Coronado’s New Face Both Good, Bad : Design: Some downtown merchants see improvements; others aren’t so sure.

In its heyday in the 1930s and ‘40s, Coronado’s central business district resembled small-town America as captured during those years by painter Edward Hopper. In 1990, it is a place in need of some touch-up work.

By some accounts, the opening of the Coronado Bridge in 1969 sped the downtown’s downturn. Suddenly, residents and tourists on the peninsula had access to myriad shopping choices in large malls only minutes away.

Today, Orange Avenue between 8th and 12 avenues, Coronado’s main commercial center, is a mix of thriving and waning businesses. Spruced-up storefronts rest next to run-down shops or once-quaint period facades that were long ago covered by reckless remodeling jobs.

Yet there are several signs of new life.

Some downtown merchants are hoping a program called Coronado Main Street, funded by the city two years ago and modeled after a national main street revitalization program started by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will speed improvements downtown.

The organization encourages local businesses to upgrade their marketing and storefronts. Main Street Director Marcus Thomson helps building owners determine appropriate uses for their properties.

Several shops are sporting fresh faces designed in keeping with the commercial strip’s eclectic architectural character, a mix of ‘30s Art Deco, Spanish Colonial and neo-classical.

Sports Emporium stands as a shining example of how to create a new business that fits in.

The store resides in an adapted period Spanish building, once the peninsula’s only hospital.

A seedy neighborhood bar last year became Primavera, an upscale restaurant with a snappy facade and stylish interior designed by Sheryll Jackman, an active participant in the Main Street organization.

But for every such success, there are also disappointments.

Downtown Coronado hit bottom in the mid-’80s, when an oversize, poorly detailed Bank of America branch replaced a smaller Spanish building that housed a neighborhood dress shop.

A few years earlier, developers had leveled a low-key Spanish-flavored complex not far away to build the bulky, poorly designed Coronado Plaza, now home to Marie Callender’s, several fast-food establishments and upper-level offices.

When the bank moved from the the long, graceful neo-classical Schulman and Neumann building on Orange Avenue to its new monstrosity across the street, Coronado residents, planners and politicians realized the time had come for action.

In 1984, the city hired planning consultant Jim Burns to work with community members on a set of downtown design guidelines. With some help from San Diego architect Rob Quigley and plenty of input from Coronado residents, Burns drafted an excellent document outlining how downtown businesses could improve their appearances and functional appeal.

“Role model buildings,” which would set the tone for future renovation and development, were identified: the Schulman and Neumann building, the El Cordova complex, the Winchester Building, Chez Loma restaurant, La Avenida restaurant, the RCA building and Bula’s. Several other buildings were singled out for suggested changes.

Today, while businesses such as Marco’s Pizza have dramatically improved their signage and color schemes in line with these suggestions, others seem to have ignored them. (The guidelines are only suggestions, not legally enforceable.)

Bank of America never installed trees to soften its looming impact. And Marco’s has yet to add the suggested landscaping and outdoor tables that would animate the corner of its triangular lot.

Coronadans agree they’d like to see their downtown become a thriving core again, probably a mix of La Jolla’s upscale specialty shops and restaurants, along with businesses serving locals, such as Village Hardware.

But what is emerging is a standoff between the proactive Main Street people and the staid city government.

Design-wise, this conflict came to a head last month when Karen Adams, who owns two local children’s shops and is active in the Main Street program, resigned as chairman of the city’s design review commission. The commission objected to vague storefront improvement plans brought in by owners of the Orange Avenue building that houses Morris Antiques and Golden Gifts. After heated discussion, the City Council gave the owners a green light.

Particularly offensive is the building’s teal-colored decorative plastic trim and heavy-handed use of battleship-gray paint.

Although the damage may seem small, it is symptomatic of the stalemate between City Hall and locals such as Jackman and Adams, who would like downtown to improve more rapidly.

“What it said to me was that the city isn’t as ready to support downtown revitalization as the Main Street program and some people are,” Adams said.

Main Street and its followers were also disappointed when negotiations for a new mixed-use project broke down. Dom Ltd., which owns the block that includes Mulvaney’s restaurant, had talked with the Main Street contingent about developing a project acceptable to both the developers and the citizens. But plans were abandoned when the city seemed unwilling to compromise its stringent on-site parking requirements, which would have made the project prohibitively expensive, according to a Dom representative.

Many Coronado residents also blame the slowness of downtown’s progress on absentee building owners. By some estimates, as many as 80% of the downtown properties are held by out-of-towners who have little interest in their real estate other than watching it appreciate.

But proponents of change seem happy with the results generated so far by Burns and Quigley’s design guidelines and the coming of the Main Street program.

“I think the business owners have made a lot of changes to reflect our guidelines,” said Burns, who lives in San Francisco but regularly visits Coronado. “In theoretical terms, the B of A building remains an eyesore, but the rest of the town is beginning to pick up nicely.”

As the Main Street program works toward its next major goal--developing a downtown master plan with city funding, including new parking solutions--it has a number of enemies.

The owner of one prominent downtown business sees the Main Street movement as “a lot of people who want medals and badges.”

He cites Main Street’s idea for a downtown Farmer’s Market--great in concept but poorly executed.

Intended to lure people to downtown Coronado on Thursday afternoons, the outdoor market ended up doing most of its business in flowers and plants instead of produce, the source said. A plant shop near the original C Avenue location went out of business. The market blocked access to nearby businesses, making their Thursday afternoons difficult. The market has since been moved to a site along Orange Avenue.

In historic preservation, Coronado faces once of its most formidable challenges.

A lengthy survey has identified buildings worth preserving, but the city has had no luck drafting an enforceable preservation ordinance.

“That’s kind of fallen on hard times,” acknowledged Coronado Mayor Mary Herron. “Private property rights are the No. 1 issue in Coronado. There was a concern that if we were to have a historic preservation ordinance, owners would lose control over their properties.

“Certainly, historic preservation is important. Some of the most intense debates are over those issues.”

But with the downtown design guidelines and the Main Street program’s vigilance in place, chances for progress remain good, and a repeat of the B of A fiasco unlikely.