Gateway Park Renamed Harbaugh Trails

Name change honors donor who contributed $1.1 million for park

Source: San Diego Union Tribune, By: Edward Sifuentes, January 13, 2015

 

Mayor Lesa Heebner speaks to supporters celebrating a $1.15 million gift at the Harbaugh Seaside Trails on Tuesday in Solana Beach, California. The George and Betty Harbaugh Charitable Foundation gifted the money for the establishment of the park at the north end of Solana Beach along Coast Highway. — Eduardo Contreras

 

SOLANA BEACH — A Solana Beach bluff-top property that had long been sought by developers will now be a park named Harbaugh Seaside Trails, in honor of a family who donated $1.1 million to help preserve the land, officials announced Tuesday.

Known as the Gateway property, the 3.44-acre parcel sits along the east side of Coast Highway 101 just south of the San Elijo Lagoon. It provides vast, picturesque views of the lagoon and the ocean.

For decades, developers and residents fought bitterly over the future of the property, as several hotel and condominium projects were proposed and ultimately rejected. The land eventually fell into foreclosure.

Eager to see the property preserved, the nonprofit San Elijo Conservancy bought it in 2011 for $3.75 million, using money borrowed from various sources. The group had been working ever since to pay off that debt.

On Tuesday, the Conservancy held a news conference to announce the sizable donation from The George & Betty Harbaugh Charitable Foundation and pushed them toward the end of that goal.

“Right now, this site is secure, it will never be developed,” said Doug Gibson, executive director and principal scientist with the conservancy.

Dozens of residents and officials, including Supervisor Dave Roberts and Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner, attended Tuesday’s event, held at the entrance to the property.

Joe Balla, director of the Harbaugh foundation, said he was glad to honor George and Betty Harbaugh with the donation. George Harbaugh and his family owned Log Realty, a company that owned and operated commercial and real estate properties in the county.

Both George and Betty loved wildlife and nature and would have loved the property, Balla said.

“It is an amazing site and the views of the coastline and the ocean are incomparable,” Balla said. “It is with great pride and gratitude that our foundation has the opportunity to write a happy ending to the Gateway saga.”

The people who had pushed for Solana Beach’s incorporation in 1986 did so in part because they were outraged that the county had approved plans for a hotel on the site.

The development called for an eight-story, 171-room hotel complex. That project failed to materialize. Over the years, developers offered other proposals with little success and strong resistance from Solana Beach residents.

In 2004, developer Ken Losch planned a 98-room hotel, 17-unit condominium building and a 2,000-square-foot restaurant.

That proposal was met with such resistance that the Solana Beach View Assessment Committee held two meetings and nine hours of public testimony, nearly all of it in opposition, before rejecting the project, according to news reports at the time.

Two years later, the proposal was changed to a 30-unit combination of hotel and condos room with a club house and an outdoor pool and spa.

Gibson said the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy offered to buy the property in 2006 but the $16 million asking price was too high for the group to afford.

Eventually, Losch’s company went into bankruptcy and the property was sold.

 

 

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