Rose Creek not included in zone qualifying it for wetlands restoration funding

Back in 2008, San Diego voters approved Prop. C creating the Mission Bay Park Improvement Fund, which initially included Rose Creek in Pacific Beach up to or just below Mission Bay Drive, in the newly created Improvement Fund Zone.

"Why, of all the areas outside of Mission Bay Park, was Rose Creek in Pacific Beach excluded from the Improvement Fund Zone?" asked Karin Zirk, a PB resident, environmentalist, and community activist leading Friends of Rose Creek, a nonprofit whose vision is for lower Rose Creek to be an open space park. "After years of promising to include Rose Creek in PB, the City has removed the creek as well as the upper salt marsh from planning efforts."

Replying to Zirk's queries, City spokesperson Caleb Olsen noted; "Campland on the Bay and Rose Creek south of Grand Avenue are included in the De Anza Natural Programmatic Environmental Impact Report and are not in the Mission Bay PEIR. Rose Creek north of Grand Avenue is not included in the Mission Bay PEIR because once the De Anza Natural PEIR is certified by the California Coastal Commission and the General Development Plan process begins, the City will consider future options for the entirety of Rose Creek within the Mission Bay Park Improvement Zone.

Olsen pointed out that De Anza Natural and its PEIR were approved by the City Council in May. "It has been submitted to the Coastal Commission for review and certification," he added. "If the Coastal Commission conditionally certifies De Anza Natural with modifications, those modifications must be heard and adopted by the City Council before returning to the Coastal Commission for final and unconditional certification."

Once De Anza Natural is final, Olsen noted the implementation of the plan will begin with the GDP process. "Through this public process, preliminary conceptual designs will lead to a preferred plan and accompanying cost estimates and schedules," he said. "Once again, as part of the GDP effort, the City will look at the entirety of Rose Creek included in the Mission Bay Park Improvement Zone."

Pointing out the City has initiated the process for planning for things like wetlands restoration, shoreline treatment stabilization, and bike path improvements, Zirk exhorted Rose Creek supporters before an Oct. 16 public meeting at Mission Bay High School on the subject, to request that the portion of Rose Creek in the Improvement Fund Zone be added to wetlands restoration planning efforts for Mission Bay Park and the Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR).

"Without the City planning for wetlands restoration, no funding will be allocated to do the work," pointed out Zirk adding, "Remember, what happens in Rose Creek, ends up in Mission Bay, and you swim in it. The Pacific Beach community plan from 1994 identifies that this stretch of Rose Creek should become a linear park. It's been 30 years and we are still waiting."

The Mission Bay Park Improvement Fund is used for the restoration of wetlands and wildlife habitat, as well as deferred maintenance projects within the Mission Bay Park Improvement Zone, consistent with the Mission Bay Park Master Plan. Funding is directly related to a City of San Diego Charter section requiring 65 percent of all lease revenues collected from Mission Bay more than $20 million, to be allocated to the Mission Bay Park Improvement Fund to solely benefit the Mission Bay Park Improvements Zone.