Seeking Public Input to Improve and Expand Waterfront Park in San Diego

Named after prominent National City businessman and civic leader Leonard Pepper, the five-acre Pepper Park adjoins the Sweetwater Channel and offers colorful play equipment, a boat launching ramp and a fishing pier with lighting for night fishing in San Diego Bay. The Port of San Diego, which manages the park, is seeking additional public feedback on the latest draft design for the park, including input on preferred new park amenities, such as a splash pad, child play improvements, shade structures, and other items.

As reported by Katherine M. Clements, this park project is being funded by federal stimulus funds from the American Rescue Plan Act and the State of California’s Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Fund. The Port has designated $3.85 million toward redesigning Pepper Park and constructing some park improvements. An additional $250,000 from Austal USA, a new shipbuilding facility on the National City Bayfront, has increased the project budget to about $4.1 million. The park’s existing five-acre footprint will have improvements made to the project’s first phase. Future phases are expected and would include a 2.5-acre expansion of the park. Construction of the initial priority park improvements is anticipated to begin in the Fall of 2023.