Council takes new Marinapark measures

Deirdre Newman

The City Council is wasting no time taking a new look at Marinapark

after the resounding defeat of a plan to build a resort on the

harbor-front site.

At their meeting Tuesday, council members decided to discuss terms

of the mobile-home park’s 40-year-old lease and how best to get

public input on what to do with the site.

Voters turned down a ballot initiative, Measure L, that would have

changed the city’s general plan to allow development of a luxury

hotel at the Balboa Peninsula location. The vote, intensely

contested, was more than 2 to 1 against the change.

Opposition to the measure came from an aggressive grass-roots

effort spearheaded by a group called Protect Our Parks. Members

adamantly resisted the city’s attempt to develop its last chunk of

harbor-front property, now designated for open space and recreation,

as a commercial venture.

“The citizens have spoken on Measure L and that did not go

unnoticed by this individual or the rest of the City Council,” said

Mayor Tod Ridgeway, who co-wrote the ballot argument in favor of

Measure L with former City Councilman Gary Adams.

The city has owned the approximately 8-acre site between 15th and

18th streets since 1919. In addition to the mobile-home park, it

includes a Girl Scouts facility, Las Arenas Park, four tennis courts,

a half-basketball court, a children’s play area, the Balboa Community

Center and a public beach. The Marinapark Mobile Home Park has about

24 units occupied full time and 32 units with part-time owners.

At issue during the Nov. 2 election was the land’s designation

under the general plan as recreation and open space. That type of

land can be used for parks or developed into golf courses, yacht

clubs and interpretive centers.

The city’s Parks, Beaches and Recreation Commission recommended

converting the mobile-home park to public use in 1972, but the city

dismissed the suggestion and has granted a number of lease extensions

since. In June 2002, the council approved renewing the lease for one

year. The lease is now month-to-month, residents of the park said.

One of the murkier issues surrounding the site’s future is how

much of the property is tidelands -- land that must serve visitors.

Officials are awaiting direction from the state on this subject.

A park with additions such as four new tennis courts and a

nonmotorized boat-launch ramp would cost about $5.5 million,

according to the environmental report for the hotel. This amount

would cover planning, development, construction and maintenance of

the park.

Tom Billings, spokesman for Protect Our Parks, said he is

optimistic that public input will help decide the future of the site.

“The logical conclusion is, let’s work to get a park there,”

Billings said. “If they twist it into something else, it’s betraying

the will of the voters.”

Other opponents of the resort plan have called on the council to

investigate its handling of the resort proposal, including how

information was or wasn’t given to residents before the vote.

No date has been set for when the council study session on the

issue will be held.

“I hope sooner rather than later, but there’s not an urgency to

it,” Ridgeway said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (714)

966-4623 or by e-mail at [email protected].