Builder Assails Chula Vista Plan : Failed Gunpowder Point Hotel Proposal Called Unrealistic

Chula Vista’s hopes for a hotel at Gunpowder Point were not realistic, the project coordinator of the long-stalled bayfront development said Tuesday.

“They had led us down a primrose path,” said Jack H. Dimond, project coordinator for the Chula Vista Investment Co., a joint venture of Santa Fe Land Improvement Co. and Watt Industries-San Diego.

Dimond held a press conference to unveil the specific terms of his company’s settlement with the Sierra Club and the League for Coastal Protection, which ensures that the land near Gunpowder Point will remain undeveloped.

According to the agreement, the development company will deed 273 acres to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for use as an endangered species refuge.

Preliminary Plans

However, the firm has plans to develop 103 acres in the “mid-bayfront” area of Chula Vista, bordered by San Diego Bay to the west, Bay Boulevard to the east, Sweetwater/Vener marshes to the north and Rohr Industries to the south.

Preliminary plans call for about 45 acres of office development, 26.3 acres of parks, 16.5 acres of housing, 11.5 acres of industrial facilities and 3.5 acres of highway commercial property, Dimond said.

Dimond said the mid-bayfront development has a potential assessed value of $300 million.

A hearing on the Monday settlement is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Gordon Thompson.

As part of the settlement, the Sierra Club and the League for Coastal Protection will agree to drop two pending lawsuits and agree not to file suit over any other part of the project in the future, Dimond said.

Chula Vista officials are angry at having been excluded from the negotiations.

“This city was specifically precluded from this agreement,” Mayor Greg Cox said Tuesday. “We have a very necessary role to play, a very specific role to play in these plans.”

‘Not to Be Trusted’

Dimond said he approached city officials in fall, 1986, and asked whether they would join in negotiating a settlement, but they “intimated the Sierra Club was not to be trusted.

“They told us that they would prefer that we didn’t negotiate,” Dimond said. “We went ahead anyway because too much time has been wasted on lawsuits, injunctions and all the rest.

“You can make the point that the one party that’s excluded (from the agreement) is the one that wanted only one thing--a hotel at Gunpowder Point,” Dimond added.

Cox countered by saying the demise of the Gunpowder Point hotel project could have an effect on the mid-bayfront area development.

“When it was approved, Gunpowder Point was an integral part of an overall, balanced plan,” Cox said. “We knew there would be fairly heavy access costs which would have to be borne by the development company.”

“In deference to that, the city allowed the development company’s plans for high-density in the mid-bayfront area,” he said. “Since there’s no longer the issue of access costs, we need to take another look at it.”

Cox also said turning the 273 acres over to the federal government was not a “cure-all” for the environmentally sensitive land.

“Just to have the land transferred to the federal government isn’t going to accomplish everything,” Cox said. “We need someone who is devoted to cleaning up the wetlands. We know toxic waste is present there, there are abandoned vehicles, and years and years worth of trash.”

“The city is the most motivated to clean that place up,” he said. “Unfortunately, the federal government does not have a good track record in devoting time for such projects.”

While approval of the agreement seems to be a foregone conclusion, Dimond said it is up to Chula Vista now to work together with his company so that finally, after 15 years, development can commence on the city’s bayfront.

“I’ve talked to some of the city council members individually and I’ve asked them to join with us to move ahead,” Dimond said. “I want to put all of the finger-pointing, all of the unhappiness behind us.”

“We want to go back to the private/public happy relationship we had before,” he said. “We want it (this development) to be Chula Vista’s pride and joy.”

Cox, for his part, said he cannot predict what the future holds in store.

“It might be that this is the best plan, or we (the City Council) may be inclined to change some things,” he said. “I just don’t know.”