Bayfront Power Towers Will Come Down

3/5/2008 - San Diego Union Tribune
By Tanya Mannes - Staff Writer

Chula Vista sees removal as catalyst for redevelopment

San Diego Gas & Electric has agreed to tear down hulking steel power towers on the Chula Vista bayfront by the end of 2009, giving the city a hard-fought victory in efforts to redevelop the prime property.

SCOTT LINNETT / Union-Tribune SDG&E has agreed to remove the steel lattice structures that carry power lines along Chula Vista's bayfront.

SDG&E Chief Operating Officer Michael Niggli said the utility, responding to pressure from Chula Vista officials, has made the arrangements necessary to take down the overhead lines and remove the towers.

“It's a very important step forward for all of us,” Niggli said. “Everyone has been working very hard to find a solution.”

Chula Vista has been trying to clean up its industrial bayfront for decades. Removing the towers will mean one less hurdle for large-scale development, including a pending $1 billion deal with Gaylord Entertainment to build a hotel and convention center.

SDG&E once promised city officials in writing that by this year it would remove the towers along a three-mile segment from the Sweetwater River to J Street. The lattice structures, which run through marshland, stand 12 stories high and can be seen from Interstate 5.

But last October, Niggli said it would be too expensive to remove the towers and bury their transmission lines before the South Bay Power Plant is decommissioned at a time unknown.

Councilmen Jerry Rindone and Steve Castaneda and former Mayor Steve Padilla were among those who called for SDG&E to honor its 2004 agreement with the city because of the repercussions for several projects, including Gaylord Entertainment's plan.

Overview Background: In 2004, San Diego Gas & Electric agreed to take down overhead lines and power towers on the Chula Vista bayfront within four years. But last year, SDG&E said it would be too expensive to remove the towers. What's changing: Under pressure from city officials, SDG&E has decided to remove the lines and towers. State regulators approved the plan Feb. 14. The future: SDG&E will fast-track upgrades to other power lines and install a higher-capacity transformer at the South Bay Power Plant, allowing for the 125-foot power towers to be removed by the end of 2009.

Gaylord Senior Vice President Bennett Westbrook has made it clear that the power plant and towers are incompatible with plans for an upscale hotel. He has threatened to cancel the project if the power plant remains beyond the first quarter of 2011.

Told of SDG&E's decision to remove the towers – considered a first step in closing the plant – Westbrook said yesterday, “That's great news!”

The bayfront's 550 acres include the power plant site, a handful of restaurants, vacant lots, small marinas and old buildings from a nearby aerospace factory.

Other redevelopment proposals would also be delayed – or become impossible, such as building a Chargers stadium – if the plant and towers remain.

The project manager for Pacifica Companies, which hopes to build condominiums, said the towers are a problem.

“We're planning a vision that's supposed to be a world-class bayfront and it's hard to imagine it with those power lines in the way,” Pacifica's Allison Rolfe said.

Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox said yesterday that she's thrilled with the outcome. She praised the engineers from SDG&E and the city.
“We had the right people sitting down and working out this solution, and the result is that next year, the towers will come down,” Cox said.

Assistant City Manager Scott Tulloch and city conservation manager Michael Meacham brokered the deal.

“It sets the stage for the next thing – getting rid of the power plant,” Tulloch said. “And that's where we are turning our attention now.”

Built in 1960, the power plant is seen by many as inefficient and environmentally harmful because it uses bay water for cooling, which can kill marine life.

The California Independent System Operator, which regulates the power grid, won't allow the plant to be shut down because it acts as a backup source of electricity.

Niggli said the utility is lining up alternative ways to transmit power to replace the overhead lines.

SDG&E will fast-track the upgrading of the transmission lines from the power plant to the Los Coches substation near Lakeside and will replace a transformer at the South Bay plant with one that has 60 percent more capacity, Niggli said. The installation will cost $2 million to $3 million.

There will be no additional cost to ratepayers because the company had money left over from a related Chula Vista project involving the burial of new transmission lines, Niggli said.

SDG&E is striving to boost the energy supply by adding power plants such as the Otay Mesa Energy Center, expected to be finished by 2009.

The region needs more capacity to serve a growing population. However, energy projects face controversy and delays.

For instance, environmentalists and backcountry residents have opposed SDG&E's proposal for the Sunrise Powerlink, a high-voltage transmission line that the utility says would bring cheaper electricity from Imperial County to San Diego.

The project would include miles of steel lattice towers through the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. By August, the state Public Utilities Commission is expected to make a decision about the $1.3 billion project.

In Chula Vista, Cox has emphasized that the city is not opposed to building a power plant, but said it's not the “best and highest use” of the bayfront.

She and Castaneda, who form the council's power plant subcommittee, have been looking at inland locations for a replacement plant.

Castaneda said the agreement to remove the towers is a sign of progress. The city's work with SDG&E has just begun he said, and “will not end until that last tower is removed.”

Staff writer Bruce V. Bigelow contributed to this report.

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