The Peninsula Planning Board voted down a costal development permit request by the Corky McMillin Companies for construction within the Naval Training Center (NTC) at their monthly meeting on Jan. 19. McMillin will return on Thursday, Feb. 23 to present additional information on their project, which proposes to develop a corner of NTC at the end of the bay channel.
Shoreline Plaza is currently a collection of small military buildings on an asphalt lot. McMillin is working with a private developer to turn that space into a maritime-themed business district with community access to the San Diego Bay. McMillin’s denied permit request included the demolition of 16 structures, the construction of a large parking lot and the continuation of a green esplanade that runs the length of Liberty Station.
As a Process Three development, McMillin has to get a vote on the project from the community planning board and a recommendation from the city. A hearing officer will then consider all information and make a decision to approve or deny the project. That decision is appealable to the Board of Zoning Appeals or the Planning Commission.
Despite the board’s decision in January, McMillin still has a good chance of moving ahead with their project because colmmunity planning boards are strictly advisory. The city has yet to make its recommendation pending resolution on the community level.
“I think it’s fair to say that everything we have taken forward has been approved by the city,” said Kathi Riser, McMillin vice president responsible for presenting projects to the board.
In turn, the Peninsula Planning Board has voted down almost all of McMillin’s permit requests. The dispute between the two parties dates back to 2002, when the board last approved a McMillin project, according to Riser.
At that time, the board conditionally approved guidelines for the use of Building 623 as a conference center on the West Hotel site. In 2000, the board approved the precise plan, local coastal program and master planned development permit for the entire project, as well as changes required by the Coastal Commission in 2001.
Since then, the board has denied a conditional use permit for Rock Church, a site development permit for the relocation of three historic bathrooms, a site development permit for the San Diego State University laboratory, a substantial conformance review for the Marketplace, a planned development permit for the West Hotel site, and most recently, the coastal development permit for Shoreline Plaza.
“I always expect that it is going to take at least two visits,” Riser said of presenting projects to the board. Riser has already met with the board three times regarding Shoreline Plaza ” once in sub-committee ” and will return in February. Should McMillin alter their proposal, the board could revote. Although Riser does not plan to change the project plans, she will present supplemental information previously requested by the board regarding their ideas for the space.
“Their idea of giving them time was to deny the project and say that they wanted to work with me,” Riser said. “I have never had a planning group tell me that they have an alternate vision for what I should be doing and therefore I shouldn’t do what I am trying to do.”
The board, chaired by local real estate agent Cynthia Conger since 2001, contends that Shoreline Plaza needs more green space and less parking. Roughly 500 spaces have been designated in that area and each one contributes to a mandated quota of nearly 5,200 spots throughout Liberty Station to accommodate visitors, community members, and an anticipated 8,000 workers to be employed onsite.
According to Conger, future traffic issues once the facility reaches capacity will pose grave problems for Point Loma residents. She agrees that they must be addressed, but disagrees with the bayfront location.
“[Liberty Station] is going to be so overrun, we believe, with the traffic that’s going to be there because [McMillin] did not plan it properly,” Conger said.
While there are two other sites on which parking structures could be built, McMillin is committed to providing spaces at Shoreline Plaza and will not consider other locations unless the project is ultimately denied.
“There will be sufficient parking at NTC because we are required to build the appropriate amount,” Riser said. “The next question is: How proximate is it to the user? The city always expressed that the most underparked or underserved area was this corner, so we worked to increase the amount of parking in [Shoreline Plaza].”
Instead of parking spaces, Conger and the board contend that McMillin should leave some of the old military buildings to be used by cultural organizations. Conger announced at a November meeting that she would begin informally contacting local Native American reservations to meet and discuss possible uses of Shoreline Plaza that honor their history in San Diego. No such meeting has been organized yet, although Conger plans to arrange a discussion among interested parties prior to the February board meeting.
McMillin is the master developer of Liberty Station, but works as a partner with sub-developers during the permitting and entitlement processes until escrow closes. Private contractor Bob Sprigs is currently in escrow to purchase Shoreline Plaza from McMillin. He is charged with bringing the lot to life once McMillin obtains permission for the aforementioned construction.
Sprigs’ project proposes to rename the area Ocean Village and turn the remaining structures into a small boat carpentry shop, a boathouse, a rigging shop and a restaurant. He has yet to secure tenants for the buildings as the project is pending approval, but hopes to provide an alternative to the month-to-month leases offered to small boating businesses on nearby Shelter Island.
According to Riser, Ocean Village is just a conceptual use of Shoreline Plaza that fits in with the master plan’s designation of the space for maritime-themed commercial use. If his plan is approved, Sprigs will decide what goes inside the buildings.
“The ultimate goal is to make Ocean Village the gateway to the San Diego Bay for not only Liberty Station, but for the entire community,” Sprigs said.
Ocean Village began four years ago as the brainchild of Pat Godard. The initial concept involved nonprofit organizations and was more educational and recreational. When funding for the project fell through, Sprigs stepped forward with a private investment. The lot’s zoning was changed to commercial mixed use, as did the nature of the project. Nonetheless, Sprigs still hopes to provide space to educational water activity groups Ocean Access and Undersea Camp, both nonprofits.
“The community has been in favor of what we are doing. The battle”¦has been with the peninsula planning group and McMillin,” Sprigs said of the opposition to Ocean Village/ Shoreline Plaza. “There is this whole anti-Liberty Station element and to be quite honest, I think they are totally out of line.”
The fate of Shoreline Plaza is representative of larger grievances. As city-owned land leased by McMillin, the board feels that peninsula residents should have been given greater access to facilities and much needed park space.
“It’s a publicly-owned entity and they are leasing part of it and they were given so much, but they gave very little back to the community or the public in general,” Conger said.
The board feels that McMillin has mislead them: Conceptual plans and drawings presented at meetings turned into different projects on the ground and the community has been left out of the plans to earn an extra dollar.
“We want NTC to work, but [McMillin] is not working with us,” Conger said. “They are just going ahead with money being the most important thing.”
Citizen group Save Our NTC has prominently voiced their opposition to McMillin’s redevelopment of the former naval base, claiming that NTC has been turned into a glorified strip mall. The group’s founder, John McNab, has filed and lost four lawsuits against the city regarding Liberty Station.
The Federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) closed the training and recruiting center in 1993, and by 1997 all active use by the Navy had ceased. Enter the Corky McMillin Companies and San Diego’s Redevelopment Agency. Plans began right away to convert the large expanse of real estate along San Diego Bay into a multi-faceted space where San Diegans could live, work and play.
The property currently contains or has plans for a nonprofit center, 349 homes, a marketplace of shops, a weekly farmers market, three schools, the largest park in San Diego since Mission Bay Park, a business district, two hotels and a nine-hole golf course.
The Navy dictated certain caveats when handing the property to the city free of charge: the Navy’s history be restored and respected, the space be linked to the community and any development create jobs and revenue. As early as 1993, the city’s Redevelopment Agency began planning the re-use of NTC at monthly meetings. When the conceptual master plan was completed, the city selected Corky McMillin Companies as the master developer.
McMillin was charged with improving the infrastructure”water, sewer, lighting, streets, gas and electric, storm water collection” which the city declared early on that it did not have the money to do. McMillin obtained a 66-year lease on the city-owned property and was given the land on which 349 homes were built.
Controversy has shrouded the development for years with complaints that the city gave the land away and allowed McMillin to rob San Diego of much-needed revenue.
According to Greg Block, McMillin spokesperson, the company will be able to recuperate much of the $125 million they spend on infrastructure through the sale of Liberty Station townhouses. Once McMillin’s investment is returned, their city contract allows a 12 percent profit, after which all profits are split evenly with the city.
Similar redevelopments of closed naval bases have taken place in Glenview, Ill. and Denver, Colo.