Gleason Road at Bahia Point provides an essential and badly needed drive up location to drop off and launch small watercraft into rare wave, wind, and water conditions in Mission Bay.
According to a staff report from one of the last times this subject came before the California Coastal Commission in November of 1996:
“Of greater concern is the proposed land expansion of the leasehold, which would remove existing public parking and road access to the tip of Bahia Point, which is heavily used by sailboarders, windsurfers and sailors. The most significant amenity needed for the continuance of such uses at this location, in addition to favorable wind, wave and water quality conditions, is vehicular access with close-in parking, since the equipment for these sports is heavy and cumbersome. Sporting participants have testified (before the Commission and in attached letters) that fewer and fewer places exist in Mission Bay Park that provide all these factors (namely Santa Clara and Bahia Points). Recent shoreline stabilization improvements on Santa Clara Point have rendered much of the shoreline inaccessible now for small watercraft users, making Bahia Point all that more critical to these recreationists. Although the required access could likely be provided in the proposed future parklands in the South Shores/Fiesta Island area, these locations do not provide the wind, wave and water quality conditions necessary to the cited sports. Thus, it is only at Bahia Point that the full range of needed amenities for these forms of recreational boating occur. Thus, the removal of the access road and parking at Bahia Point is inconsistent with Section 30234 of the Coastal Act.”