CORONADO CANDIDATES FOCUS ON VIRUS, HOUSING
Four council hopefuls all oppose allocation of 912 new homes in city
CORONADO
Coronado’s City Council election is largely focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and the San Diego Association of Governments’ allocation of nearly 1,000 new housing units in the small coastal community.
Two City Council seats are up for grabs, and all four candidates are concerned about the pandemic’s economic effect and what they call the “unfair” process of how the San Diego Association of Governments, or SANDAG, is trying to force the city to build 912 new housing units over the next eight years.
Candidates say the housing issue particularly has the potential to substantially alter a community that prides itself on its small-town vibe.
The reason this allocation cycle has been so controversial is because SANDAG changed its methodology and relied heavily on the number of jobs within each city. In Coronado’s case, jobs tied to the military base led to a drastic increase in housing allocation.
Candidates argue that Coronado doesn’t have vacant land to build on. The city also has limited land-use control within its borders because the Navy takes up more than twothirds of Coronado’s landmass and the Port of San Diego manages its tidelands. All of that means that if Coronado were forced to account for 912 new housing units, the city would have to rezone and allow for more density.
“If we’re forced to do this, it will change the character of the city, there’s no doubt about it,” said incumbent Councilman Mike Donovan. “And not for the good.”
Donovan first visited Co
ronado in 1975, a year after graduating from the Naval Academy, “and pretty much my then-to-be-wife and I fell in love with the place,” he said.
After 10 years of active duty, Donovan found a job with an industrial gas turbine company in San Diego and moved to Coronado. He spent 30 years with that company and eventually oversaw a $100 million budget and 100 employees as a manager. Donovan was elected to the City Council in 2016 and ran on a “residentsfirst” platform with a goal of increasing community engagement and transparency. He decided to run for re-election because experience gained during his first term could guide the city amid looming uncertainty.
“What’s our absolute big
gest concern, I would put even ahead of (the housing allocation), is coming out of this COVID-19 crisis,” he said. “That’s everything from the city’s budget and maintaining city services with reduced revenues stream.”
He isn’t alone in this concern.
Casey Tanaka, a high school history teacher and former mayor of Coronado, decided to run for office again because of COVID-19. He believes the city could have been more proactive in the early stages of the pandemic when it came to promoting face masks and social distancing.
“COVID is probably the most obvious and most important issue that comes up with voters,” he said. “Some people are unhappy with the city’s response of not taking more action in terms of requiring masks.”
Because COVID-19 im
pacts sales and hotel tax revenues, Tanaka is also concerned about the city’s short-term financial position. He’d like to ensure that public employees keep their jobs going forward. Tanaka moved to Coronado with his family when he was in second grade and is a product of the same public school system that he now teaches in. His local roots make him an appealing candidate in Coronado.
“To some extent, Coronado voters would like someone when they run for council or mayor or school board, that can prove they’re an islander,” he said.
Because of his previous experience, Tanaka views himself as a safe choice to voters.
Tanaka isn’t the only candidate who grew up in town and graduated from Coronado High School.
Tim Rohan, a landlord with properties all over the
Midwest, also grew up in Coronado. He decided to run for City Council because of, in his opinion, a growing imbalance between the interests of residents and those of businesses.
For example, he doesn’t like the fact that the Hotel del Coronado’s 400-room expansion will bring more tourists and traffic to the city.
“Is that really a benefit to residents of Coronado?” he said. “No. It’s just going to make traffic worse; it’s going to put more stress on our infrastructure.” When it comes to the housing allocation issue, Rohan said the city should do everything within its power to stop it. He wants the city to stop pursuing an expansion to a wastewater treatment plant in the hopes that limiting the sewage capacity will prevent it from having to account for more housing units.
Rohan added that he
isn’t shy about speaking his mind, “sometimes to my detriment,” so constituents will always know what his views are.
The fourth candidate, John Duncan, takes a more measured and analytical approach.
Duncan has been a lawyer since the mid-1990s and wants to bring those skills to the City Council. There currently aren’t any lawyers on the council, and Duncan believes he would add a muchneeded perspective.
“The City Council decides on new laws and takes laws off the books,” Duncan said. “There’s a legal analysis that goes into that, and I think I can add to the discussion.” He has noticed that the current members of the City Council don’t always ask staffers follow-up questions or push to get more clarity or answers on certain topics. Having a lawyer might help with that, he said.
Duncan grew up in Los Angeles and moved to San Diego in the early 1990s while attending law school, where he met his wife. The two rented in Coronado and eventually bought and restored a historic home.
“That’s one of the things that drew us here,” he said. “I don’t think there are that many communities like this where you can walk down the street and the homes are all different. They haven’t all been turned into modern boxes.”
He called SANDAG’s weighted vote, which was used to push the housing allocations over the objections of the majority of member cities, “fundamentally unfair.”
“We had 14 cities with us, four votes against us, and we lost,” he said. “That doesn’t seem democratic to me.”