REMOVAL OF DE ANZA HOMES DELAYED

Officials want area in Mission Bay upgraded for RV campers, public

SAN DIEGO

Legal wrangling, bureaucratic red tape and the COVID-19 pandemic have delayed plans to upgrade Mission Bay’s De Anza Cove by removing 167 dilapidated mobile homes and renovating a nearby city-owned RV park.

San Diego officials want the area open to RV campers and the public during the next few years while the city studies the long-term fate of 70acre De Anza Cove and nearby land in the bay’s northeast corner, such as Mission Bay Golf Course.

The city was nearing the end of a four-year planning process for the area last spring, but then decided to shift gears and study a proposal to make much of the area marshland to help San Diego fight sea level rise and climate change. That study will add roughly another 18 months to the process, leng thening the time

De Anza will be an RV park and making it more important to swiftly remove the mobile homes.

Campland on the Bay, a privately run RV park adjacent to De Anza Cove and the city-owned RV park, agreed in June 2019 to make the upgrades and remove the mobile homes in exchange for rent rebates equal to the estimated $8.2 million renovation costs. While little visual progress has been made in nearly 17 months, Campland and city officials said this week that much has still been accomplished.

“I share the impatience of the community,” said Jacob Gelfand, Campland vice president. “It might not appear to people on the outside, but we’ve been making a ton of progress.”

That has included gas line repairs, sewer main cleanouts, parking lot lighting, tree trimming, laundry upgrades, recreation center renovations, landscape improvements and new signs.

Additional efforts have been delayed by threats of litigation last year from the San Diego chapter of the Audubon Society, which took