At the very least, efforts to repair or renovate the bayfront of the city date back to the 1970s. [1] Before the Port of San Diego began developing the bayfront into a marina, the area along the bay was little more than an inlet of the water.
The City of Chula Vista, the Port of San Diego, and Pacifica Companies, which is a private developer with an option to acquire land in the region, collaborated on the planning of the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan in order to give it a head start and get it off the ground. The study area for the master plan encompasses approximately 550 acres (2.2 km2) of land and water and is generally bounded on all sides by the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge to the north, San Diego Bay to the west, Bay Boulevard to the east, and the sites of the South Bay Power Plant and switchyard to the south. The Sweetwater District, the Harbor District, and the Otay District are the three distinct sub districts that have been designated for the bayfront in order to facilitate the planning process. These sub districts are listed in descending order from the north to the south.
An ongoing conflict between labor unions and Gaylord Entertainment, a business based in Tennessee that was initially contracted to complete the construction, led Mayor Cheryl Cox to convene an emergency press conference in July of 2007. The topic of the press conference was the ongoing issue. Many significant people from Chula Vista were present at the occasion, and the majority of them voiced their support for Gaylord. The contract did not go through, much to the disappointment of Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego. The City of Chula Vista is currently engaging in discussions for bayfront redevelopment with other local developers, while at the same time making an effort to get Gaylord to return to the South Bay.
A term sheet for a property swap between the Port of San Diego and Pacifica Companies has been finalized, and it was signed by both the Chula Vista City Council and the Port of San Diego. Due to the environmentally sensitive nature of the land near the Chula Vista Nature Center, Pacifica Companies proposed a land exchange in which they would receive 35 acres of land located further south and just east of the marina in exchange for 97 acres (390,000 m2) of land located just near the Chula Vista Nature Center. On the current site, Pacifica intends to construct both a hotel with 250 guest rooms and a condominium development with 1500 apartment units. Browse around this site
Midway through May of 2010, the development was given the green light after the Port, the Chula Vista City Council, the City’s Redevelopment Corporation, and the Chula Vista Planning Commission went through with actions that obtained the necessary local approval prior to the consideration of state agencies. This allowed the state agencies to focus their attention on the development. The building of the project is expected to result in the creation of over 6,000 temporary construction jobs in addition to up to 2,000 permanent positions. It is anticipated that the bayfront will contribute $1.3 billion to the economy of the surrounding area once it is finished. The approval of the California State Lands Commission and the California Coastal Commission is required in order to develop the bayfront. This approval represents the final hurdle in a 38-year attempt to do so.
In April of 2018, it was decided to move forward with constructing a hotel and convention center that would cost more than one billion dollars. As part of the agreement, Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego would pay 343 million dollars of the total cost and waive leasing costs for nearly four decades, which would save them a total of 245 million dollars. Learn About Eastlake