by Staff and Wire Reports / Beach & Bay Press / May 6, 2026
In the wake of a devastating proposed city budget, a citizen-led initiative to assist the city of San Diego meet its Mission Bay Park Master Plan began Wednesday.
The initiative invites locals to help steer the direction of the city’s largest aquatic park.
The Mission Bay Park Conservancy seeks to maintain city-owned structures around the bay, including the visitor’s center and 25 restrooms, which are at risk of seasonal closure as San Diego seeks to patch a more than $120 million hole in its Fiscal Year 2027 budget.
Additionally, 14 city jobs in the park would be eliminated under San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed budget.
“This nonprofit is designed to be a community catalyst — bringing together public and private efforts to turn vision into action,” said Bradley Schnell, Mission Bay Park Conservancy founder and president.
“My connection to Mission Bay started with a simple walk through the park, where I came across the deteriorating remains of the original visitor center — an iconic structure that had clearly been forgotten.
“I didn’t just see what was there; I saw what it could become,” he added. “What we’ve done there is a proof of concept for what’s possible across the entire bay when we strike the right balance between environmental stewardship, community needs, and respect for the site’s history. This organization is for the Park by the People.”
Mission Bay Park welcomes more than 100,000 visitors on peak summer days to its 4,235 acres, roughly equal parts land and water. It generates tens of millions in annual lease revenue, according to a conservancy statement.
The conservancy seeks to create a reliable revenue stream to supplement city resources, tackle a lengthy maintenance backlog featuring items such as restrooms, pathways, fire rings and landscaping, speed up the permitting process for events, festivals and youth programs, and lead a diverse group of people who care about the park as they help the city meet the first master plan update since 1994 — including salt marsh and eelgrass restoration.
Balboa Park has a similar conservancy, which uses private funding and a management team to protect the park. Schnell is hoping for that outcome.
“Within the first 60 days, the conservancy expects to announce the first adopted Mission Bay restroom, an initial cohort of founding board members, and the kickoff of community input for the master plan update,” the nonprofit’s statement read.
Those who wish to volunteer or get involved in other ways can find more information here.
So, we are going to have a “public/private” partnership to pay for the restrooms in the park. But what about the “tens of Millions” in annual revenues that the city takes out of Mission Bay Park. Every one of those leases block public access and they are all illegal under chapter 55 of the city charter. The leases in the north-east corner of the bay are illegal under Site specific legislation called the Kapiloff bill, AB447, now chapter 1000 of the statutes of 1981. So if we are going to have an effort to pay for maintenance with public//private money, lets end those leases that are supposed (by law) to pay for maintenance now. Lets convert the Mission Bay to the public park that it was meant to be. We have the law on our side, And the next time someone says the park needs to pay for itself, you can tell them that it has already paid for itself many times over.
this is from section 55:
“All real property heretofore or hereafter designated or set aside for park,
recreation or cemetery purposes shall not be used for any but park, recreation or
cemetery purposes without such changed use or purpose having been first authorized
or permitted in such manner as is prescribed by the laws of the State of California in
such cases and until such changed use or purpose is first authorized or ratified by a
vote of two-thirds of the qualified electors of the City voting at an election for that
purpose.”
04/13/2026 San Diego City Council
Item-200 Performance Audit FY-2024 Mission Bay San Diego Regional Park Improvement Fund 72-Pages.
??https://tinyurl.com/20260413b
Video Time: 3 Minutes to 1 Hour 9 Minutes
https://sandiego.granicus.com/player/clip/9411
My Comments 20-23 Minutes.
Moratorium on Lease Revenue Audits.
Strong Mayor Todd Gloria refused to give the Independent Auditor the financial numbers to confirm Lease Revenue Audits from Mission Bay leases.
Potentially, Friends of Todd (FOD) and the Mayor’s Office are making money on out of date City leases. Todd is hiding public financial information on basic revenue from public Mission Bay leases from the City Council and public. Super shady.
Then Great News.
04/16/2026 City of San Diego Environmental Committee
Video Time: 1 Hour 25 to 59 Minutes.
https://sandiego.granicus.com/player/clip/9415
My Comments: 1 Hour 39-42 Minutes.
Rewild PB.
Great comprehensive EIR under CEQA. Should be the standard for Midway Rising.
Item-8 Mission Bay Park Improvement Program, CEQA EIR Approval, Staff Reports, and Maps 29-Pages
tinyurl.com/20260416
04/07/2025 CEQA EIR for Mission Bay Park Improvement Program.
Large Files.
tinyurl.com/20260407a
tinyurl.com/20260407b
tinyurl.com/20260407c
Agenda
https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecomm/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=6939&doctype=1&site=comm