For nearly three years, the Friends of Rose Canyon has worked to preserve a strip of land in University City, fighting to stop the building of a bridge. Although a recent court decision ruled in the group’s favor, an unlikely source is restoring native habitat to the canyon.
A judge recently ruled for the organization, awarding attorneys fees in the amount of $450,218, said Deborah Knight, of the Friends of Rose Canyon.
“We are extremely pleased,” she said. “The court recognized the validity of the arguments we have been making for two and a half years: that to comply with the law, the city must do a new environmental review on this proposed project.”
The Friends of Rose Canyon sued the City of San Diego with the San Diego Audubon Society, the Endangered Habitats League and San Diego Coastkeeper. Knight said the lawsuit spurred the City Council’s turnaround regarding the Regents Road Bridge project, resulting in their vote to prepare a new environmental impact report.
They believe that, once a new EIR is completed, the bridge project will be incapable of being completed.
“We are optimistic that Rose Canyon Open Space Park will be preserved for today’s San Diegans and for future generations,” Knight said.
But the canyon is already in the process of being preserved and upgraded by the City of San Diego Metropolitan Wastewater Department. The program being implemented in the canyon is called the Rose Canyon Mitigation Project. Knight said she is happy improvements are taking place in Rose Canyon, no matter who’s doing the work.
“They had a series of sewage spills that got them seriously fined,” Knight said. “They had to come up with a plan to maintain and upgrade their system citywide.”
A series of sewage lines run through Rose Canyon, but the wastewater department is mitigating for a number of different projects, including the Miramar Trunk Sewage lines, installed in the 1950s, which are currently being upgraded; the USIU Trunk Sewer near Scripps Ranch; the Dakota Canyon Replacement Relocation and Access Project; and the Stephenson Canyon long-term access path, said Bill White, project manager for the Rose Canyon Mitigation Project.
“They often have environmental impacts when they clean and upgrade their lines,” Knight said.
A mitigation project must take place to make up for impacts from cleaning sewage lines, repairs or impacting vegetation, for example, White said.
These projects are constantly occurring because they are the responsibility of many organizations “” developers, the water authority, and others “” but it is getting more difficult to find areas to build wetlands, he said.
This fall, the City of San Diego Metropolitan Wastewater Department began implementing its mitigation project in Rose Canyon.
“This mitigation project creates 4.36 acres of wetland habitat and enhances 3.67 [acres] of upland habitat,” said a statement from the City of San Diego Metropolitan Wastewater Department. “Work includes site preparation, erosion control, grading, temporary irrigation, system installation of native vegetation, and long-term maintenance and monitoring.”
The project has grown to 10 acres and four zones of wetlands and uplands. There will be many different types of native plants, from Southern Cottonwood Riparian Forest to Diegan Coastal Sage Scrub. The goal is to lure threatened species such as the California gnatcatcher, a songbird, to its native habitat.
Although the planting has not taken place yet, White said he is a perfectionist who feels lucky to be a part of the project.
“You don’t want to rush it when you’re dealing with Mother Nature,” White said. “I take my projects very personally, but it’s hard with nature, because it’s not cut and dry, and we want to make sure it’s right.”