Restoring a wild side of Mission Bay
Environmentalists push San Diego to significantly increase natural wetlands in park restoration plan.
SAN DIEGO — San Diego’s proposed redevelopment of Mission Bay Park’s northeast corner could include significantly more marshland if city officials embrace new proposals from local environmentalists concerned about sea level rise.
One proposal calls for 200 acres of marshland, more than double the 84 acres proposed by the city, which would limit acreage for new amenities and could require closure or shrinkage of Mission Bay Golf Course.
The environmentalists, however, also included among three “feasible” scenarios they unveiled this month a proposal that’s remarkably similar to the city’s plan, which leaves the golf course intact and adds several new amenities.
The scenario with 200 acres of marshland would easily be environmentalists’ first choice, said Rebecca Schwartz Lesberg, an Audubon Society official who led the four-year effort to study marshland and habitat restoration.
But she said group leaders decided to also include the less ambitious option because it might be the largest marshland restoration that is politically feasible, despite growing concerns about climate change and sea level rise.
Marshland, also referred to as wetlands, dominated Mission Bay Park before aggressive dredging after World War II turned the area into the world’s largest aquatic park.
Environmentalists hail wetlands for boosting water quality, restoring habitats, filtering carbon dioxide from the air and acting as a sponge to mitigate rising sea levels.
“This is a big win for wetlands,” Schwartz said of the city’s plan and the least ambitious of the three proposals unveiled by environmentalists. “But at the same time, it’s so not enough.”
That contention is based on scenarios that estimate sea levels will rise 5 ½ feet by the year 2100, putting most of the new wetlands underwater at that time.
The Mission Bay Park Master Plan calls for 120 acres of wetlands, which the city’s plans would achieve by adding 84 acres to the 40 acres that already exists in the fenced-off Kendall-Frost marsh north of Crown Point.
But the environmentalists, whose proposals are part of a state-funded project called Rewild Mission Bay, say 200 acres of wetlands must be restored now to have 120 acres when sea levels have risen in 2100.
The city’s plan for 120 acres now would leave only 40 acres in 2100, their analysis says.
The environmentalists also emphasize that the city has a unique opportunity to restore wetlands right now that may never arise again.
That’s because the 76acre De Anza Cove mobile home park recently closed after years of litigation, and because San Diego’s lease of the 46-acre Campland on the Bay RV park ends in 2020.
City officials decided two years ago to study for possible redevelopment of those two parcels and 90 acres next to the mobile home park that includes the golf course, tennis courts, ballfields, picnic areas, beaches and parking lots.
“For the first time in half a century, the public has the opportunity to weigh in on how these public lands are used,” said Chris Redfern, executive director of the Audubon Society’s San Diego chapter. “And it is probably our last chance to do so before we see some of the most damaging impacts of climate change.”
The California Coastal Conservancy, which paid most of the nearly $500,000 bill for the Rewild project, said the restoration of wetlands should be viewed in historical context.
“Over the past century, Mission Bay has been converted from a rich natural treasure into a heavily developed recreational area,” said Julia Elkin, project manager for the conservancy. “People have lost the opportunity to really experience nature along the shoreline in Mission Bay. This is an unprecedented opportunity to restore a small piece of what was lost.”
Although it could be characterized as a retreat for the environmentalists to have deemed feasible a scenario so similar to the city’s proposal, Schwartz said the goal of Rewild was not to lobby for one scenario but to determine what is environmentally feasible in the park’s northeast corner.
“If the city effort crumbles for some reason, different priorities in 5 or 10 years could make one of our other proposals their choice,” she said.
Schwartz said it is possible there will eventually be a split among environmental groups, with some demanding a more aggressive approach to wetlands and sea level rise and others deciding to accept a good, but imperfect, proposal.
The city’s proposal includes some public-private recreation, camping areas, a restaurant and nature lookout points, while also filling a gap in a popular bicycling path.
City officials concede the proposal is imperfect but have emphasized that it’s a reasonable compromise with so many groups competing for a relatively small chunk of land.
They also say that it’s essentially a rough draft that may be changed during ongoing environmental analysis.
Schwartz said Rewild officials are optimistic that the city will include the group’s three proposals in the environmental analysis as alternate scenarios, which the city is required to study.
The Rewild proposals also include cost estimates, which city officials haven’t included so far. The city’s proposal would cost about $44 million, while the proposal preferred by environmentalists would cost roughly $60 million.
But Schwartz said state money is available to pay for most or all of that work, so money won’t be a significant hurdle for the city.
San Diego also plans to restore wetlands elsewhere in Mission Bay Park as part of a 10-year plan to upgrade it.
Rewild officials have scheduled a Dec. 6 public forum to gather feedback at Mission Bay High School in Pacific Beach.
City officials declined to comment on the new Rewild proposals.