A chain link fence runs along Crown Point Drive. Behind it, the Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve and the city's Northern Wildlife Preserve meet with no marked boundary. The two are managed together as 40 acres of wetland. UC San Diego coordinates research and teaching there, and the city's Parks and Recreation handles enforcement. If you want to walk past that fence on your own, you have to submit a project-and-visit request to the UC San Diego Natural Reserve System. Anyone can use the two viewing platforms on Crown Point Drive near Honeycutt and Lamont Streets, and the reserve calls that the best overview of the marsh.
This matters because of what happened in August. The California Coastal Commission approved the city's plan to turn the northeast corner of Mission Bay into a much larger marsh, and the headline made the change sound close. It is not. For the next several years, this edge of Pacific Beach will be shaped by much smaller things: a $25,000 mural grant, a $150,000 restoration award spread over three years, and a set of Friday and Saturday mornings that let residents into places the fence normally keeps them out of.
The plan is real, and it is slow
On August 14, 2026, the Coastal Commission voted unanimously to approve De Anza Natural, the city's amendment to the Mission Bay Park Master Plan. The City Council had passed it in May 2024. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that once the plan is fully built out over the next 20 to 30 years, the area will have 262 acres of habitat, including 140 new acres of marsh, plus 67 acres of recreation, 49 acres of tent and RV camping, and 23 acres of parkland. The main marsh would sit generally west of the Rose Creek outfall.
The Union-Tribune said the approval lets the city start applying for the state and federal grants the work needs. The commission declined to add deadlines, in part because progress depends on financing for a project that could cost about $1 billion. Times of San Diego reported that the city committed about $10 million to Mission Bay projects this year, $3 million of it for De Anza Natural planning. The commission also found that the two channels meant to send part of Rose Creek through De Anza Cove had never been backed by technical studies, and it now requires those studies before construction.
Two more steps remain. In September, Times of San Diego reported that the city still had to formally adopt the commission's modified version, with a target around mid-October. Once the city starts on specific projects, it will also need approvals from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Most of the places people already use are staying. Times of San Diego quoted City Council President Joe LaCava: "any of the uses that you see there today will be preserved." He named low-cost camping, Mission Bay Golf Course, the Pacific Beach Tennis Club and the Bob McEvoy Youth Fields. The plan would eventually turn Campland on the Bay into wetland, but Campland is still taking bookings and says its lease was extended by 15 years. Times of San Diego reported in July 2025 that the City Council approved 15-year extensions for Campland and Mission Bay RV Resort.
The money that arrives this year is small
Seen next to the plan's price tag, the funding that has actually arrived this fall looks tiny. It is also the only money in the table below with a scope you can describe in a sentence.
| Funding | Announced | What it pays for | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| beautifulPB grant from the San Diego Foundation, $25,000 | September 7, 2026 | Wayfinding mural and new PB Pathways signs at the Rose Creek bike path and Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge entrance | No artist or completion date announced |
| Proposition 4 award to San Diego Bird Alliance, $150,000 | October 7, 2026 | Removing invasive plants and installing native plants in the Rose Creek corridor | Three years |
| City commitment for De Anza Natural planning, $3 million | Reported August 2026 | Planning | Part of a 20- to 30-year buildout |
| Full De Anza Natural buildout, potentially about $1 billion | Reported August 2026 | Marsh, recreation and camping changes | Depends on grants and other financing |
The Proposition 4 award, announced by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, goes to the San Diego Bird Alliance. The Bird Alliance will work with Friends of Rose Creek and the City of San Diego to remove arundo, castor bean and fennel and to plant California sagebrush, narrow-leaf milkweed and other native, pollinator-friendly species. In the release posted by Friends of Rose Creek, Bird Alliance board president Muriel Spooner described the creek as "the largest source of freshwater to Mission Bay." She called it the watershed for the ReWild Mission Bay wetland restoration and said the grant lets the group "organize the community to give back to this urban stream and watershed for the next three years."
Her description lines up with the table. The wetland at the mouth of Rose Creek is decades away, but restoration of the creek that feeds it is funded and staffed now, through volunteer mornings.
The path you already ride is next in line, on paper
The Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge is where the Rose Creek bike path meets Mission Bay Park. The Coastal Commission's August exhibits call the bridge a significant connector to the multi-use paths proposed for De Anza Natural. beautifulPB's Coastal Gateway project will go at that same entrance. The group calls it a "welcome to PB" for people arriving on foot or by bike, with signs pointing toward the PB Pathways network and the Rose Creek Trail.
PB Pathways is older than the mural by a decade. According to beautifulPB, the first pavement decals and signs went in during 2015, the Cass Street bike lanes followed in February 2016, Diamond Street Slow Streets began in 2020, and Phase 3 recommendations were approved in 2024. The PB Community Parking District board approved the Phase 3 routes and wayfinding 8–1–0 on November 12, 2024. Those routes cover nine streets: Cass, Fanuel, Jewell, Lamont and Haines running north–south, and Law, Diamond, PB Drive/Reed and Van Nuys running east–west.
The creek path itself is the slower story. The city's April 2026 implementation framework splits the Rose Creek Bike Path into three sections: the Mike Gotch bridge to the Grand Avenue Bridge, Grand Avenue to the Garnet Avenue Bridge, and Garnet Avenue to Mission Bay Drive. It says the path has poor pavement and proposes replacing it and widening it to 16 feet. It also proposes lighting, new fencing and bridge railings, and protective railing along steep embankments. The document lists possible detours for each phase but no start date for the work. For now the upgrade exists only as a plan.
How to get past the fence, October through December
The reserve allows only limited access beyond the edge of the wetland from February 15 to September 15, during the breeding and nesting season of the marsh's endangered birds. That window has closed. Two schedules repeat. ReWild Mission Bay lists Wander the Wetlands public hours on the second and fourth Saturdays from 9 to 11 a.m. The Rose Creek restoration mornings this quarter all fall on the third Friday of the month.
- Thursday, October 15, 6:30–7:30 p.m. Wonders of the Wetlands: Bee City USA at the Kendall-Frost Field Station's Henter Center, 2055 Pacific Beach Drive. It is free, parking is on the street only, and indoor seating is limited.
- Friday, October 16, 9 a.m.–noon. Rose Creek Habitat Restoration, meeting at Rose Creek Cottage 1900, 2525 Garnet Avenue. Volunteers water new native plants and spend time learning about the habitat and birding.
- Saturday, October 17, 4:15–6:15 p.m. A free sunset Bird Outing with Friends of Rose Creek, meeting in Mission Bay High School's east-side faculty lot beside Grand Avenue. Binoculars are available.
- Saturday, October 24, 9–11 a.m. Wander the Wetlands: Work Party at 2055 Pacific Beach Drive. No registration is required, and tools and gloves are provided.
- Saturday, November 14, 9–11 a.m. Wander the Wetlands: Fish Seining, meeting at the south end of Crown Point Park near the dirt lot on Crown Point Drive.
- Friday, November 20, 9 a.m.–noon. Rose Creek Habitat Restoration, back at Rose Creek Cottage 1900.
- Saturday, November 28, 9–11 a.m. Another Wander the Wetlands: Work Party at the field station.
- Saturday, December 12, 9–11 a.m. Wander the Wetlands: Bird Watching, with spotting scopes and binoculars on hand. Discover PB has the 46th Annual Pacific Beach Holiday Parade on the same day, though its lineup page does not list a start time.
- Friday, December 18, 9 a.m.–noon. The quarter's last Rose Creek Habitat Restoration morning.
These are live calendar listings, so check each event page shortly before you go. The Proposition 4 announcement does not say which date its funded work begins. The three Rose Creek mornings are described as care for plants already in the ground.
The main marsh in De Anza Natural would sit west of the Rose Creek outfall, and the next scheduled work on the creek is Friday morning, October 16, at 2525 Garnet Avenue.
At Monroe Herington, we follow plans like De Anza Natural from the commission vote through each funding step, because they shape what the blocks near Crown Point and Rose Creek will look like long term. If you own on Pacific Beach's east side and want to know how a decades-long plan should factor into your next decision, we'd be glad to walk through it with you.
