Ballesteros Gets Martinez’s District 8 Seat : Supporters of Car Museum at Balboa Park Suffer a Puncture

The nearly seven-year effort to create an automotive museum in Balboa Park received another setback Monday when a short-handed San Diego City Council deadlocked on the matter.

Although the 4-4 vote before a packed council chamber appeared to signal victory for the hundreds of folk and square dancers, Ping-Pong players, the physically handicapped and mentally retarded who now hold their recreational and sports activities at the park’s Conference Building, the museum proposal for the building is not dead.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who voted against the museum, said the matter will be reheard once the council is again at its full nine-member strength, after the appointment to fill the seat resigned by Uvaldo Martinez.

After the museum issue was heard Monday, the council appointed attorney Celia Ballesteros to the seat. She could become the deciding vote on the fate of the Conference Building.

After the lengthy museum hearing, City Atty. John Witt told reporters that because the matter was left unresolved, it will automatically resurface again at today’s City Council session, where it’s likely a new hearing date will be set.

Any date, however, may be too late for the Las Vegas-based Imperial Palace, an antique car collecting organization that had agreed to loan autos to the museum for display. A frustrated Richard Clyne, representing the Imperial Palace, told reporters after the vote that he was pulling out of the museum project.

“It was an emotional blow to the people who worked for this thing for many years,” said San Diego attorney James Milch, who represented the San Diego Automotive Museum Inc. “Some people felt they got Mickey Moused-around” by the City Council.

On the other side, Gary H. Kaine, who represented most of the current Conference Building users, said that, although the vote was “excellent and reaffirmed what we wanted,” he thinks the deadlock gives the current users more time to press their argument that the museum issue should be put off until after next November’s special bond election on Balboa Park improvements.

The arguments at the council hearing seemed to turn on the question of timing and money.

Supporters of the museum said they needed to move ahead with the project because, in part, those who have pledged $322,000 to help the museum want to take advantage of more generous tax deductions that will be curtailed after Dec. 31.

The museum, which is seeking a “free” 25-year lease from the city, would be required to spend about $257,000 to improve the Conference Building by painting it and putting on a new roof. Also, the museum association would later be required to build a $2-million to $3-million building next to the Conference Building.

And though the museum would pay the city $34,000 a year to cover maintenance costs, it would also receive more than $80,000 annually from the city’s transit occupancy tax after it is in operation for four years.

Those in favor of the auto museum, including the city manager’s office, painted the matter as a “win-win” issue. Not only would the city obtain a new museum, the supporters said, but the folk dancers and others, though inconvenienced, would be moved to other locations in the park and might have more space than ever if the bond issue passes.

But the current users said the matter is more than just inconvenience. Kaine and others said many programs would be forced to cut back their activities. Jack McGrory, deputy city manager, said 80% of the activities now at the Conference Building could be accommodated elsewhere in the park.

According to Kaine, this would represent reductions by as much as 50% for some groups.

McGrory said passage of the bond election, which would require approval by two-thirds of the voters, would free up more space by allowing the city to renovate both the Federal Building and Municipal Gymnasium, which would be moved to the Morley Field sports complex.

Kaine and others, including Mayor O’Connor, countered by saying the city would be better off to wait until after the election to make a decision on the museum. In addition, opponents questioned whether 150,000 people would visit the museum each year, as supporters claimed in their prospectus.

“There should be a sense of fairness here,” O’Connor said. “You’ll (museum supporters) have it after the bond issue. I don’t want to dislocate people who’ve been in there for years, the Special Olympics, the basketball (players).”

Much has been made of the tourists who would be attracted to the museum, but O’Connor said the City Council should remember that Balboa Park is as much for local residents as anyone else.

“Recreation is for the people who live, work and pay taxes in San Diego,” she said.

Councilman Mike Gotch, who voted for the museum, said it was the responsibility of the city to allow “the greatest number of uses in that park.” That would occur, Gotch said, because the park would be able to accommodate both the museum and the current Conference Building users.

“We can’t deny another use completely,” Gotch said. “The dancers would be accommodated in different but reasonable facilities.”

Voting with Gotch for the museum were council members Bill Cleator, Gloria McColl and Ed Struiksma. Joining O’Connor in opposition were William Jones, Judy McCarty and Abbe Wolfsheimer.