Concrete Channel to Living Creek: City Heights Lands $11 Million Restoration
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On Friday, the City of San Diego and Groundwork San Diego–Chollas Creek broke ground on the Federal Boulevard Creek Dechannelization and Restoration Project in City Heights, backed by $11 million from the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Wildlife Conservation Board, and the California Department of Water Resources.
The project will replace a 50-foot-wide concrete drainage channel with a naturalized, free-flowing waterway spanning 1,350 linear feet. Workers will plant 300 new trees, restore 2.4 acres of habitat, and create a system capable of treating 6.3 acre-feet of urban runoff annually — a scale of green infrastructure rarely introduced into dense, historically under-resourced neighborhoods.
Dechannelization reverses a mid-20th century practice of paving over natural waterways for flood control at the cost of habitat, natural filtration, and the well-being benefits of living landscapes in urban settings. At $11 million for 1,350 linear feet, the project illustrates precisely why more cities have not moved faster. For City Heights residents, who have long lacked the park access and green space available in wealthier parts of San Diego, the groundbreaking marks a tangible shift.
San Diego County closed the week on a quieter public-safety note. AlertSanDiego.org showed no active evacuation orders, warnings, or shelter-in-place notices countywide as of Saturday morning. The most recent alert — an Extreme Heat Warning for desert communities issued June 24 — had expired. The county's $9.16 billion FY 2026–27 budget, adopted by the Board of Supervisors on June 25, takes effect July 1. Separately, the county earned 68 National Association of Counties Achievement Awards across 16 categories including health, information technology, and civic education — a record single-year haul that NACo officials described as recognizing innovation rather than ranking counties against one another.