Correction: A story published in the March 28 print edition titled, “Coronado Yacht Club plans $18.5 million revamp, adding public access and new facilities” incompletely identified the status of a 2023 lawsuit filed by local resident Matthew Herron challenging the club’s lack of public access. The appellate court upheld the trial judge’s decision, and a petition for rehearing was denied on March 13, 2025.
The Port of San Diego has given the green light to begin the environmental review process of a major redevelopment at the Coronado Yacht Club.
The project, if it goes forward, would include demolition of the existing clubhouse, parking lot and landscaping to make way for a modern, two-story, 17,000-square-foot clubhouse, a dedicated youth sailing school center and infrastructural enhancements aimed at securing the club against encroaching tides.
Additionally, the club plans to expand public access, incorporating a six-foot-wide promenade and a waterfront viewing platform.
Nestled along the tranquil waters of Glorietta Bay, the exclusive club has been a fixture of the local community for nearly eight decades.
The club membership is limited to 650 and at capacity, according to the club’s website. When slots open, applicants are not eligible unless sponsored by a current member at the highest level.
Its clubhouse, a repurposed World War II women’s barracks acquired through government surplus, has long defied its intended impermanence, said Ken Wilson, the club’s commodore.
Now, the club seeks to bring its facilities into the twenty-first century with an $18.5 million redevelopment project, an investment that will be borne by the club and donations.
“We’ve been trying to get to this point for well over 20 years,” Wilson said. “For our future, it means continuing to be able to be a part of the community and show off San Diego Bay to people from Coronado, San Diego County and beyond.”
“We think it’s important to provide that access to the public to an area that they’ve not had access to since we’ve been on that land since 1947,” Wilson said.
In 2023, Matthew Herron, a Coronado resident and lawyer, filed suit against the Coronado Yacht Club and the Port of San Diego, claiming the club unlawfully restricted public access to its property.
That October, a San Diego County judge dismissed the case.
Herron, who filed an appeal this January, argues that a 2018 California Coastal Commission ruling supports public access, while the club and port maintain there is no legal requirement to allow it.
Wilson said the yacht club’s youth sailing program — one of the largest in the nation — welcomes some 450 junior sailors each summer, roughly half of whom have no affiliation with the club.
Currently operating out of a makeshift facility — a double-wide trailer — the commodore said the program will benefit from upgraded classrooms, expanded storage space and dedicated offices for instructors.
Wilson noted the yacht club’s open-door policy for community organizations and its support for the Coronado High School sailing team, which is housed on the club’s property free of charge.
The club also hosts a range of regattas, including the Sharp Hospice Care Benefit Dinner and Regatta — an annual event that last year raised over three-quarters of a million dollars for hospice care.
Historically, efforts to modernize the club have been met with resistance from the California Coastal Commission, the state agency tasked with protecting public access to the shoreline. A 2011 proposal faced rejection after the commission opposed diverting a public walkway around the club’s buildings rather than preserving its waterfront path.
The latest plan has been developed in collaboration with the Port of San Diego and the Coastal Commission, incorporating considerations for public access, environmental sustainability and sea level rise mitigation.
Commissioner Frank Urtasun, Coronado’s appointee to the Port of San Diego Board of Port Commissioners, said the redevelopment project is a poster child for the port’s broader vision of providing access to the waterfront.
“A lot of tenants that have leaseholds on the waterfront have concerns with allowing the public to walk through their property, but the Coronado Yacht Club has found a way, by grade separation, to allow the public to come in and walk along this line,” Urtasun said.
The commissioner said the project is subject to a multi-layered approval process.
“The Coronado Yacht Club has to appease both the Port of San Diego, as the landlord of this property, and the Coastal Commission, which has authority over land use matters on state tidelands. The port alone doesn’t get to approve a project like this.”
Wilson said a study found that the club’s leasehold sits less than half a foot above the current mean high tide level. The redevelopment envisions elevating the site by three to seven feet and reinforcing the shoreline with a seawall or riprap barrier.
With the environmental review process now underway, Wilson said the timeline for construction remains uncertain, as the project must clear the California Environmental Quality Act process and secure a new lease agreement with the port. The current lease is set to expire in December 2028.
