People who envision the decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Midway next to Navy Pier alternately describe it as an economic engine and a tribute to San Diego’s military heritage, or an environmental mistake and a big, gray eyesore.
San Diego Unified Port District commissioners liked what they saw well enough to approve setting aside tidelands for the World War II-vintage ship as part of their approval April 25 of the North Embarcadero Alliance Visionary Plan.
They will review the floating museum proposal May 16 before sending it on to the California Coastal Commission.
Museum promoters have been working on the tourist attraction for seven years and say they expect 700,000 guests in its inaugural year.
Alan Uke, founder of the Midway project, predicted the carrier museum may take some heat in the weeks leading up to the commission meeting. In the end, though, public sentiment will influence the state panel to approve the project, he said.
Uke cited a telephone survey he commissioned that showed 86 percent of San Diego County residents who were surveyed approve of the project. Some 67 percent said the fact the carrier would block views made no difference. The survey of 407 residents was conducted during Easter weekend.
Uke estimated the carrier museum would bring roughly $20 million a year to the city. The carrier museum could prompt tourists to stay another day in the region, he added.
People have done too much work to throw the project away, said San Diego City Councilman Byron Wear, a museum supporter.
“This project is consistent with the California Coastal Act,” said Wear, a former Coastal Commission member.
Groups like the San Diego Audubon Society and the Environmental Health Coalition, however, have written the Port District with concerns about the carrier museum. So has a Coastal Commission planner.
Their concerns include the fact the carrier will take up bay surface where birds may forage for food. The Audubon Society and Coastal Commission letters also say the carrier will block views around the bay.
The amount of open water the decommissioned carrier will occupy, and plans to set aside more water to make up for it, will likely be a topic of discussion before the coastal panel, said Christine Kehoe, who is both a Coastal Commission member and a San Diego city councilwoman.
Kehoe called the Midway “the right project in the wrong place.” Among other things, she said an attraction like the carrier museum could create traffic problems.
She and Coastal Commission planner Diana Lilly have asked whether the museum could go somewhere else. Lilly, in an April 24 letter to the port, asked about putting it at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal or the National City bayfront.
Port Spokeswoman Rita Vandergaw said the port does not want to turn the former site over to tourist use. Uke said the latter site would not draw enough visitors.
