City OKs Restoration of Belmont Roller Coaster

Acting to preserve a historic landmark and revive family-oriented entertainment in Mission Beach, the San Diego City Council on Monday authorized a $1.2-million restoration of the 64-year-old Giant Dipper roller coaster.

The council also agreed to allow the same Santa Cruz firm that will restore the Belmont Park coaster to build an adjacent carrousel, which, the company said, will attract families with small children and make the entire amusement project financially possible.

The 8-0 vote, with Councilman Wes Pratt absent, vindicated the Save the Coaster Committee, which rescued the coaster from demolition in 1981 and during the past eight years has raised more than $1 million in cash and free services for a timber-by-timber rehabilitation of its wooden framework.

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986, the ride is one of only 18 wooden roller coasters left in the United States, which boasted 1,200 in the 1920s and ‘30s, the heyday of coaster construction.

“This has never been done,” said Donald J. Reeves, the architect who oversaw the coaster reconstruction. “We’ve never saved one. We’ve lost hundreds in this country in the last 25 years.”

Overriding Considerations

To approve the reconstruction, the council had to find that overriding considerations justified reopening the attraction, despite proof that it would increase noise, traffic and parking hassles in a neighborhood already overburdened by those conditions.

In taking the action, the council granted the coaster an amendment from the city noise ordinance. Noise in the area where the coaster will be built already exceeds city standards for residential zones, at an average of 70 to 73 decibels, because of jet and auto traffic. Operation of the coaster will raise noise to an average of 74 to 77 decibels.

“The noise level already is excessive with aircraft, motorboats, water-skiers and shouts of joy,” said one Mission Beach resident on the losing side of the debate. Another protested that most homeowners have moved in since the coaster stopped operating in 1977, “never dreaming of an amendment to the city noise ordinance” and its impact on property values.

In addition to virtual traffic gridlock and a perennial parking problem during peak beach season, Mission Beach in recent years has battled a perceived increase in noise and public disorderliness that has caused homeowners to repeatedly demand action from City Hall, including the nighttime closure of some parking lots in South Mission Beach.

Nostalgia Won Out

But, on a warm August evening that marked the penultimate council meeting before summer recess, nostalgia overwhelmed such complaints and cold, hard statistics. Councilman Bruce Henderson, who represents Mission Beach, proclaimed that “the right to ride on the coaster is the birthright of every San Diego child.”

Mayor Maureen O’Connor also shared childhood memories of the coaster.

“I’m a native San Diegan. I also rode the roller coaster,” she said. “I did not have fond memories of the roller coaster. I was scared to death, and I never want to ride the roller coaster again.”

Part of the attraction for council members and City Manager John Lockwood is that the restoration will not cost the city a dime; neither have Save the Coaster Committee activists asked for city money thus far.

The city’s agreement with San Diego Seaside Co.--a group of principals from firms that manufacture vehicles, brakes and other components for wooden roller coasters--calls for the company to spend $1.2 million restoring the coaster’s track and moving parts.

The city, which owns the land west of Mission Boulevard and south of Ventura Place where the coaster and carrousel will be, will take ownership of the coaster from the Save the Coaster Committee on Monday in exchange for 479 lifetime passes to ride it. Coaster advocates used the lifetime pass guarantee as a fund-raising gimmick.

May Open Next Spring

The city agreed to lease the coaster to San Diego Seaside for 31 years, granting a rent credit equal to the $1.2-million restoration price. After that is paid, the city will collect 5% of all gross income from the coaster’s operation, or $24,000 a year, whichever is greater. San Diego Seaside will also build a small coaster museum.

If reconstruction goes according to schedule, the coaster will open next spring, offering rides from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on summer weekends, with shorter hours in other seasons and during the week, said Dana Morgan of San Diego Seaside. Prices will range from $1 in winter to as much as $2 in summer, with special discounts offered.

The carrousel, also being constructed by San Diego Seaside, will be an “elaborate reproduction” of a 1910 ride that will “recapture some of the original flavor of Belmont Park,” which was opened to development in 1986. Belmont Park Associates built a shopping mall there, despite strong opposition to the plan from some Mission Beach residents.

Belmont Park Associates plans to sublease the carrousel site to San Diego Seaside.