National City is one step closer to seeing a more vibrant and accessible bayfront.
On Thursday, the California Coastal Commission approved changes to a land use plan needed to implement the decades-in-the-making National City Balanced Plan. The project still requires two other approvals by the commission.
The National City Balanced Plan is a sweeping blueprint for guiding how the city and Port of San Diego can best balance the needs of residents, who have urged for better public access to the waterfront, with those of maritime-related industries that generate revenue for the port, while protecting the coastal environment.
More specifically, the plan involves adding 2.5 acres to the 5.2 waterfront Pepper Park, construction of which is under way, adding buffers between industry and recreational areas, rerouting a bikeway and creating revenue-generating opportunities for National City.
Commissioners greenlighted the city’s land use plan, with some changes, to redesignate five parcels from industrial to tourist-commercial use to allow hotels to set up shop. The parcels are north of Bay Marina Drive and west of Interstate 5.
“This is huge for the city,” said National City Mayor Ron Morrison. “We can now start talking about hotels. There’s room there for at least four hotels and the amenities going around them.”
The redesignation came with a caveat: requiring that new hotels set aside 25 percent of their rooms as low-cost rooms or help build a lower-cost accommodation development elsewhere in the city. Another option is the city will be allowed to build 150 new higher-cost hotel rooms without any low-cost ones provided it preserves half of its nearly 400 low-cost accommodations located within a half-mile of the parcels.
City Manager Ben Martinez said allowing for tourism opportunities in the area will help National City “catch up” to other communities benefitting from their bayfront amenities.
Councilmember Luz Molina agreed. “We are excited about the new construction that is happening now along Chula Vista’s bayshore on the south, and the recent success of the event venue affectionately named The Rady Shell along San Diego’s embarcadero on the north. We look forward to participating in this momentum and bringing much-needed economic development to our westside (region of National City).”
Thursday’s vote also approved the removal of about 13 acres of Port-owned land from the city’s land use plan and incorporated it into the Balanced Plan Master Plan Amendment.
In 1994, the port acquired about 22.6 acres of uplands in National City north of Sweetwater Channel and east of the historic mean high-tide line. The agency purchased the uplands to build a small-craft marina. When the port added 9.5 acres of the uplands to its Master Plan Amendment, the remaining 13 remained in the city’s land use plan, according to a port spokesperson.
To implement the full Balanced Plan, the Coastal Commission has yet to review the port’s Master Plan Amendment. That’s expected sometime in the fall. Commissioners will also have to consider a National City Implementation Plan, which guides how to put in place its Land Use Plan.
