Chollas Creek Regional Park
Chollas Creek Regional Park will be a loose collection of small parks, open space canyons, trails and other recreational amenities spread throughout a roughly 32 square-mile area where the Chollas Creek and its many tributaries run. Once it is restored to its natural state, Chollas Creek will bring untold recreational, educational, and economic benefits to the communities along its banks and beyond.
About This Project
Who is proposing this project?
Lead Organization: Groundwork San Diego
Website: https://groundworksandiego.org
Supporting organizations:
What is proposed?
The Chollas Creek Regional park will unify several parks and open space areas near the Chollas Creek and its tributaries. Mayor Todd Gloria and the San Diego City Council have designated Chollas Creek as a regional park in an effort to focus on social equity and reverse decades of neglect many communities south of Interstate 8 have suffered.
Parks within the footprint of the new regional park will include:
- Southcrest Trails Park
- Southcrest Community Park
- Willie Henderson Sports Complex
- Chollas Lake
- and more.
While the specific park vision will be shaped by public input, the main goal is create a network of trails, with the Chollas Creek watershed system acting as the “spine” of the community that builds access all the way to the Bay. The project will include building trails to connect the Chollas Creek to other areas such as the Bayshore Bikeway and the Bay Connector Bridge. The project also aims to build an I-15 Corridor Trail. Other tentative plans include de-channelizing the creek on Federal Boulevard at Home Avenue near State Route 94, a process in which the concrete flood channel containing the creek will be removed and replaced by earthen banks. This de-channelization effort will not only build a new trail connecting communities to the regional park, but will improve surface water quality and reduce stormwater runoff.
Initial work has included the creation of crews focused on cleaning up areas with illegal dumping and homelessness and adding more frequent patrols in the existing community parks within the footprint of the new regional park.
Project Location
The Chollas Creek Regional Park will include City Heights, Encanto and many surrounding neighborhoods of southeastern and mid-city San Diego. The southern edge of the park will be the mouth of Chollas Creek where it enters the bay near Naval Base San Diego. The watershed extends a bit eastward into Lemon Grove and La Mesa.
Why is this project on the 30×30 list?
The creation of the Chollas Creek Regional Park aims to increase access to nature through investing in improving the natural environment of the park. The park offers the opportunity to bring together diverse neighborhoods through a watershed-wide system of trails, bikeways, and parks where people can gather, play, interact, and enjoy nature.
The project also aims to clean up the area’s watershed and protect and restore its natural habitats. Groundwork, with support from the California Coastal Conservancy, the National Park Service, and SANDAG, is working to restore over 40 acres of creek and upland habitat.
Finally, this project helps meet climate goals by increasing ease-of-access to non-driving forms of transport in the area, such as walking, rolling, and biking. For example, the project aims to build a multi-use trail systems that increase community members’ access to public transportation and other key resources like the San Diego Bay, Downtown San Diego, Chollas Creek, and more, which are currently blocked by two interstate freeways (I-5 and I-15).
How will this project be completed?
The Chollas Creek Regional Park project is funded in part by a $3.5 million grant Groundwork San Diego received from the California Natural Resources Agency in 2019. Since then, the non-profit has met with many stakeholders, including SANDAG and Amtrak.
In 2021, the City of San Diego adopted the Chollas Creek Watershed Regional Park Master Plan as an implementation action in their Parks Master Plan. The City estimates that the Chollas Creek Watershed Regional Park Master Plan will be completed in 2024, although there are several phases of the project whose timelines may differ.
The Chollas Creek Watershed project still requires funding and political leadership, including for three high priority projects: the I-15 Corridor Trail, the Chollas Creek Trails to Bay Connector Bridge, and the Chollas Creek to Bayshore Bikeway extension project.