Over 20 years ago the made public was made aware that the residents of Mission Bay Mobile Home park were living permanently, illegally and inappropriately on state tidelands. At that time some in the Pacific Beach community started advocating for land use planning for what was called a “special study area”. The result was the Mission Bay Gateway Plan. You have a printed presentation describing that plan. The plan has been presented to 10s of thousands with great support.
Last year councilmember La Cava came to the PB Library for his first town hall and he was greeted by about 150 individuals & families with their kids. You have a picture of that event [Insert pic]. Nearly all were there to urge protection, improvement and expansion of the youth fields and recreation areas. The De Anza Natural plan was threatening the amount of acreage devoted to athletic fields and recreation. We are pleased with the refinements.
At that time Councilmember La Cava indicate he got the message loud and clear and promised he would protect the recreational uses in this part of Mission Bay. As we know, promises are not policy and it will require a majority of the council to really fulfill the language in the De Anza Natural plan.
Quoting the plan Pg 16: De Anza Natural is currently home to community serving public recreation facilities. . . .De Anza Natural envisions maintaining or enhancing these facilities as part of a future GDP processes that implements community-identified recreation needs. [Emphasis added]
This is encouraging language that community members support and currently expect to be honored. There are over 2.3 million yearly recreational hours in these facilities, millions more hours at Campland and millions more in casual play recreation and picnicking at the adjacent parkland.
In addition, the most recent De Anza plan provides a small increase in acreage devoted to recreation. This is critically important for several reasons that have been discovered during the public process over the last few years.
The city is increasing density in established neighborhoods and dramatically increasing population by rezoning in transportation corridors such as the Mission Bay Drive and the Morena Boulevard corridors. This will result in an additional 20,000 residents near the north east corner of Mission Bay Park and a 25% increase in the population of Pacific Beach. The current recreational facilities are woefully inadequate. The De Anza area of Mission Bay must be the neighborhood park and recreation facility area for the current and this increased population. It is critically important to expand the size and number of recreational facilities available. The Mission Bay Gateway plan has great suggestions of how to increase recreational facilities.
There are 25 public pools in San Diego. This area has none. There are 17 skate parks in San Diego. This area has none. There is also the need for pickleball, sand volleyball, an amphitheater, and these could all be shared facilities between the community, the overnight visitors and the schools.
We have also become aware of over 700 children of military in the nearby community that are being served by these facilities.
The point is that current facilities are woefully inadequate and the need for recreational facilities is growing continuously.
A couple of additional thoughts:
A Nature interpretive center is currently identified on the East side of Rose Creek. MBG considers a location adjacent to the high school as the ideal location for this and a Kumeyaay Indian village display. This would both utilize the football stadium parking lot and provide an easy access to an extension class opportunity to the students at Mission Bay High School. Making facilities adjacent and sharing parking lots is a great principle to follow.
Currently we don’t have a continuous pedestrian nor bike path around Mission Bay Park. Right now people are being forced onto streets and PB Drive and Crown Point Drive. Future planning should include a complete bike/pedestrian path that stays within the park.
The Mission Bay Gateway plan is much more of a GDP plan than the bubble diagram that we are seeing today and we understand that. But we highly urge you to look the plan over and see the opportunities that exist in the Mission Bay