Density an Issue : Chula Vista Resort Plans Are Detailed

The developer of Chula Vista’s bayfront has unveiled details of a $500-million proposal to build a sports-oriented resort and convention center by San Diego Bay.

Chula Vista Investors, a developer whose principal is William Barkett of Stockton, said Monday it is proposing a resort that would have as its centerpiece a 36-court tennis center managed by Nick Bollettieri, the Florida-based teacher of Andre Agassi, Jimmy Arias, Aaron Krickstein and other professional tennis players.

The sports-oriented resort would also feature an indoor ice-skating rink, a health spa and gymnastics center, besides the tennis courts, Barkett said. The sports facilities, in tandem with extensive hotel and convention development on the property, would attract many tourists and business groups to the South Bay, he said.

The previously announced project, designed by Horton Plaza architect Jerde Partnership of Los Angeles, would also feature two artificial salt-water lagoons next to San Diego Bay that would not empty into it for environmental reasons.

A Question of Density

However, Barkett’s plan is more dense than the city’s community development staff and some City Council members feel comfortable with. The Chula Vista Investors group wants to build more than six hotels on the property, with a total 2,028 rooms, as well as 1,550 apartment and condominium units and 150,000 square feet of office and retail buildings.

With 4.2 million square feet of buildings, the project would be nearly twice as densely developed as the proposal put forth by the property’s previous owners, a partnership of Watt Industries and Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp. The partnership sold the 426 acres to Barkett last year after reaching an impasse with Chula Vista over how to develop the property.

The development plan calls for several high-rise structures, including two 26-story hotels, one 16-story hotel and three 16-story residential towers. The proposal would use 112 acres of the property, with the rest set aside for marshland. The proposal will require approval by Chula Vista and the state Coastal Commission.

Although Chula Vista officials say they strongly favor commercial development of the bayfront as a means of generating more tax revenue and tourism, several described the Chula Vista Investors proposal as too jammed with buildings and too commercial.

“The major problems are there is too much development overall, and I don’t believe it has enough public access areas,” said City Councilwoman Gayle McCandliss. “The general open space and park area the plan is designating is minimal. I would like to see more general recreation uses, a la Mission Bay, available for the residents of Chula Vista.”

Chula Vista Community Development Acting Director David Gustafson said Friday that his staff has concerns that the 22.4 acres of open space in the project devoted to parks and other public uses are inadequate.

“I think some are concerned that the bayfront, which is viewed as a community resource, could become a privileged enclave,” Gustafson said. “And there is concern about how the project with its high-rises will integrate with the rest of Chula Vista.”

Also lining up against the project’s current configuration is Crossroads, a Chula Vista community group that advocates slow growth.

‘Grossly in Excess’

“We think it’s grossly in excess,” said Crossroads’ outgoing president, Peter Watry. “High-rises in themselves are not bad. You might want to trade those off for lots of open space. But Barkett doesn’t do that either. If he were to build his plan, and you drove through it, you would never know you were on the bayfront because his plan cuts off all view corridors with the high buildings.”

In an interview Monday, Barkett said he has met continuously over the past nine months with city and community officials in an effort to come up with an acceptable plan for the property. The proposal “takes in all the parameters of the city and regulatory agencies at arriving at the current density,” Barkett said.

Although acknowledging the city’s concerns about the “intensity” of the project, he declined to say whether he would down-scale the project to receive approval.

List of Uses from City

“The city gave us a list of uses they wanted to see on the property. So we took what the city wanted and tried to create something feasible to develop,” Barkett said.

Carl Worthington, the principal architect in charge of the bayfront project, said the high density of the proposal is mitigated by the “clustering” of its hotels around the man-made lagoons. “The primary objective was to create a resort village, rather than a resort with a number of hotels,” Worthington said.

He said the resort is also designed to project “drawing power . . . it’s important to understand we are trying to develop a destination resort to serve not just the local market but a real world class destination, a Pacific Rim conference and sports center.”

Barkett and city officials say the next crucial stage is the completion of an environmental impact report due out in September that will deal with the Barkett plan as well as four additional plans, including one encompassing the community development staff’s recommendations. An economic feasibility study is also due shortly.

Barkett had asked the City Council to give conceptual approval for his plan last month but withdrew the request after his attorneys advised him to wait until the environmental impact report was released. The report should give both the city and Barkett more detailed information on what uses the property can support, officials said.

Bollettieri now runs a year-round, 46-court tennis academy in Bradenton, Fla. and is developing a similar center at the Princeville resort on Kauai island in Hawaii. He operates several seasonal tennis camps at other U. S. locations, including one at Cal State Northridge.

According to Bollettieri Tennis Academy Executive Director Ted Meekma, the project’s tennis center element came about fairly recently when Barkett met Bollettieri at Davis Cup tennis matches in San Diego. Bollettieri subsequently agreed to manage all the sports activities at the proposed Chula Vista resort, he said.

Barkett’s father, Joseph Barkett, controls the Stockton-based development firm called Emerald Properties, a closely held concern active in residential and commercial development, mainly in the Central Valley.

William Barkett said the company will complete its first major San Diego project, a 180-room Radisson Hotel in National City that is scheduled to open Nov. 15.