Over two years since historic floods struck several San Diego neighborhoods, the city on Friday began an $11 million project to restore Chollas Creek along Federal Boulevard.
The Chollas Creek Watershed is the largest in San Diego County, covering over 16,000 acres of urban land and draining into the creek. Much of the creek was channelized with concrete in the 1970s, but the project created risk of major overflow when debris builds up.The project, now in its first phase, is part of a decades-long effort to reduce flood risk, but it came too late to help local communities, including Encanto, Rolando, Shelltown and Southcrest, that were flooded in January 2024.
The flooding caused widespread damage in the communities, hitting homes, submerging streets and knocking over trees. Some residences were left uninhabitable and some residents quickly mobilized to file claims; now several hundred are suing the city.Jack Temple and Nabeelah Khan and their two young children have lived in the neighborhood for seven years. They initially expressed concern about past neglect by the city.“Different structural legislation that has kept this neighborhood kind of segregated and down economically,” Temple said.There’s also the physical divide of Interstate 805, which leaves communities largely disconnected from one another, and with limited access to public infrastructure such as parks.But Temple expressed optimism about the Chollas Creek project, “This feels like a nice turning of the page,” he said. “When we try to explain to people where we live, we’re kind of like, ‘We’re south of City Heights and east of Golden Hill and north of National City.’” What would be awesome, he added, is to “be able to say” that they’re from Webster.
The concrete channel of Chollas Creek, blocked off by fencing for a restorative project that began Friday. (Photo by Eileen Mamaghani/Times of San Diego)The portion of the concrete channel of Chollas Creek by Interstate 805 is now fenced off for construction.Phase one of the project will replace the 50-foot-wide concrete channel with natural, free-flowing water, restoring 1,350 linear feet of the creek. This effort, combined with vegetation, is expected to improve water quality before runoff reaches the San Diego Bay. It is expected to be completed in March 2027. But phase two, which includes planting 300 trees and adding bike and pedestrian trails, still needs $4 million because costs have increased due to inflation. LaShae Sharp-Collins, the 79th District assemblymember who represents the Chollas Creek area, said she is working with the state to secure funding.“This is an extremely complex project, so it’s understandable that this takes time,” Mayor Todd Gloria said, “But I would love to find any way to push the fast-forward button on these kinds of projects.”Gloria called funding the biggest challenge of the project, but credited community-centered non-profit Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek with much of the focused effort.Gloria and Sharp-Collins were joined by District 9 Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera at a press conference Friday to discuss the channel removal and the challenges faced by many residents, but not just from the floods.“The communities immediately around this space have dealt with a lot,” Elo-Rivera said.“When a freeway plowed through a neighborhood, that wasn’t just the removal of some nature; it was the separation of communities, it was the addition of noise and pollution,” Elo-Rivera said.Groundwork board member Lynn Edwards spoke at the event and said Chollas Creek is not the only area impacted by flooding. She pointed to Rolando Park as another low-income area that doesn’t get much attention regarding flood infrastructure. Her immediate focus, however, is on Chollas Creek. “This is really about the community for me,” Edwards said.
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