Bureaucrat Tangle Goes Beyond City and County

The lead public agencies planning the San Dieguito River Valley Regional Park are the city and county of San Diego, which are coordinating their efforts through the San Diego Assn. of Governments, the region’s planning agency.

But the bureaucratic tangle goes far beyond that.

The cities of Del Mar, Solana Beach, Escondido and Poway are involved, too, since they would share boundaries with the park.

The federal government comes into play because its Bureau of Land Management and the Cleveland National Forest have land holdings within the park focus area.

Parts of the park planning area include portions of the Mesa Grande and Santa Ysabel Indian reservations; planners say they may redirect the boundary around the reservations because of the bureaucratic problems of dealing with sovereign nations.

The 22nd Agricultural District, a state agency that owns the Del Mar Fairgrounds, is involved because it is looking for expanded parking facilities within the river valley.

The California Department of Transportation figures into the planning as it studies a new off-ramp at Interstate 5 to better serve the fairgrounds-race track complex at Del Mar.

Because of the effect the park would probably have on the lagoon and the upstream waterways, the involvement of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state Coastal Commission, the state Department of Fish and Game and the State Lands Commission will likely be requisite.

Also involved are the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, which are studying what roles they might play in the lagoon enhancement at the mouth of the San Dieguito River because they are required to improve coastal wetlands elsewhere to offset land-filling in their own ports. Their possible roles in the regional park are being facilitated through the California Coastal Conservancy, an agency within the state’s Resources Agency.

Finally, there are the more than 200 private property owners who own parcels along the 43-mile-long valley.