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A dispute with the state Coastal Commission has left San Diego at a standstill on an ambitious plan to transform much of northeastern Mission Bay into climate-friendly marshland and new recreation space.The dispute — which began seven months ago and isn’t close to being resolved — could prevent the city from securing millions in state and federal climate resiliency grants that would help pay for the new marshland.If the city applies for those grants before securing the Coastal Commission approvals required to move forward, other resiliency projects that don’t face such uncertainty will have a leg up in the grant approval process.
The plan to revamp the northeastern corner of Mission Bay, approved by the City Council a year ago, came after seven years of negotiation and compromise between environmentalists and advocates for camping and other recreation uses.But that compromise is subject to Coastal Commission approval because Mission Bay is in the city’s coastal zone.And when the city submitted the proposal to the Coastal Commission, officials there quickly deemed it incomplete because it isn’t detailed enough about how some of the bay’s shoreline would be reshaped.
The proposal, formally called De Anza Natural, envisions dramatic changes to 505 acres of land and water that include De Anza Cove and adjacent Campland on the Bay. Those changes include channelizing the bay in some places and transforming it into dunes and marshland in others.“The proposed De Anza Natural amendment includes channelization of significant portions of public parkland, but the included ‘Hydrology and Water Quality Technical Memorandum’ minimally addresses the channelization and does not analyze the rationale supporting it, simply stating that it is proposed in hope of improving circulation within De Anza Cove,” the commission said in a Sept.
26 letter to the city.Based on that concern, the commission requested a detailed, technical analysis of the city’s proposal regarding hydrology and water quality.In the letter to the city, the commission asked for “an amended technical memo or supplement that analyzes the channelization in greater detail, including, but not limited to, quantification of the anticipated improvements in water quality and circulation, the anticipated channel location, design, and dimensions required to achieve those benefits.
”The letter also asked the city for alternative approaches that might boost water quality without full channelization.The De Anza Cove area. (K.
C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)In the seven months since receiving the letter, city officials haven’t acknowledged any dispute publicly.They also apparently haven’t contacted at least some of the groups involved in shaping the proposal.
Officials from the San Diego Bird Alliance said last week they only learned of the dispute in February when they sought information about how close the Coastal Commission was to approving the city’s proposal.Andrew Meyer, conservation director for the alliance, said he understands why the commission’s request seems daunting to the city. The commission is asking for a complex and detailed study, he said.
City officials told The San Diego Union-Tribune that they’ve spent the seven months since receiving the letter weighing their options.“The city has been collecting additional information and assessing how best to respond to this request for detailed, project-level technical analysis on a long-range planning document,” officials said in an email.They said a formal response letter to the commission is planned for sometime later this spring, and that they hope to meet with commission staff “to discuss in greater detail” its request.
The city has always described its approach to revamping northeast Mission Bay as a two-step process.City officials refer to the plan approved in May 2024 as a high-level master plan. They’ve said the specifics of how the area would be reconfigured won’t be decided until city planners, with feedback from the public, create a more detailed general development plan.
That distinction might be one reason why the Coastal Commission expected more detail in the city’s proposal than is actually there.Meyer said he thinks that might be the heart of the problem. While he understands the city’s position, Meyer said De Anza Natural goes far beyond an ordinary proposal to redesign a city park.
He said the two-step process might make sense in those instances, but probably not when a proposal involves creating new habitats and marshland.New marsh areas — sometimes called wetlands — serve the dual purpose of removing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide from the air and fighting sea-level rise by acting as a coastal sponge.While any delay on such an important project can be frustrating, plans to revamp that area of Mission Bay have never been on the fast track.
The plan is expected to take many millions, possibly more than $1 billion, to fully develop. And city officials have consistently said they expect it to happen in phases over many years.If the ongoing dispute gets resolved, the city still faces other potential challenges to Coastal Commission approval.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told city officials last year that they might oppose it because they support calls by environmentalists for more marshland than the city wants.
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