San Diego voters trounce proposed deck over marine terminal
A plan by two developers to build a 40-foot-tall deck over a Port of San Diego marine terminal was soundly defeated by San Diego voters Tuesday.
Proposition B, which would have amended the port’s master plan to allow construction of the $800 million platform over the port’s 96-acre 10th Avenue Marine Terminal, was rejected by more than 70 percent of the voters in the five port district cities — Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach, National City and San Diego.
The initiative was spearheaded by developers Frank Gallagher and Richard Chase, who hoped to build commercial and retail buildings atop the deck, including a new football stadium for the San Diego Chargers. If approved, the change to the port’s master plan also would have allowed the duo to build maritime-related facilities on the marine terminal.
While the Chargers stayed out of the campaign, the proposition was heavily criticized by port officials as well as the county's entire congressional delegation. The secretary of the Navy, the State Lands Commission, the city councils of the port district’s five cities, and numerous environmental, waterfront businesses, and industry trade groups all opposed the proposition.
Port officials said the election results verified that opposition to the proposition was “the likes of which this community has never seen.”
“It shows that the voters saw through a deceptive and a very bad proposition,” Port Commissioner Stephen Cushman told the San Diego Union Tribune.
