Chula Vista Pushing for Car Dealer Park : Revenue: Officials say a 40-acre complex would net the city millions in sales tax, but some residents aren’t happy with the idea.

Ever since a Chula Vista task force discovered that the majority of its residents go outside the city’s borders to purchase new cars, city officials have been pondering ways to woo car dealerships--and the sales tax revenue they generate.

A proposal for a 40-acre auto-dealership park to be built a mile and a half east of Interstate 805 off East H Street in the heart of the Rancho del Rey business center now under construction appears to be the answer to their prayers. But not everyone in Chula Vista is enthusiastic about the project.

Retired civil servant Vernon Smith, 57, who has lived on nearby Paseo del Rey since 1980, is afraid the proposed auto center will increase traffic and depress property values in the new, well-to-do neighborhood where houses sell in the $200,000 to $300,000 range.

“This has basically been residential all through here, and I kind of like it that way,” Smith said. “I haven’t been involved much in community affairs, but I very well may become involved.”

Smith and others will have an opportunity to express their concerns at a City Council planning committee hearing scheduled for early March. That’s when the committee will review a zoning change request by the developer, a partnership of McMillin Communities and HomeFed Bank’s real estate development unit, and a consortium of auto dealers who have agreed to buy 20 acres of the proposed 40-acre auto park.

McMillin Communities, which plans to sell the remaining 20 acres to other car dealers, said the development could eventually embrace 11 dealerships.

The consortium consists of Fuller Ford and South Bay Chevrolet, now Chula Vista’s only resident auto dealers. Although they have not yet settled on a price for the 20-acre site they have agreed to buy, property in the business center is selling for $8 to $20 a square foot. Based on those prices, the two dealers can expect to spend $7 to $17.6 million for the 20-acre site.

Chula Vista Mayor Greg Cox said the auto park would be “tremendously beneficial” to the city. The auto center, whose opening is planned for mid-1991, “could generate as much or more sales tax as a regional shopping center or a Price Club,” Cox said. “This is an opportunity to get a number of new dealerships to our community, which could provide not only new revenue but also jobs.”

City officials estimate that the auto park would create 1,200 jobs and could generate an additional $2 million in annual city sales taxes, a 20% boost over last year’s sales tax revenue of $10.7 million.

And residents should be comforted to learn, Cox said, that the city will require that the auto park be “aesthetically pleasing, with well-designed buildings and a heavy commitment to landscaping without all the glitz, bright lights and noises” often associated with auto centers.

The auto park, the single largest component in the 84-acre Rancho del Rey business center, will emulate “a campus-like environment with monument-type signs as opposed to pole signs,” Cox added.

But former Chula Vista Mayor Frank Scott, who is the founder of Crossroads, a 6-year-old citizen’s lobbying and planning group, said, “We don’t think (the proposed site) is an appropriate place for (an auto park). If we had our druthers, we’d like to put it along the freeway on Main Street.”

But Scott said his group thus far has opted not to lobby against the development because Crossroads is active in other “more important” Chula Vista planning issues, such as the Bayfront and EastLake developments. “You can’t take a stand on everything,” Scott said.

Doug Fuller, owner of Fuller Ford, said that, although he is aware of the residents’ concerns, he thinks they may not fully understand the proposal.

“I know there is concern we are going to end up with another Mile of Cars,” Fuller said, referring to a decades-old strip of auto dealerships in National City. “My feeling is, if we were doing anything that even remotely approximates that . . . I wouldn’t want to be involved. Our intention is to be an attractive addition to the Rancho del Rey community. We would have a modern, high-tech architectural style, something clean and attractive.”

And, he added, there will be no banners, flags or balloons.

But dollars, not aesthetics, are the driving force behind the car park proposal. City officials point to the fact that in Carlsbad about $2.5 million, or more than a quarter of the city’s $8.2 million in sales tax revenue was generated by the Car Country Carlsbad auto park last year.

And, in National City, the Mile of Cars auto strip and surrounding auto supply stores generated some $3.2 million of the city’s total $8.8 million in sales tax revenue.

“Additional revenues like that over the long run are extremely important to allow the city to provide the services that we are currently providing and to improve those services,” Cox said. “Police would certainly get the lion’s share of improved services, but other departments would also be beneficiaries of additional revenues coming.”

Sales tax revenues have become the most important new source of revenue for city governments throughout California since property taxes were rolled back by Proposition 13 in the late 1970s. Auto dealerships are among the largest sources of sales tax revenue a city can have.

Chula Vista city officials began seeking proposals for an auto mall after discovering two years ago that 83% of the city’s residents leave the city to buy new cars. “It was obviously a real drain of potential revenue to the city,” said Chula Vista Redevelopment director Dave Gustafsen.

Fuller Ford and South Bay Chevrolet, both of which are now situated about 3 miles from their nearest competitors, can expect to double their revenue by relocating to the proposed auto park, said Fuller. His dealership recorded $22 million in sales revenue last year.