As the city implements its Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Master Plan, sporadic spurts of progress have neighbors scratching their heads about what exactly the city has planned for the park.
The city, with the help of groups like the California Conservation Corps and other contractors, started removing dead and dying eucalyptus trees from areas of the park last summer, according to Michael Ruiz, grounds and maintenance manager for shoreline parks.
As part of the future plans, work crews want to remove the non-native eucalyptus and replant trees and vegetation native to the region. The native vegetation doesn’t need to be watered after about a year, he said.
“The master plan was a general guideline. They bumped up [tree removal] because of the criminal activity and dead trees in the natural cliffs park,” he said.
The removal of the trees also allows police a better view of the parking lot, he said, where criminal activity has been reported.
Crews finished removing and chipping the eucalyptus trees earlier this month, he said. The city plans to address one project at a time over the next few years as funding becomes available, Ruiz said.
Ruiz acts as the city’s liaison to the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Recreation Council. The council meets the first Monday of the month at Cabrillo Recreation Center, located at 3051 Caãon St., at 6:45 p.m.
The council decides on project scheduling and secures government and private funding, he said.
The next step in the master plan implementation includes establishing defined walking trails and revegetation of the area with native plants.
Bigger projects, such as building storm drains, take more money and would have to wait until funds from the city’s general fund become available.
Although no start date has been set, the revegetation should take about a year to complete and bring out the natural beauty of the park.
“The park is like a Yosemite in the rough,” he said.
In addition to the implementation, the park council intends to communicate to the community more efficiently into the future with a public outreach campaign, Ruiz said.
That may be good news to Allan Nedrow, a lifelong San Diegan and Peninsula resident.
Nedrow and other neighbors were surprised by the apparently sudden removal of the trees, which lined an often-used entrance to the park. He said he’s concerned with the way the city is working to implement the plan.
“We’re hoping it’s not just piecemeal,” Nedrow said, “because there is a lot of work that needs to be done just to make it safe.”
Nedrow said there is an old landfill burn site underneath parts of the park that has been ignored for decades.
Ruiz said the city has not laid out a plan to mitigate the landfill but that it has been discussed.
For more information on the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Recreation Council, visit www.calsnet.net/sunsetcliffs.