SAN DIEGO - The Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal sits on some of the city's most valuable waterfront property. Its vast dock and storage buildings are sandwiched between skyscrapers and a convention center to the north and the landmark Coronado Bridge to the south.
Private developers want voters to make room for commerce at the docks by approving a Nov. 4 ballot measure allowing a vast deck to be built atop the terminal to possibly accommodate hotels, shops, cruise ships, even an aquarium or a new stadium for the NFL's Chargers.
Critics say development of the airspace over the 96-acre port is a pie-in-the-sky idea that would present an unprecedented engineering challenge.
They ask how huge trucks would maneuver around columns that support the deck? How would cranes fit under the 40-foot ceiling that the developer proposes?
Frank Gallagher, the San Diego developer behind Proposition B, acknowledges that nothing similar has been done but insists the engineering is sound.
He frames the vote as a referendum on what's best for the economy of the nation's eighth-largest city. Development at the terminal would further enliven an already vibrant downtown and generate new tax revenue that could be used to help pay San Diego's mammoth pension obligations to city workers, he says.
"The reality is that the terminal is in cardiac arrest," he says.
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Port authorities nationwide are closely watching the ballot measure. Battles for prime waterfront land are taking place from coast to coast, as gentrification pits commercial and residential interests against guardians of old dockyards.
If Proposition B passes, other cities may feel more pressure to retrofit cargo ports for residential or commercial use, especially if they sit on valuable land, said Ron Everett, senior port planner at Aecom Technology Corp.'s transportation business, which advises port authorities.
Cargo ports from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Port Hueneme, Calif., are being squeezed by new condos. Charleston, S.C., considered moving a cargo terminal from the city's historic district but couldn't find land nearby.
"In the last 20 years people have become enamored of their waterfront areas," Everett said. "Gentrification is going on all over the place."
San Diego's downtown building boom is already bumping up against the terminal, which is located at the north end of a 7-mile waterfront stretch of military and industrial plants and docks. A skyscraper Hilton hotel is being built next to the terminal. Petco Park, the Padres' ballpark since 2004, and trendy new condos are just a few blocks away.
San Diego's dockyard is far from the busiest in the state. Its cargo load is overshadowed by the giant twin ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach. San Diego had the 99th largest of America's 149 cargo ports in 2006. The ranking by tonnage includes a terminal in suburban National City that would be untouched by the proposed development.
Opponents of the ballot measure argue the 50-year-old downtown terminal is an economic pillar, despite its modest size. Anchor tenant Dole Food Co. Inc. unloads bananas from Ecuador and Costa Rica. Other companies get windmill parts, cement and steel coils from Asia. About 800 people now work there, and critics of the ballot measure say thousands of other jobs are at stake among truckers who haul Dole fruit, welders at a neighboring shipyard and others.
Opponents include the area's congressional delegation, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, the five city councils in the San Diego Unified Port District and the Navy, which ships equipment through the port. Some critics say the tough economy raises doubt the project would ever get built. No detailed cost information is provided in the ballot material.
Opponents also raise environmental concerns. Steve Erie, a political scientist at University of California, San Diego, says the new venues would worsen downtown traffic, and cargo destined for San Diego would have to be sent by trucks from other ports.
