After years of planning, De Anza Cove’s transformation in Mission Bay is finally gaining ground.
The California Coastal Commission in mid-August voted unanimously to approve the city of San Diego’s De Anza Natural plan — but with some important changes required to what was passed by the San Diego City Council in May 2024 as the De Anza Natural Amendment to the Mission Bay Park Master Plan.
The plan to “re-wild” DeAnza Cove, a plan discussed by environmentalists and the city as far back as 2015, will eventually convert Campland on the Bay and much of the current Mission Bay RV Resort into wetlands. It will expand habitat in the area from about 70 acres to a little over 260 acres, and relocate some camping spots further inland.
“This is one of the last opportunities the city is ever going to have to really recreate the wetlands that were so characteristic of the Mission Bay area, and frankly the entire coastline,” said San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava.
“What we’re looking at is that any of the uses that you see there today will be preserved,” LaCava added, citing continuing low-cost camping opportunities as well as the retention of adjacent Mission Bay Golf Course, Pacific Beach Tennis Club and the Bob McEvoy Youth Fields.
While the changes to DeAnza are coming, they’re not happening anytime soon. Many connected to the DeAnza Natural Plan maintain that the process could take at least 20 years.
A win for conservation
Andrew Meyer, Director of Conservation at San Diego Bird Alliance and a leader of the 101-member ReWild Coalition that has pushed for the restoration for years, called the outcome a clear win.
“We are thrilled with it,” said Meyer, who spoke at the Aug. 14 Coastal Commission meeting near Santa Cruz. “The City’s De Anza Natural Plan was improved by the recommendations at the Coastal Commission. These are improvements the ReWild Coalition has been calling for since the city passed its plan.”
ReWild says the approval commits the city to planning for marsh migration onto a proposed island as sea levels rise — turning what starts as usable parkland into long-term marsh habitat. The city has said its planning incorporated sea-level-rise modeling from the United States Geological Survey.
“The public, and our children and grandchildren, get the habitat acreage and the long-term plan the ReWild Coalition’s been pushing for,” Meyer said.
He also pointed to a city commitment of about $10 million toward Mission Bay projects this year, including $3 million for De Anza Natural planning. ReWild said this marks the first time money has flowed from the Mission Bay Park Improvement Fund toward habitat restoration.
Some tweaks needed
Among more than 30 modifications and changes the Coastal Commission asked for were language issues needed in a certified plan — the city of San Diego used “should” instead of the preferred/authoritative “shall” — and concerns that the city’s plan as submitted wasn’t conforming to the Coastal Act.
The city had also proposed converting existing eelgrass habitat into marsh while claiming mitigation credit for the swap — at odds with the Coastal Act, due to eelgrass being a protected marine resource already performing ecological functions that would be lost.
The Coastal Commission also found that a central engineering piece of the plan — two channels proposed to redirect part of Rose Creek through De Anza Cove — had never been backed by technical studies showing they would work. There is now a requirement that those studies are completed before construction.
Additionally, the plan lacked enforceable water-quality monitoring standards, despite Mission Bay already being listed as impaired for mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and bacteria, the Coastal Commission said, as reported by Times of San Diego.
“Time will tell, but this significant expansion of the tidal wetlands will definitely improve water quality in the northeast corner of the bay, which does not benefit from the same tidal mixing actions that western parts of the bay receive,” said Phillip Musegaas, executive director and coastkeeper at San Diego Coastkeeper. “Coastkeeper will continue to monitor water quality in the bay to track pollution sources and hopefully future improvements in water quality.”
Leadership weighs in
LaCava characterized the commission’s stance as more a difference in sequencing than substance.
“The Coastal Commission really embraced the very big idea that is the De Anza Natural Plan,” LaCava said. “This was important for me. This is not only a regional park; this is not only an opportunity to re-create wetlands and natural habitat, but it’s also the backyard park for the Pacific Beach community. And the work that we did at the city side was really to balance all those uses as we reconfigure that.”
He said that Coastal Commission leaders wanted more specifics locked in now rather than deferred to the city’s forthcoming General Development Plan process.
A modified DeAnza plan will head back to City Council for approval before year’s end, LaCava said. He said that at that time, the city could reach out for state and federal grant funding for the design work ahead.
“The Commission’s approval is premised on the city agreeing to do additional studies on sea level rise, water quality and other issues, so it keeps the planning moving forward while putting the onus on the city to put the work in ahead of securing funding to expand the tidal marsh,” he said.
Musegaas said that while specific financial costs are unknown, “complete restoration and tidal wetlands expansion will likely cost many millions of dollars over the next 15 to 20 years.”
He said San Diego Coastkeeper will support funding efforts, “but the city will need to develop long-term funding plans, as well as sustained public outreach to garner public support for this investment.”
Regarding public access
The Coastal Commission’s modifications also strengthen public-access requirements for future leaseholds — a point with history behind it.
Both Campland, LLC and Northeast MB, LLC (Mission Bay RV Resort) under the umbrella of Terra Vista Management Inc., faced Coastal Commission enforcement action in 2021 for blocking public beach access, mislabeling public land as private, and restricting public parking, resulting in formal cease-and-desist and penalty orders.
The Coastal Commission required the resorts to remove obstructions and misleading signs and take other steps to restore and clarify public access. The enforcement action also included a $250,000 administrative penalty and more than $1 million in required public benefits.
Jacob Gelfand, chief operating officer of Campland on the Bay and Mission Bay RV Resort, said that both spots “support the Master Plan’s goals of balancing public recreation, environmental benefits and economics.”
In a statement, Gelfand wrote that “any landform changes considered by the City should be guided by sound science, cost analysis and a clear understanding of impacts to water quality and beach access.”
The plan’s replacement “Low-Cost Visitor Accommodations” area is planned at about 48.5 acres, compared to nearly 75 acres occupied by Campland and Mission Bay RV Resort currently.
It’s a major net reduction in the coastal camping footprint even as the city works to maintain affordable overnight access.
Terri Campbell, co-chair of Friends of Campland, said her group’s priority now is ensuring the city honors protections won during years of public process.
“Our priority now is ensuring those protections are honored through the General Development Plan and that no site changes disrupt camping before replacement access at De Anza is in place,” Campbell said. “As affordable overnight coastal access becomes increasingly rare throughout California, it is critical that San Diego families and visitors do not lose the waterfront camping and recreation they have cherished for more than 50 years.”
Unused land concerns
For campers currently staying at Mission Bay RV Resort, the plan’s long runway is already visible on the ground.
Santee resident Ken Cain, “staycationing” at the site in late August with his wife, Valerie, and their dog, Daisy, said he was struck by how much of the property sits unused.
“I’ve never seen so much ‘land’ being wasted at this point,” Cain said. “I don’t know if that’s better for the environment … but I was shocked about how much land is not being used.
Much of the unused land Cain noticed has a history of its own.
De Anza Cove was once home to a mobile-home community of more than 500 households on city-owned Mission Bay parkland, until legislation allowing the park to remain expired in 2003. After an 11-year legal fight between residents and the city, a $32 million settlement in 2014 led most residents to leave over the next two years.
Vacated mobile homes sat on the property for years afterward before the city moved to remove them and convert the land to recreational and camping use — the same land now at the center of the De Anza Natural plan.
The plan is expected to return to City Council for formal adoption around mid-October, before the city begins its General Development Plan process. The next phase should include camping relocation details and where specific facility designs will be worked out.
