Executive Director's Column Fall 2004

Finding the Big Dollars

By Dick Bobertz, Executive Director                   
San Dieguito River Park Joint Powers Authority

The member agencies of the San Dieguito River Park Joint Powers Authority are the County of San Diego and the cities of Del Mar, Escondido, Poway, San Diego and Solana Beach.   The ambitious goals they adopted in 1989 are:

• Preserve land within the focused planning area of the San Dieguito River Valley as a regional open space greenbelt and park system that protects the natural waterways and the natural and cultural resources and sensitive lands, and provides compatible recreational opportunities that do not damage sensitive lands.
• Provide a continuous and coordinated system of preserved lands with a connecting corridor of walking, equestrian, and bicycle trails, encompassing the San Dieguito river Valley from the ocean to the river’s source.

The premise of the Joint Powers Authority agreement is that each agency will provide a modest amount of funding to support a small staff.   That staff will concentrate on finding the millions of dollars that are necessary to accomplish the goals through land purchases along the 55-mile long San Dieguito River corridor.   Working with the San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land and the Nature Conservancy substantial funding has been secured to accomplish those goals since the San Dieguito River Park was established fifteen years ago.

Over the last five years, the most productive efforts to find funding were focused on the State bonds approved by voters in 2000 and 2002.   Propositions 12, 13, 40 and 50 were the source of over $18,000,000 for the San Dieguito River Park.   An additional $5,000,000 from the California State Transportation Department Transportation Enhancement Activities program and the State Fish and Game Department Natural Communities Conservation Program brought the total to over $23,000,000.   With those funds, nine properties totaling over 1,700 acres will have been added to the San Dieguito River Park by the end of this year.

Where do we go from here during the next five years?   There are still many properties we need to purchase to assure that the San Dieguito River Park will be a viable habitat conservation park. We have done well so far but funding available from the current bond measures is becoming scarcer and more competitive.   New sources are not on the horizon and unlikely to appear soon because the current state budget strains are expected to inhibit significant state bonding for the foreseeable future.   The best hope in the near term is to enhance our competitiveness for the state bond funding still available.   We will always be “conservation criteria competitive,” that is, our project to conserve an entire 55-mile river corridor ranks high when measured against legislative objectives of any habitat conservation or watershed protection funding program.  

But many other projects in the state that are competitors for the limited funding also have high conservation values.   All things being equal, the best way to “stand out in the crowd” is to back up our future funding applications with significant local contributions.   A good model is the 2002 Bernardo Mountain purchase that leveraged over $526,000 of private contributions raised by the San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy to obtain over $3,500,000 of state and federal funding.   When a state grant program administrator is trying to decide between otherwise comparable funding applications, the one with a significant local private contribution becomes an easy choice.

To continue to be successful we must evolve to recognize changing circumstances.   To do that the San Dieguito River Park needs the help of San Diego's citizens more than ever.   The future of the San Dieguito River Park is, after all, a local responsibility.

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