Marvin Heinze, a candidate for Coronado City Council, exudes energy, enthusiasm, and a passion to serve his community.
During our interview, Heinze expressed an appreciation for all that is good in Coronado and gratefulness for living in a representative democracy. Glad for the strong field of City Council candidates, he commented, “having five strong candidates for Coronado City Council this election reflects a well functioning government at work.”
In our interview, Heinze insisted that he does not have a specific agenda and seeks a seat on Council so that he can respond to the needs and interests of residents.
Heinze wants to ensure that residents have the opportunity to sound out about issues that are important to them.
Heinze serves as the Vice-Chair of the City of Coronado’s Planning Commission. The Planning Commission is the one committee, other than City Council, that is required by the State of California. He also has a BA in architecture.
The Planning Commission has submitted RSIP-3 (Residential Standards Improvement Project) to the City Council. The City Council will be voting on September 20 as to whether or not to accept the Planning Commission’s RSIP-3 recommendations. Heinze says that while RSIP-3 is not perfect, it reflects a lot of hard work by members of the Commission.
Besides city planning, Heinze has experience with public safety. In the U.S. Navy, Heinze led special operations teams in the detonation and demolishment of munitions and ordnances. Heinze currently works with the Port and Harbor Security. He is skilled in interagency collaboration, working with both the FBI and Coastal Foundation.
Heinze expressed that safety of our citizenry would be his number one focus should he be elected to City Council. He wants to make sure that citizens have a plan for natural disasters, terrorism, and impacts from climate change.
The second area of focus for Heinze is our community’s quality-of-life.
Traffic concerns were on the top of his list. Heinze suggested that the approach to traffic is more complex than simply slowing down traffic.
Some residents do want drivers to slow down. If that is what the majority of residents want, Heinze suggested additional sidewalk corner bulbs and speed tables (both recommended by the Traffic Calming Study), tree planting and narrowing the streets. Heinze noted that all of these actions cue drivers that they are driving down a residential street rather than a freeway.
Other residents want the base-commuters to get through town and clear the streets as quickly as possible. Heinze noted that these residents “do not want slow cars crawling through the streets with their radios blasting or mufflers revving.”
Heinze said that if we want less cars, then our efforts should be with working with the Navy on alternative forms of commuting.
Heinze emphasized that he doesn’t advocate one definitive plan, but wants to work with the stakeholders to come up with the best plan possible.
The third issue that Heinze believes is important is tourism. Heinze states that “we must have tourists for our city to thrive – we just need to attract the right kind of tourists – those that don’t bring as many cars.” Heinze believes that the Coronado Tourism Improvement District (CTID) is on the right track.
He noted that the Coronado Film Festival is wonderful, but questioned whether it really brought tourists who stayed in hotels and came without cars.
When I asked about the historical preservation of homes, Heinze asserted that while he is 100% for the preservation of historical homes, he also stated that we can’t use the Mills Act to stop development.
He argued that there has to be a limit on historical designation, because as a city we lose revenue because of the reduced property taxes afforded by the Mills Act. Heinze said that, “when it is appropriate, this [reduction in taxes] is well worth it to the community, but if a house doesn’t serve a public purpose, if a home doesn’t meet the Mills Act criteria, then it is up to the property owners [to preserve or remove the existing property.]”
As far as short-term rentals, Heinze is supportive of the 26-day requirement for rentals and believes the law should be enforced. He encourages residents to contact law-enforcement if the rule is being broken: “We can’t have police knocking on everyone’s door all summer, but residents can do their part.”
He is impressed with collegiality of the current Council. Commenting that Mayor Tanaka is accessible and friendly, Heinze asked, “How could you not like our current mayor?” He believes the current council and his fellow candidates are good people with the best of intentions to serve their community.
You can learn more about his candidacy at http://heinze4coronadocouncil.com/.
