Executive Director's Column Fall 2002

PARTNERSHIPS

By Dick Bobertz, Executive Director

San Dieguito River Park Joint Powers Authority

The vision for the San Dieguito River Park is a big idea: conservation of the entire 55-mile long San Dieguito River, a natural open space park uninterrupted from the ocean to the mountains, connecting and preserving wildlife habitats, providing interpretive centers, trails, and preserving increasingly precious open space. A large part of the remarkable progress that has been accomplished to date can be attributed to partnerships. By incorporating other interest groups into River Park efforts, supporters leveraged scant resources and brought accomplishment of the River Park vision into view.

Some of the partnerships that have brought us to this point include the following:

Citizen Partnerships

By encouraging preservation of the river valley for over two decades, the citizens of San Diego have been the real genesis of the San Dieguito River Park. Many of the original citizen supporters of the River Park vision began with an interest in preserving the San Dieguito Lagoon. That idea grew to include the entire river corridor and, in 1986, supporters founded the San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy that has been instrumental in most of the progress on the River Park ever since. The Conservancy’s crucial role in preservation of Bernardo Mountain is only the latest example.

Once the vision was established, other groups along the river corridor formed to focus on their areas. For example, the Volcan Mountain Preserve Foundation concentrates on helping preserve the headwaters of the San Dieguito River. From the San Dieguito Lagoon to the headwaters on Vocan Mountain there are many other citizen organizations with a passionate interest in the river corridor. Over thirty of these organizations have joined a citizens advisory committee that advises the governments involved in implementing the River Park vision. Continuing their spirit of volunteerism, those citizens formed sub-committees and have taken on a multitude of functions that otherwise would have required paid staff.

Local Governmental Partnerships

The first governmental partnership organized to accomplish the River Park was a Joint Powers Authority (JPA), an independent agency created by six municipalities to plan, acquire, improve, and manage the River Park. Creating a JPA provided a number of benefits; most importantly was that the river valley could be planned comprehensively, rather than through isolated project-by-project planning that would have occurred if the jurisdictions were working independently. Wildlife corridors could be planned by ensuring that connections could be made along the entire river system. Duplications of efforts could be avoided and each government gained the resources of the other five for maximum effectiveness.
Landowner and Business Partnerships

Because the river valley contains come of the most expensive land in Southern California, the JPA realized that purchasing all the land needed for the River Park was not feasible and it would have to form partnerships with landowners. Consequently, the JPA began negotiating for conservation and trail easements and partnerships with developers and business interests evolved as developments on the edges of the river corridor were processed.

Additionally, the JPA and Conservancy purchased land that speculators were not interested in such as steep slopes, floodplains, sensitive habitats and other lands restricted from development. By willingly purchasing these lands, the River Park increased the value of the surrounding parcels by providing access to a comprehensive recreational and open space system.

Finally many developers both within and beyond the area are faced with the need to mitigate for environmental impacts. By siting their mitigation in the park and establishing an endowment fund for continuous maintenance of the property developers are assured that the habitat will be managed as natural open space in perpetuity, making it much easier for them to meet requirements of discretionary project approvals. The River Park is currently enjoying the benefits of a partnership with Southern California Edison for wetland restoration of 135 acres of the San Dieguito Lagoon, a project worth more than $60 million for the river Park. The partnership provides SCE with a site for mitigation required by the California Coastal Commission for an energy plant operation permit.

Regional Partnerships

In addition to the six municipal entities that the San Dieguito River Valley winds through, it traverses territory within a National Forest, an Indian Reservation and various state lands. The JPA participates with the management organizations of these entities to develop management plans for areas often comprised of multiple regional agency interests.

The San Dieguito River Park also provides a matrix for regional open space planning efforts. The San Diego region has one of the most diverse natural environments in the country with a topography and range of climates, which combine to form an environment that has a rich variety of plants and animals and habitat types. But, due to competition for developable sites to serve a rapidly expanding population, over 100 plant and animal species in San Diego County have been identified as rare or threatened with extinction. The San Dieguito River Valley rises from sea level at the San Dieguito Lagoon to more than 5,000 feet at its headwater 55 miles east at Volcan Mountain. Since most of the region’s habitat types are represented along its reach, the River Park is an ideal corridor for inclusion in the regional habitat conservation planning efforts to conserve a self-sustaining natural environment. The River Park partners with the City of San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program, the North county Multiple Habitat Conservation Program, and the County of San Diego Wildlife and Open Space Program for mutual benefit.

New partnerships are continually evolving with groups such as schools, colleges, tourism agencies, government agencies, equestrian/hiking/biking organizations, environmental groups, corporations and philanthropists. Last year a successful effort to acquire over 5,000 acres of riparian and upland habitat occurred due to a partnership with the Nature Conservancy, a national organization. The Nature Conservancy is also partnering with River Park interests in the current effort to preserve Bernardo Mountain.

New partnership opportunities are evolving on a large scale. A new era of river corridor preservation throughout San Diego County is being initiated through the efforts of the County and City of San Diego. Planning is under way for all of the major river corridors of the County that presents the possibility of joining those east-west systems with north-south connections to create a grid of regional trails over the entire County.

Because of existing successful partnerships and those to come, the San Dieguito River Park is a model for consensus planning, in which everyone who is affected by a decision becomes a stakeholder. Through the benefits of these partnerships the River Park can increase its resources, reduce conflicts, provide value to its partners – and accomplish a big idea that is still growing.

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