National City Seeks Zoning Change at Bay : Land use: Businesses, Longshoremen protest, saying a plan to develop a recreational area there would hurt them.

National City officials, concerned about the city’s access to San Diego Bay, asked the Board of Port Commissioners on Tuesday to change the zoning south and west of 32nd Street from industrial to tourist and commercial.

At stake are about 112 bayfront acres at the mouth of the Sweetwater River that the city wants to develop into a recreational area, complete with restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions.

The proposal’s opponents include several industries and a ship repair company that want the area to remain zoned for industry. Longshoremen, who have seen their ranks severely depleted over the years as cargo ships become scarcer in the bay, also want the zoning to remain unchanged.

National City officials and many local residents spoke in favor of the change at the board meeting.

“We want to go back to the time when we had a beach here,” said one speaker who said he had lived in National City all his life.

City Councilman Fred Pruitt asked the board to give National City the same consideration it has given other South Bay cities, such as Coronado and Chula Vista.

“We have a golden opportunity to become involved in the tourist commercial dollar,” he said.

But commissioners also heard from local business owners who said a zoning change would harm their companies.

The area coveted by National City serves two lumber companies, two cement companies and a major ship repair company.

Most of the businesses in the targeted area and on the surrounding National City waterfront are serviced by the Santa Fe railroad, which also opposes a zoning change.

In addition, the San Diego Unified Port District recently gave approval to the Pasha Group to build a facility at the 24th Street Pier to unload and process imported cars. Stan Gabara, Pasha vice president and general manager, warned that a zoning change would hurt his company.

Pasha’s facility would not be directly affected by a zoning change. Instead, Gabara was concerned about having to share facilities at the 24th Street Pier with other companies, as proposed by the City Council.

In a surprise announcement, Gabara said Pasha has negotiated two accounts with the Isuzu automotive company of Japan and will begin unloading cars Aug. 6.

He said Pasha expects to unload one ship a week and about 40,000 vehicles annually. The facility is also expected to generate 50 new jobs and a $2-million annual payroll, Gabara said.

David Perez, a spokesman for the Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s International Union, Local 29, said a zoning change would mean the loss of more longshoremen’s jobs.

Union officials said their members work an average of three days a week, and they lobbied the Port District for the Pasha facility.

“The zoning proposal will result in an erosion of longshore jobs. . . . The continued welfare of our longshore work force is based on our ability to make a living,” Perez said.

Longshoremen also rely on lumber barges, which unload at a pier at the north side of the Sweetwater Channel. National City Mayor George Waters has proposed moving the lumber unloading facility north to the 24th Street Pier.

This was opposed by Newell Lavoy, president of Western Lumber, which has a facility on Tidelands Avenue.

Lavoy warned that moving the facility to 24th Street would make it costlier to unload the barges. He also said the water at one end of the pier is not deep enough for the berthing barges and that there is a shortage of storage space at the pier.

Dennis Shaw, vice president of Pacific Ship Repair, told the commission that a zoning change “would put us out of business.”

Pacific Ship Repair is a shipyard without a waterfront. The company rents the pier at the north end of the Sweetwater Channel from the Port District to work on Navy ships.

According to Shaw, his company pays the Port District $10,000 a day for use of the pier, and last year paid the district $600,000 in rent.

“The Navy requires us to have access to a pier in order to get contracts. We need that pier to work on Navy ships,” Shaw said.

It is not known when commissioners will make a decision on the zoning change.