Roche, an Eastview resident who said he is running to give that part of the city a voice on the council, opposes any coastal hotel or golf development and favors single-family homes, as called for in the present Coastal Plan.
Both Kuykendall and Gibbs argue that the various coastal proposals make it imperative that the council have their financial and real estate expertise.
"When the hotel people talk about development, they come in with the best lawyers and consultants money can buy. We have no one," said Gibbs. A founder of the East Peninsula Educational Council, Gibbs describes himself as a candidate for the east side, which he said now lacks a voice on the council.
Kuykendall and Carlan favor public preservation of coastal land. Carlan said fund raising should begin now for acquisition of 743 acres in the Portuguese Bend landslide area. Kuykendall is proposing that 1,000 acres, including the slide area, be kept "in a combination of natural land and a golf course." Carlan also is calling for a change in zoning to prevent cluster development.
A proposal for a public golf course, which would be jointly developed and shared by the city, the Monaghan Co. and the VMS/Anden group proposing to build homes near the Point Vicente Interpretive Center, is supported by Bacharach, McNulty, Gibbs and Ryan.
McNulty said that through donations of land for the course by the developers, the city would gain $20 million in real estate.
An application for a resort hotel complex on the old Marineland site that ultimately would contain more than 1,000 rooms has been filed with the city by the Monaghan Co. Most candidates say they do not object to a hotel on that land, which is zoned for that use, but want the size to be reduced by at least half.
"A reasonable hotel would be just great," said Carlan, adding that if anything more than 450 rooms is proposed, it should be submitted to a public vote.
A second luxury hotel has been proposed by Orange County developer Barry Hon, but this is widely viewed as a long shot. The Zuckerman family, which owns land Hon needs for his project, has proposed its own home development, and the Hon project requires a change in the Coastal Plan.
Bacharach said she believes the public favors "one hotel, reasonably scaled."
