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If you have spent time along the tidelands along the San Diego Bay, did
you know you're enjoying the state lands entrusted to the Port of San Diego.
The Port of San Diego is a public agency created by the state legislature in 1962,
to manage San Diego Harbor and the surrounding tidelands.
That's 3,415 acres of land and 3,402 acres of water.
The Port has an important mission:
balancing Regional Economic Benefits,
Recreational Opportunities
Environmental Stewardship
and public safety
while protecting tidelands trust resources on behalf of the citizens of
California.
The Port is operated without tax dollars since 1970,
and has been responsible for a $1.5 billion in public improvements in the
five-member cities:
San Diego,
National City
Chula Vista,
Imperial Beach
and Coronado.
Who is responsible for putting this public agency into place
Coronado resident and former State Senator Jim Mills,
who was instrumental in the creation of the San Diego Unified Port District,
sat down with the Port's Communications and Community Services department
to explain why the Port was created and its significance to the region.
The idea to create the Port district came from John Bate.
John Bate was the Director of the Harbor Department San Diego.
He had taken the initiative
in promoting
a bond issue
to build a cargo-handling facility
at the
present Tenth Avenue Terminal.
Because prior to that time, all of the
cargo ships that came in and out of San Diego
came into the B Street Pier,
which was not
really adequate. The passenger ships came into the Broadway Pier.
So John Bates sold the idea of the Tenth Avenue Terminal
and promoted
the bond issue
and got people to vote for the bond issue. This is in the city of San Diego
to build a Tenth Avenue Terminal.
At that point,
he wanted to move on and build further facilities to handle cargo, different kinds of cargo,
but there is nowhere else in the city that can be done. The only option was
to got out of the city
and really the only place that could be done was the
waterfront in National City
John came to me
and to the State Senator from San Diego county,
Hugo Fisher,
and he
talked to us separately the about the desirability of
the creating a Port district so that
the cargo-handling facilities of the Port could be expanded
and also so that the area could
develop other parts of the waterfront for recreational purposes.
Business interests were in favor of it. They saw the advantages of it
The general public appreciated the possibility that
if a Port district were created
it would have the resources to develop waterfronts in various ways.
The measure passed
and
the Port district was thereby created.
The Port serves as an economic engine to San Diego's economy through its two main business operations:
Maritime and Real Estate.
The Port overseas two Maritime cargo terminal,
a cruise ship terminal and manages the leases of more than 600 tenants and subtenants. 0:03:58.249,0:04:02.899 The Port of San Diego is one that is different from the other ports on the West Coast.
It a fulfills a special role in the movement of goods,
as well as servicing the military.
The Port of San Diego has been designated a strategic port on the West Coast,
allowing the Department of Defense to ship helicopters, jeeps,
and other large pieces of equipment from its terminals.
We asked former Senator Mills:
Should the Port of San Diego be compared
to other West Coast ports. What is a non-issue why-
why should we be compared with Port of Los Angeles
or the Port of Oakland.
This Port has its own
role to play
and it's not handling the quantities of cargo that those ports handle.
This is kind niche port with
its niche.
it has a niche.
It is valuable; it is useful.
Unlike other West Coast ports, which specialize in container cargo,
the Port of San Diego has built its business
specializing in breakable cargo.
These are items that can't easily fit into containers.
The Port of San Diego's two terminals process cars,
lumber,
cement,
sand,
fertilizer,
pallet fruit
containerized produce,
miscellaneous steal,
and wind turbine products.
I've been very pleased with all the plans to take over the
the Tenth Avenue Terminal for other purposes, and all of them fallen by the wayside. They proposed
putting the cargo-handling facility
elsewhere but there is no place else
to put them.
San Diego needs to be prepared for the future,
whatever the future might be.
It is highly desirable for us to have reserved capacity
to handle increased shipping in case the need rises, which is very may will.
What has to be remembered, though is that the law of California
specifies that the tidelands are to be used primarily for certain purposes:
Maritime cargo and passengers, recreation - and that's what the law says.
The Port of San Diego is a provider of community Services,
offering many recreational amenities on Port tidelands.
From parks to playgrounds,
to walkways, soccer fields,
fishing piers and boat launch ramps -
It's an asset Mr. Mills is very proud of.
The creation of the parklands, the tidelands park in Coronado,
was an enormous success, a
great improvement.
Not just for Coronado.
The thing of it is
the development of that and the development of the marina
in Chula Vista, and the marina
and waterfront facilities in National City
and elsewhere, have been a real advantage the entire area. It is not as though
the people in La Mesa,
and El Cajon, and
all parts of the area
don't enjoy them.
And just to set the record straight about tax dollars,
we asked the former Senator
directly.
Does the Port of San Diego receive any income from taxpayers?
Not anymore.
It did originally. The Port District Act provided maximum in
property taxes of
ten cents on the hundred
that the Port District could have
and that was money that was used
to develop the National City Terminal.
I think that that
the purposes of the Port District have generally been
well achieved over the long term.
With it's 50-year milestone anniversary fast approaching,
the Port is San Diego remains committed
to protecting and managing the tidelands
entrusted to it
by the state of California
and its citizens,
providing a unified authority
for the management of San Diego Harbor
and tidelands
of San Diego Bay.