Proposed Seacoast Drive Projects

By Erika G. Lowery

With Pier South near completion, how do I see the future of Seacoast?

I thought about how I can help the hotel when I am elected to the City Council further. I am not the biggest supporter of the Pier South Hotel by Marriott, I believe it is oversized for the property, will diminish the value of the homes surrounding, and cause traffic problems for Seacoast Drive.

But it is nearly completed. My predecessors approved the project. It will bring revenue and jobs to our community. For this, I will support it.

How do I plan on supporting it?

• I will try and get large conventions, like Comic-Con International, to include Pier South Hotel in their list of approved and packaged hotels. This will involve meeting with the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the San Diego Convention Center. I will be very happy to assist the management in these processes. We can use that it is a nearby beach-front hotel as a selling point to our visitors, unlike many of the hotels that are bayfront.
• I will work with the city planning department on how to keep Seacoast Drive traffic flowing for locals, pedestrians, visitors, bicyclists and everyone. I have been disheartened by the pedestrians that were hit on Imperial Beach streets this past week. My main concern is the safety of all on a narrow Seacoast Drive, especially with Dunes Park and the pier.
• Do these two points seem to contradict each other? I think not. If we can have buses used to transfer guests of South Pier Hotel to the San Diego Convention Center and other points of interest, we will reduce the individual drivers, who may be distracted, from being on Seacoast Drive.
• I also want to introduce events that locals and visitors can come together to promote the hotel. Whether it be a seasonal presentation by our local community groups, having "local family and friends" deals during the off-season, etc. I want this project to succeed for all of the stakeholders, including the citizens of Imperial Beach.

I also do not believe that SANDAG is looking into the full environmental impact of the additional hotels. There will be a greater amount of trash that the city will be forced to dispose of and the additional traffic will create air pollution. I am also concerned with the problems that we already face with beach closures and how adding additional tourists may increase these closures. It also will look bad for the hotel and the community when a tourist comes to a "beach front hotel" but the access to the beach is restricted due to contamination. We need to address the issue of contamination on the beaches of Imperial Beach prior to increasing the volume of people on the beach.

Before proceeding with any further large scale development, I want to encourage the South Pier Hotel that is almost complete. I do not want to see a great deal of large hotels, standing empty or only partially full, when we could have one hotel standing full and our views and access to the beach and parks still available.

I want all aspects of R.E.E.F- Redevelopment, Economics, Environment, Family to be examined when future projects are proposed to the City Council.