Some Hope to Keep Cays Parcel Like It Is : Residents of Exclusive Tract Asked to OK $3-Million Lease Purchase

There isn’t much to the nearly desolate 10-acre parcel that sits at the northern edge of Grand Caribe Isle in the Coronado Cays.

Unkempt clusters of weeds sprout from sun-parched terrain. A few disfigured trees twist and dip before straining grotesquely skyward. “No Trespassing” signs--some coated with splotches and streaks of sea bird droppings--feebly try to ward off the occasional visitors to the sparse tract.

In short, it’s ugly. And some Cays residents hope to spend more than $3 million to keep it that way.

“There are some people who want to buy that land’s lease and not do anything with the land,” said Archie P. Kelley, a resident of the Cays who is trying to dissuade the Coronado Cays Homeowners Assn. from purchasing the lease to the land. “I don’t want to spend that kind of money to do nothing. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Preserving Relaxed Milieu

But the association’s board of directors say purchasing the lease, now owned by the leading developer in Coronado, is the only way that the residents can ensure the preservation of the relaxed milieu to which they have grown accustomed.

With yachts afloat at many back-yard docks and posh condominiums overlooking immaculate beaches, the Cays is considered one of the tonier San Diego communities.

It is an area that blends retired Navy officers and successful young professionals, and its reputation for affluence and placidity is attracting more. The board of directors is determined to keep that good name unsullied.

“A developer had a proposal to put a hotel out there,” said Julian Hattersly, the president of the board. “The homeowners petitioned to take some action to impede the progress of this developer. We had the stand that the development was not in the best interest of the homeowners in that it was not consistent with our life style.

“It would cause traffic and pollution. It would also cause a commercial development in a luxury marina neighborhood. We don’t want that. If we buy the lease, the future of that land and any development on it will be under our control forevermore.”

Port District Owns Land

The San Diego Unified Port District owns the land. Coronado Landmark Inc., which has done most of the developing on the Cays for much of the 20-year existence of the peninsula, is leasing it. The lease runs through the year 2034.

Coronado Landmark has agreed to sell its interest in the property, if the homeowners association can raise the $3.1 million, according to a company spokesman.

To raise the money, the board has proposed a $26 increase in the monthly fees assessed members of the association. The fees, which vary in amount depending on the homeowner’s location in the Cays, are used to pay for landscaping, painting and other maintenance services.

Hattersly said the board has mailed out ballots to the association’s 1,200 members to vote on the proposal. He said about 374 of the ballots have come back, with about 79% favoring the increase. Seventy-five percent of the members must vote for the proposal in order for it to pass.

Ballots must be mailed in by Sept. 6.

‘Significant’ Money

Hattersly said use of a commercial marina and of a fueling dock that are on the 10-acre site would also bring in “a significant amount of money” that would also be earmarked for lease payments. The marina and fueling dock are now used by Coronado Landmark.

Kelley, who represents a disgruntled splinter group within the association, said the proposal is unfair to residents with fixed incomes.

“There are widows out here who don’t get that much money,” he said. “They don’t want to pay that additional assessment fee. They shouldn’t have to. There are some people out here with homes ranging from $2.5 million to $3 million, but rich and poor pay the same amount. That’s not fair.”

Kelley said he will propose to the board that the additional increased assessment fee be charged according to the residents’ ability to pay, thus shifting much of the increase onto the more affluent residents.

Kelley added that, although he understands the board’s wish to protect the residents’ life style, the dissenters didn’t think there was any threat that their way of living would be disrupted.

“These people feel that the board is wrong and that the land will not be bought by some developers and turned into some garbage dump,” he said. “We know that, under the port authority, you can only use the land for certain things. We also know that . . . these are all aesthetically appealing, public-oriented uses.”