The city of San Diego has reached an agreement with the owners of a vacant Little Italy property to demolish it following years of criminal activity, fires and medical emergencies at the location, it was announced Thursday.
The agreement concerns the property located at 805 West Cedar St., which lies between Pacific Highway and California Street, not far from the County Administration Center.
The San Diego City Attorney's Office, which filed a civil enforcement complaint against the property owners, says that from 2019 until early 2023, the property drew dozens of calls to police for reports of disturbing the peace, drug sales, and trespassing.
Firefighters have also responded numerous times to the property for illegally sparked blazes. Medical aid has been provided to homeless people at the site on frequent occasions, including one time where a person died at the property, according to the City Attorney's Office.
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San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott said, "Sadly, this property had become an eyesore and a safety threat, with San Diego Police frequently responding to reports of crimes being committed at the site. This agreement will put an end to that activity, so that our neighbors and visitors can once again frequent this neighborhood without fear."
As part of the settlement, the vacant buildings will be demolished, and the owners have agreed to pay nearly $4,000 in investigative costs and $200,000 in civil penalties. However, $142,500 of those payments will not have to be paid if the property owners comply with the terms of the injunction and stipulated judgment, which include keeping the property trash-free, securing the site prior to the demolition and hiring a security guard to patrol the premises.
From the mid-1970s to 2013, the building was home to the Vulcan Steam Room and Sauna, a bathhouse owned and operated for around 40 years by Frank Stiriti, a 2019 inductee of the San Diego LGBT Community Center's Veterans Wall of Honor.
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In 2021, the building was recommended for designation as a historical resource for its connection to Stiriti, and its period of significance from 1974 to 1988.
"The Vulcan Steam Room and Sauna ... provided a private, safe space for gay men to meet, socialize, and engage in discrete sexual activities at a time when homosexuality was not only condemned, but prior to 1976, illegal," a report to the city's Historical Resources Board said. "Additionally, the Vulcan Steam Room and Sauna provided emotional support and information to its members regarding sexually transmitted diseases and how best to protect themselves from infection during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic when the disease was poorly understood and highly stigmatized."
The future plans of the property are unclear at this time.
“We can’t force them to do anything in particular with their land. I think people might want to know what's going to happen here in this area. It could be used for commercial or residential, so they have options as to what they want to do with that property,” Elliott said
