La Mesa Fun Center Faces Closure If Off-Ramp Plan Is Not Changed

At the Family Fun Center on Fletcher Parkway in La Mesa, they have this thing for numbering days. If the park stays open until Oct. 3, the owners point out proudly, the 27-year-old center will have been open 9,984 consecutive days.

But that’s the irony. The center is scheduled to close Oct. 3, meaning its days really are numbered.

The California Department of Transportation wants to build a freeway off-ramp through the heart of the 6 1/2-acre center. The ramp would connect California 125 with Fletcher Parkway and Amaya Drive.

Freeway Called Necessary

The project as a whole is necessary and vital to the region, Caltrans officials say, because it will use California 125 as the north-south connection between Interstate 8 and California 52. They say it would soften the burden felt by commuters who every morning clog Interstate 8 during the workaday trek to downtown San Diego.

John Huish, the burly owner of the fun center and a La Mesa resident, quickly acknowledges that the freeway, and its troublesome off-ramp, are needed. His position is that Caltrans can have its freeway, and its off-ramp, too, and he can keep his fun center.

But he says Caltrans is intransigent.

“They’re like dealing with the IRS,” he said angrily. “You can never figure out who to talk to, and then what they say never makes sense. I’ve had it up to here.”

The Caltrans position remains that the park will close Oct. 3 and road work will begin in 1989. Where the parties differ is that Caltrans proposes to build the off-ramp solely with fill. Huish said a compromise would have the ramp erected on stilts, or concrete columns, which he points out are used near a Ford dealership in La Mesa and at Chicano Park in San Diego.

“I just want ‘em to go up over us,” Huish said. “But they want to bury us. And they don’t care.”

Dale Schmoldt, a design engineer and spokesman for Caltrans, said construction of columns would add an estimated $6.3 million to a project that was first proposed in 1964. He said to skirt the park entirely would cost about $8 million more and involve the displacement of hundreds of homes.

Schmoldt conceded the popularity of the fun center--Huish has 18,000 signatures on a save-the-center petition--saying the controversy may be a case in which both sides are right.

“But some decision has to be made,” he said. “We’re talking the needs of regional transportation, as supported by Sandag (San Diego Assn. of Governments), versus those of a single business. No matter how fun the center is, it is a single business, and privately owned.

“Look at it this way. We’re talking eliminating this business versus the disposition of hundreds of homes and apartment houses, maybe even the Helix Pump Station. That’s what would happen to bypass the center entirely. To add on the kind of money to save the center might make kids happy, but it is taxpayers’ money. The very people for whom the center would be saved would be doling out cash, in the form of increased taxes. I don’t think they’d want that.”

Huish reiterated “the column idea,” giving credit for it to a 14-year-old customer. He pushed the column idea to the La Mesa City Council on Tuesday, to no avail. The council reaffirmed an earlier vote and supported Caltrans.

It isn’t as though Huish lacks supporters. He has about 400 letters to back up the petition and had 500 people ready to rally at a meeting of the California Transportation Commission on July 21. Then a problem came up.

He said the date and location of the meeting were abruptly switched by Caltrans, which changed the date to Sept. 30 and the location to Sacramento.

“Why?” Huish asked. “Ever hear of home-court advantage? They were petrified they’d lose.”

Silence on 1 Issue

The California Transportation Commission reviews requests by Caltrans to acquire properties needed for freeway construction. Schmoldt, the Caltrans spokesman in San Diego, offered a terse “no comment” when told of Huish’s comments about the meeting.

Asked about the lengthy petition and the support that Huish holds, Schmoldt said, “I’m not going to respond to that.”

He said much of the problem stems from Huish’s having expanded his 6 1/2-acre site, near the Grossmont Center mall, from a single nine-hole miniature golf course--when the project was proposed in 1964--to embrace four miniature golf courses, two go-cart tracks (including a “slick” track), baseball batting cages, a three-flume water slide, two snack bars, two arcades and a party room.

Confronted with that argument, Huish retreated to the numbers. He and his attorneys point out rising attendance figures--379,609 in 1982; 384,911 in 1984; 508,973 in 1985; 534,391 in 1986 and 583,330 in 1987.

He said 200 schools in East County use the center for functions, including graduation parties. He said 25,000 people or more use the park during an average summer week. Its hours are 9 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.

“We’ve never missed a day, regardless of weather,” he said. “Not even Disneyland can claim that.”

Huish owns six such parks, including sites in Clairemont and Escondido. He said that Caltrans had offered one possible relocation site, in Lakeside, but called it “too far out of the mainstream.”

No Relocation Sites

“For 2 1/2 years, we’ve looked for sites and found nothing available. The closest we can find are Descanso and Alpine. In other words, this site is irreplaceable. Absolutely irreplaceable. This is a booming population center.”

Huish said Caltrans had offered a buyout.

“They offered millions,” he said, “but less than half of what it’s worth.”

He refused to give a figure of estimated worth.

“The issue isn’t money,” he said. “I don’t need the money, even though I’ve spent $80,000 to $100,000 in attorneys’ and appraisers’ fees. The issue is fun. The kids of La Mesa--of the county--love this place. To take it away would eliminate a major source of pleasure. God knows we can all use a little more of that.”

Huish’s argument appeared to be supported by hundreds of kids, who rolled out of a fleet of buses early Wednesday, chattering, squealing, trying to be the first in line for the water slide.

Carlos Garrison, 60, brought his son, 8, and daughter, 15. Garrison, who lives in Chula Vista, said he had fathered 13 children in all. He numbers among his family 16 grandchildren, and all of them, he said, love the fun center.

“We’ve been coming here regularly for eight years. In the summer, we might come two or three times a week. They’ve got to keep this thing here. It’d be a crying shame to tear it down. It’s so nice, so vital, for kids.