opening, the college will be studying the educational needs of San Ysidro to come up with a program of classes that are “tailored to the people who live there,” Edward Thornton, Southwestern’s vice president for administrative services, said after Tuesday’s vote.

Despite those assurances, four council members voted against selling the site outright to Southwestern. They argued instead that the city should approach the college and offer to lease the parcel at $1 a year for 55 years.

‘Not What Community Wants’

Mayor Maureen O’Connor advocated the lease as the best way for the city to retain control over the land. Joining her in the no vote were council members Gloria McColl, Abbe Wolfsheimer and Ron Roberts.

“We sign it over and they can sell it to anybody they want in 15 years and it can be back into fast food, generating income from that,” McColl said. “That’s not what the community wants.”

But Filner told his colleagues that Southwestern, which originally agreed to a lease, had decided it needed to buy the property before investing $1.5 million in a building.

Balking at the 11th-hour and approaching the college again for a lease might cause Southwestern administrators to drop their plans for the massacre site and find another South Bay location for a satellite campus, he argued.

“There is an overwhelming desire in the community to bring this part of the tragic story to a close and move on,” Filner said. “We are coming up to the fourth anniversary of that tragedy. There is a depressing reminder of the tragedy, with the empty site that’s there.

‘Doing Something of Benefit’

“I think we’re doing something of benefit, getting the best we can out of what was initially a very tragic circumstance.”

Councilman Bruce Henderson concurred.

“The community college is apparently willing to step in and return the soul of that land, bring it back, restore it to the community,” he said. “If, after 15 years, they decide they want to leave that site and go somewhere else, and they make a substantial profit, fortunately, it goes to the community college.”

After the hearing, Filner said a portion of the Southwestern satellite campus would be landscaped by the city and dedicated to those killed by James O. Huberty. In addition, the college will hold a design competition for the permanent building so that it will incorporate a memorial to the slain.

Tuesday’s vote closed an embarrassing and protracted chapter in the city’s handling of the massacre site. When it offered to sell the commercially zoned parcel earlier this year for $425,000--considered a reasonable market rate--there were no takers.

City officials then cut the price to $300,000, and sent out 100 bid packages to interested parties. But the discount only netted one proposal for $125,000 and that was rejected by the council.