Community Catalyst.
A Clean, Safe Park.
The Mission Bay Park Conservancy is a citizen-led initiative founded today to help San Diego deliver on the Mission Bay Park Master Plan. We are here to help our city and grow a cultural movement — steadily and together. Because we all care about the same thing: a clean, safe, well-loved park that works for every San Diegan. The best time is now. Join us to make a difference.
Recruiting board · 501(c)(3) incorporated · tax-exempt status pending
Adopting the planned restroom closures.
Following the May Revise (which restored the 5 Shoreline Parks restrooms), 13 of 28 Mission Bay restrooms and 7 of 14 Fiesta Island portable restrooms remain slated for closure under the FY2027 budget. The City Council’s final vote is approaching — contact your council member today to protect Mission Bay Park funding.
The Mission Bay Park Conservancy stands ready to partner with the City, volunteers, and donors (supplies, crews, and a Special Use Permit model like Forever Balboa Park) to keep these facilities open and clean. Whatever comes, we will work collaboratively with the city to help Mission Bay Park.
Mission Bay is one of San Diego's crown jewels. We should be looking for creative solutions to preserve and improve public amenities, not reducing access to them. We're ready to be part of that solution.
Our three strategic priorities
Where your time, expertise, and dollars go.
We treat Mission Bay as one living system — not a collection of competing parts. When recreation, nature, commerce, and resilience reinforce each other, everyone wins.
A Clean, Safe Park
Back to the basics. Professional maintenance crews, a citywide Volunteer Task Force, reopened facilities, measurable cleanliness standards — working collaboratively with the City to protect essential restrooms and services at Mission Bay.
Volunteer with us →A Restored Park
Restoring the vision — and amplifying the work already underway. The Conservancy is the community catalyst across the leaseholders, friends groups, environmental partners, and stewards already caring for Mission Bay. We unify those efforts, raise the matching philanthropy, and help De Anza Natural and the broader 1994 Master Plan vision move forward together.
See what's already happening →A Park With a Voice
A unified, independent voice for Mission Bay. A distinguished founding Board, the long-overdue Master Plan update, LCP re-certification, transparent two-way community engagement, free and low-cost public events, and youth leadership programs — making the park a place every San Diegan feels welcome and invested in.
Founding Board interest →Public Trust
Held in trust. For the public. In perpetuity.
Mission Bay was conveyed to San Diego by the State of California in 1945 — not as land for sale or development, but in trust for four specific public purposes: navigation, fisheries, recreation, and visitor-serving uses. In 1962, San Diego permanently dedicated it as a public park.
1945
State tidelands conveyance — in trust for navigation, fisheries, recreation, and visitor-serving uses.
1962
San Diego Ordinance O-8628 — perpetual public-park dedication.
1987
Charter §55 (Proposition D) — voter-approved 25% commercial-use cap, public-supporting purposes only.
That trust is the frame. Every decision about Mission Bay — leases, restoration, public access, capital investment — must serve those public-trust purposes and the people they were dedicated to. It is not surplus land. It is not a site for housing. It is not a commercial portfolio. It is a public park, held for everyone, forever.
The Mission Bay Park Conservancy is a citizen-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2026. Tax-exempt status pending. We are actively recruiting a founding Board of Directors. Donations may be tax-deductible pending IRS determination. Read the launch press release →