OTAY VALLEY REGIONAL PARK (OVRP)
JOINT POLICY-CITIZEN’S ADVISORY
COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES
July 26, 2012
2:15 P.M.
Meeting called to order at 2:30 pm by Supervisor Cox.
AGENDA ITEMS
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM MAY 10, 2012 MEETING
MOTION TO APPROVE MAY 10, 2012 MINUTES – Councilwoman Bensoussan, 2nd
Councilman Alvarez
ALL IN FAVOR – 3-0-0
2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 Supervisor Cox – I have a couple of acknowledgments at today’s meeting. One of
the partners that has been work with the OVRP staff and committee and done
some instrumental work in the OVRP is WildCoast and today I would like to
present this Certificate of Appreciation to AJ Schneller from WildCoast.
 AJ Schneller – I would like to say thank you to everyone here, I have only been
here a little over a year and during this time I have received such support for
everything we have tried to do. I am very happy to have been a part of the OVRP
and all of the environmental and conservation efforts and the OVRP is a wonderful
resource and it is great to see how much support and dedication all of you have for
the OVRP.
 Councilwoman Bensoussan – I would like to say thank you to AJ as well the
amount of interaction you were able to accomplish with schools and the community
in the OVRP was amazing and such a tribute to you.
 Supervisor Cox – I would like to welcome our newest OVRP EMT member Betty
Waznis from the City of Chula Vista.
 Supervisor Cox – I would like to ask Buck Martin to come up, we have a
proclamation for you and all of the work that you have done over the last 10 years
in the OVRP. You have been instrumental in so many of the accomplishments
here in the OVRP from the creation of the Trail Guidelines to acquisitions to trail
and staging area construction and I would like to recognize today the 26th day of
July 2012 as Buck Martin day in the County of San Diego.
 Buck Martin – It has been an honor to work with such a dedicated group of people
both the staff of both cities and the county as well as the citizens advisory
committee. I am so appreciative of the time I spent working at the city and intend
to continue to try and serve the public and citizens of San Diego County.
OVRP PC-CAC Minutes
Page 2
July 26, 2012

Supervisor Cox – On a less cheerful note as most of you know one of our staff
turned CAC member Duane Bazzel lost his wife Stella Marie Montalvo recently and
we are all saddened by his loss and give our support to him during this time.
3. JEPA AMENDMENT STATUS UPDATE – City of San Diego
The JEPA is an agreement between the three jurisdictions which created and
established the OVRP PC and CAC committees and items such as the number of
members of the OVRP CAC. In order to make a change to the number of CAC
members as has been recommended by the CAC By-laws changes we needed to get
approval from each of the jurisdictions Board or Council. The County of San Diego
Board of Supervisors approved this amendment on July 11 and the City of San Diego
will take this to their City Council on July 31 and the City of Chula Vista to their Council
on August 14.
4. OVRP RELATED PROJECTS
a) Sellers-Keever Educational Activity Center – County of San Diego
We are about to go out to bid on Phase I of this project on July 31, 2012. This
phase will include the concrete work. Phase II will be the CCC crews coming in
and making the trail. We are hoping to have this project complete around the end
of October.
b) Swiss Park Staging Area Update – County of San Diego
We have a recorded easement for the staging area from the Swiss Club and will be
starting construction next month.





Supervisor Cox – I would also like to say that we received about $75,000 in funding
that was directed to the City of San Diego and the County is working with the City
of San Diego on the plans for a possible project to add some shade structure(s),
picnic tables and benches at Hollister Pond. I’m sure that this is something that will
be coming forward at a later meeting maybe October or after.
John Willett – The CAC Chair would like to make a request to have signage added
at Hollister Pond and Swiss Park to give directions to people that are in the park as
to where they are and where things are in the OVRP. I thought that Ranger
Barone had some new signs made for this reason as well.
Ranger Barone – We have some signs up and did just receive additional signs.
Ruth Schneider – Are you talking about the area between Hollister and the I5?
What are you proposing?
Supervisor Cox – We have some money identified and have given direction to staff
to come up with a plan for some picnic tables, shade structure and benches for
people to stop and rest at. It would be east of I5 and west of Hollister. We will
certainly be bringing this back to a subsequent meeting to see what staff has been
able to come up with and a site plan.
OVRP PC-CAC Minutes
Page 3
July 26, 2012






Supervisor Cox – Something else that isn’t on the agenda, but since we aren’t
going to be taken any action on it I think we can talk about it. We did receive a
grant from the San Diego Foundation for the Palm Avenue Trail. Is there any
update? It would be a trail that would come down from Palm Avenue down into the
existing trail system in the OVRP? Is there any update on that?
Jason Hemmens – The Palm Avenue trail project is being worked on, but we are
currently in the middle of the breeding season so we cannot start construction until
mid-September, but we have the plans and contracts ready with CCC crews to
start work in mid-September and yes this is funded by a grant from the San Diego
Foundation.
Ruth Schneider – Back in 1989 when the park was proposed it was supposed to go
from 13th Street all the way into the dam of Otay Lakes. What are you proposing to
do with that area that is west of the I5? I know the Swiss Park is there but the
Pond 20 should be included in that area with the bird conservation area and all of
that.
Supervisor Cox – Pond 20 is owned by the Port District and they have their own
process and have a RFP out but with little or no response. I know they’ve had a
couple of meetings and I think they will have one more community meeting coming
up. That is something that is outside of the refuge and outside of the area included
for the Otay Valley Regional Park.
Ruth Schneider – Yes it was, I was there you weren’t. It was proposed. The
people in the area don’t want to see the pond eliminated and at one time we had
inquired to see if that area could be used for something else, but we were told by
the State authority that it was the bed of the bay and had to be maintained. Now
how it got excluded from the park and the plan for the park but it was not the
intention from the beginning and I think there should be some consideration given
to this area. The plan that included this area was dedicated by Supervisor Bilbray,
Councilman Filner, Patricia McCoy and myself. I don’t understand how anyone
could’ve eliminated this part of the park and I think it needs to be recognized that it
is part of the park.
John Willett – As the Chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee and also
coordinator of the Otay River clean-up project, I think about 100% of the people
that have been involved in the work in the OVRP are in agreement about the
condition of the trails, the work that has been done, the staging areas and projects
that have been done and are proposed in the future. Everything has been positive
feedback and nothing negative or any recommendations for changes.
RANGER REPORTS
 John Barone, City of San Diego, Western OVRP
In regards to the directional signs we had several signs posted from the ranger station
to Saturn Blvd and we just received additional signs that will be installed from the
ranger station east to Rancho Drive. We continue to work with the Donovan Crews
and clean-up efforts, which again have recently included some large homeless
encampments. On June 14, 2012 we had a restoration project where Girl Scout Troop
5912 planted over 70 native plants in the area. I gave a presentation to a classroom
as part of the OYEA program. I would also like to say thank you to AJ for all of the
great work that he has done over the last year in the OVRP as part of WildCoast. He
OVRP PC-CAC Minutes
Page 4
July 26, 2012
has been a huge advocate and supporter of the OVRP since day 1 and his work has
impacted the valley in tremendous ways and is greatly appreciated.

Marc Pumpkinthief, County of San Diego, Eastern OVRP
We’ve had over 100 youth and 50 adults attend various environmental education
programs and/or hikes at Otay Lakes and in the OVRP. Since we have had such a
great turnout and response to this program we are going to continue doing this
throughout the fall. We also recently had a motorcycle club with over 50 motorcycles
come to the park for a picnic and what ended up being a semi motorcycle show. I
would also like to say thank you to John Willett and Ranger Conners for all of the work
and effort they continue to do in the OVRP and all of our staff at Otay are here for
support and will do whatever we can to assist with any projects in the OVRP.




Councilwoman Bensoussan – I am surprised to hear that you had a motorcycle
event at your park, I know that the sparks from motorcycles have caused fires
before so how do you control/prevent this?
Ruth Schneider – How do you advertise the events at your park?
Councilman Alvarez – I know that I just recently watched a special on our City of
San Diego channel that featured Ranger Barone and an event with the Girl Scouts
and maybe you could also do something like this to advertise more.
Joan Schneider – I noticed that both Rangers talked about educational programs
and I was wondering if there were programs for the Middle and High Schools in the
area?
The motorcycle club was all street legal motorcycles of different varieties but they just
came up to the park and parked in the parking lot and then enjoyed lunch at the
pavilion, etc. There was not any type of trail or off-road activity and we made sure to
always have a Ranger at the entrance and around the area just to talk with the patrons
and ensure everyone has a great experience at the park. We currently have the
information in our park program guide. This fall and winter we will also have them on
our county parks website and are looking at other possible marketing opportunities and
will definitely look into this video/tv opportunity. We currently have an Environmental
Education program that is adapted for elementary, middle and high school students
and have reached out to many of the communities and established schedules for the
students to participate in these programs. We currently have a majority of elementary
schools participating but we continue to try and reach out to more and more
communities and schools. The City of San Diego also has these outreach programs
and we are continuing to work on this program and process to make it bigger and
reach more people each year.
FRIENDS OF OVRP REPORT
None
OVRP/CAC CHAIR’S REPORT – John Willett, CAC Chair
OVRP PC-CAC Minutes
Page 5
July 26, 2012
Distributed OVRP CAC Chair’s report.
PC/CAC MEMBER COMMENT/OPEN DISCUSSION
 Michael McCoy – I just want to commend AJ for his work outside of the OVRP as
well. I have worked with him on Pond 20 (Port) projects as well as the Bayshore
Bikeway and others as well as the OVRP and we are losing a great asset and
person.
 Supervisor Cox – For the next meeting which is going to be on October 25, I would
like to request staff if possible to update on some projects. By then we should
have the Sellers-Keever under construction, the Swiss Park Staging area under
construction, the Palm Avenue Trail under construction and in addition to that I
would like staff to come back with two additional reports. The first would be on the
Miracle Field, that’s the field for kids with disabilities and where we are with
discussion on that and as I recall we have about 900 acres of land in the OVRP
that we own and Councilwoman Bensoussan and myself are the two
representatives as part of the Preserve Owner Manager (POM) and that will be the
recipient of the land that is part of the Otay Ranch. The Otay Ranch development
as part of their construction was required to dedicate land which is of no cost to
anyone and that will be folded into the Regional Park. And trying to anticipate as
more of these properties are accepted by the POM and are folded into the OVRP I
think we should start looking at the possibility of a campground facility. Assuming
that this would be east of Heritage Road as part of some of the properties that
might be coming from the Otay Ranch development. I don’t think it’s too early to
start doing some preliminary thinking on what opportunities we might have. We
have a lot of volunteer services we could use and expand as well to help with this
process. Over the next few years we could start looking at some of the options for
those properties in the years ahead. Councilwoman Bensoussan and I should be
meeting sometime soon to discuss these properties and options for the future. So
if we could add those items to the next agenda.
 Marilyn Ponseggi – Those areas are actively in the planning process they have not
been submitted as formal applications yet so I think October might be a little
premature to add them to the agenda. As soon as we have applications and we
have them at a point that we can bring it forward we will absolutely do this and the
applicant is aware that any items that are within the OVRP and are recreation need
to go through the OVRP CAC as well.
 Supervisor Cox – I think it would be good to at least start a general discussion of
what opportunities we may have. There is no question that this property will
ultimately end up in the OVRP and I don’t think it’s too early to at least start looking
at a concept.
 Renee Hilton – The County of San Diego will come back to the next meeting with
an information item on the Miracle Field discussions, although at this point I believe
that all of the areas discussed are outside of the OVRP plan area.
 Councilwoman Bensoussan – I just wanted to let everyone know that there is going
to be a Native American Pow-Wow on the Bayfront on August 12, 2012, so
everyone is invited to come and participate.
ADJOURNMENT – 3:35 pm
OVRP PC-CAC Minutes
Page 6
July 26, 2012
CAC MEMBER ATTENDEES
John Willett
Mark Kukuchek
Ruth Schneider
Mike McCoy
John Vogel
Robert Miller
Frank Hererra-A
Kevin O’Neill
Wayne Dickey
Marylyn Kitchens
Sally Bartlett
STAFF PRESENT
Renee Hilton
Chuck Tucker
Marc Pumpkinthief
Larry Duke
Betty Waznis
Joey Hyatt
Marilyn Ponseggi
Vivian Moreno
Stacey LoMedico
John Barone
Jason Hemmens
Michael De La Rosa
OTHER ATTENDEES
AJ Schneller
Robert Dickey
Sharon Kitchens
Buck Martin
Joan Schneider