Mission Bay's Northeast Corner Has Its Plan. Here's What Pacific Beach Can Still Do There This Fall
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
In late August, a Santee resident was "staycationing" at Mission Bay RV Resort with his wife and their dog, Daisy. He told Times of San Diego that what struck him was the empty ground. "I've never seen so much 'land' being wasted at this point," he said.
That ground has a long history. De Anza Cove was once home to a mobile-home community of more than 500 households on city-owned parkland. The legislation that let it stay expired in 2003. After an 11-year legal fight, a $32 million settlement in 2014 led most residents to leave over the next two years, and the vacated homes stood for years before the city cleared them. On August 14, the California Coastal Commission unanimously approved the plan that will decide what happens next on that land and on roughly 500 acres around it.
The vote reads like a groundbreaking, but it was really a rulebook. It settled what has to happen before anything gets built and set the sequence the city must follow. It set no date for construction. For the part of Mission Bay that City Council President Joe LaCava calls "the backyard park for the Pacific Beach community," the approval mostly guarantees that the next stretch of years will look a lot like the last one.
Commission staff recommended rejecting the city's submission as written and approving it only with more than 30 modifications. The future acreages stayed as they were. At full buildout, the area is planned to hold 67 acres of recreation, 49 acres of tent and RV camping, and 23 acres of parkland. Habitat grows from about 70 acres today to a little over 260.
Most of the changes are about sequence. The plan's central engineering idea is two channels that would send part of Rose Creek through De Anza Cove. The Commission found that no technical study had shown those channels would work, so the studies now have to be finished before construction. The city had also proposed converting existing eelgrass into marsh and counting the swap as mitigation. The Commission turned that down because eelgrass is a protected marine resource that already does its own ecological work. And the plan's wording changed from "should" to "shall," which turns its policies from suggestions into enforceable requirements under the Coastal Act.
LaCava described the Commission's position as a difference "more in sequencing than substance," with the state wanting details locked in now that the city had planned to work out later.
For people who ride or walk the bay, one modification matters more than the rest. The plan includes a new cycling and pedestrian path meant to improve movement through the park and give people passive access to the new marshland. The Commission ruled that the path cannot pass through any wetlands, even if the city replaces the lost marsh somewhere else. The city objected to this more loudly than to anything else. Kelly Stanco, the planning department's deputy director for environmental policy and public spaces, said:
"Precluding any and all impacts to wetlands, regardless of mitigation options and the overall increase in wetlands, effectively eliminates the city's ability to improve pedestrian and cycling access."
The path now has to be redesigned. Stanco also called the sea-level-rise changes "excessive," especially the requirement to move a planned nature center out of the areas most exposed to rising water. Other access rules will help day users. Shorelines and paths have to be accessible, leaseholders' equipment cannot spread onto public parkland, and public amenities have to open no later than the amenities of any private redevelopment.
The uses closest to the neighborhood are written into the plan to stay. "What we're looking at is that any of the uses that you see there today will be preserved," LaCava said. He named continued low-cost camping, Mission Bay Golf Course, Pacific Beach Tennis Club, and the Bob McEvoy Youth Fields.
Campland on the Bay is still taking bookings, lists 595 campsites, and notes that the City Council approved a 15-year lease extension. The Council approved 15-year extensions for both Campland and Mission Bay RV Resort in July 2025. Over the long term, the plan converts Campland and much of the RV resort into wetlands and moves camping farther inland. The replacement low-cost camping area is planned at about 48.5 acres. The two resorts occupy nearly 75 acres today. The Commission made tent camping an explicit part of the low-cost lodging requirement. The city also has to plan for sea-level rise shrinking the tent area over time, which could mean setting aside more land for camping later.
Terri Campbell, co-chair of Friends of Campland, said her group's priority is making sure "no site changes disrupt camping before replacement access at De Anza is in place." Jacob Gelfand, chief operating officer of Campland on the Bay and Mission Bay RV Resort, said any landform changes should be "guided by sound science, cost analysis and a clear understanding of impacts to water quality and beach access."
UC San Diego's field station at Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve also stays in place for research and public education.
Because of the "shall" language and the study requirements, the steps have to happen in a fixed order:
The money so far pays for planning, not construction. Andrew Meyer of the San Diego Bird Alliance, who helps lead the 101-member ReWild Coalition, pointed to a city commitment this year of about $10 million for Mission Bay projects, with $3 million of it set aside for De Anza Natural planning. Commission officials said progress depends on the city finding grants and other funding for a project that could cost $1 billion. The Union-Tribune puts full buildout at 20 to 30 years.
While the plan works its way through those steps, the habitat at its center is already open on set dates. San Diego Bird Alliance holds Wander the Wetlands at Kendall-Frost on the second and fourth Saturdays. Friends of Rose Creek holds restoration mornings near Garnet Avenue. Confirmed free dates through December:
October
November
December
San Diego Coastkeeper's Mission Bay monitoring program tests water at De Anza Cove, Kendall-Frost Marsh, and Rose Creek. Volunteers have to complete training before they can sample. The water quality there is a big part of why the plan exists. Coastkeeper executive director Phillip Musegaas noted that the bay's northeast corner "does not benefit from the same tidal mixing actions that western parts of the bay receive."
To get there on a bike without dealing with Mission Bay Drive traffic, the Rose Creek Bikeway has been finished and open since May 2021. It links the Rose Canyon and Rose Creek paths to the existing path at Damon Street and Mission Bay Drive.
At San Diego Dream House, we follow decisions like the De Anza Natural vote because they shape Pacific Beach over decades, not just one season. If you'd like to understand what the bay-side plans could mean for your own property's future, Request a Complimentary Consultation and we'll go through the record with you.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
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