Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Seven-fold growth in area near Rose Creek

Will nature-lovers get park in east Pacific Beach?

Thousands of homes expected around the new Balboa Avenue Station at Morena Boulevard.
Thousands of homes expected around the new Balboa Avenue Station at Morena Boulevard.

The Balboa Avenue Station Specific Plan ends right where one of the largest urban wetland restoration projects in the state begins.

Over the next 10 years, a construction boom is expected to add thousands of homes around the new Balboa Avenue Station at Morena Boulevard, which is expected to open in late 2021.

To convert the area into a walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented community, the city is creating a web of links to help people get around. But one vital destination has been ignored.

Critics of the plan want to make the Rose Creek area through Pacific Beach a city park. So far, the effort is stalled.

Sponsored
Sponsored

On April 16, the Coastal Commission approved – with modifications – the city of San Diego's plan to amend the certified Land Use Plan to implement the Balboa Avenue plan.

The modifications include stronger water quality requirements, protecting affordable visitor accommodations, and a beach shuttle service. But no park.

To opponents, it was a missed opportunity to create access to De Anza Cove and ReWild Mission Bay, a project of the San Diego Audubon Society and their coalition partners. The group is restoring wetlands along Pacific Beach Drive and both sides of Rose Creek.

The plan "must be designed for trolley riders looking for recreation spaces."

"I think you need to include Rose Creek as part of the plan," said Isabelle Kay, manager of the Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve at the corner of Pacific Beach Drive and Crown Point Drive.

Supporters say the planned shuttle could bring students to the sites, and provide recreation for those who live there and visitors.

Imagine a lovely park that connects to a restored wetland, and further connects into Mission Beach, said Gwendolyn Dick. The plan "must be designed for trolley riders looking for recreation spaces."

"Rose Creek has been piecemealed out of the city's planning around Mission Bay."

And while the wetland area has been excluded since it's outside the specific plan, the coming growth won't restrict itself to those boundaries. They want the city to support the restoration of the creek ahead of the construction boom.

"The city is proposing increasing the number of residents of this community sevenfold," said Karin Zirk, executive director of Friends of Rose Creek. "Which means seven times more trash, dog waste and people trampling on the pickleweed banks."

Michael Prinz, city planner, said the aim of this project is, where new development is adjacent to Rose Creek, it "should be designed in a sensitive manner and front the creek appropriately."

Complicating its stewardship, Rose Creek straddles a few different planning areas, which commissioners said were last updated in 1995. They include the Pacific Beach land use plan and Mission Bay Park.

Frank Landis, conservation chair for the San Diego chapter of the Native Plant Society, said that is part of the problem.

"Rose Creek has been piecemealed out of the city's planning around Mission Bay. It is not in this plan. It is not in the De Anza Cove plan; they're all adjacent to it."

Prinz says in an email that efforts related to Rose Creek and ReWild "will be addressed as part of the De Anza Revitalization Plan and through future capital improvement efforts."

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Too $hort & DJ Symphony, Peppermint Beach Club, Holidays at the Zoo

Events December 19-December 21, 2024
Thousands of homes expected around the new Balboa Avenue Station at Morena Boulevard.
Thousands of homes expected around the new Balboa Avenue Station at Morena Boulevard.

The Balboa Avenue Station Specific Plan ends right where one of the largest urban wetland restoration projects in the state begins.

Over the next 10 years, a construction boom is expected to add thousands of homes around the new Balboa Avenue Station at Morena Boulevard, which is expected to open in late 2021.

To convert the area into a walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented community, the city is creating a web of links to help people get around. But one vital destination has been ignored.

Critics of the plan want to make the Rose Creek area through Pacific Beach a city park. So far, the effort is stalled.

Sponsored
Sponsored

On April 16, the Coastal Commission approved – with modifications – the city of San Diego's plan to amend the certified Land Use Plan to implement the Balboa Avenue plan.

The modifications include stronger water quality requirements, protecting affordable visitor accommodations, and a beach shuttle service. But no park.

To opponents, it was a missed opportunity to create access to De Anza Cove and ReWild Mission Bay, a project of the San Diego Audubon Society and their coalition partners. The group is restoring wetlands along Pacific Beach Drive and both sides of Rose Creek.

The plan "must be designed for trolley riders looking for recreation spaces."

"I think you need to include Rose Creek as part of the plan," said Isabelle Kay, manager of the Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve at the corner of Pacific Beach Drive and Crown Point Drive.

Supporters say the planned shuttle could bring students to the sites, and provide recreation for those who live there and visitors.

Imagine a lovely park that connects to a restored wetland, and further connects into Mission Beach, said Gwendolyn Dick. The plan "must be designed for trolley riders looking for recreation spaces."

"Rose Creek has been piecemealed out of the city's planning around Mission Bay."

And while the wetland area has been excluded since it's outside the specific plan, the coming growth won't restrict itself to those boundaries. They want the city to support the restoration of the creek ahead of the construction boom.

"The city is proposing increasing the number of residents of this community sevenfold," said Karin Zirk, executive director of Friends of Rose Creek. "Which means seven times more trash, dog waste and people trampling on the pickleweed banks."

Michael Prinz, city planner, said the aim of this project is, where new development is adjacent to Rose Creek, it "should be designed in a sensitive manner and front the creek appropriately."

Complicating its stewardship, Rose Creek straddles a few different planning areas, which commissioners said were last updated in 1995. They include the Pacific Beach land use plan and Mission Bay Park.

Frank Landis, conservation chair for the San Diego chapter of the Native Plant Society, said that is part of the problem.

"Rose Creek has been piecemealed out of the city's planning around Mission Bay. It is not in this plan. It is not in the De Anza Cove plan; they're all adjacent to it."

Prinz says in an email that efforts related to Rose Creek and ReWild "will be addressed as part of the De Anza Revitalization Plan and through future capital improvement efforts."

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Memories of bonfires amid the pits off Palm

Before it was Ocean View Hills, it was party central
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Hockey Dad brings UCSD vets and Australians to the Quartyard

Bending the stage barriers in East Village
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader