Two years after closing it down, Chula Vista city leaders are preparing to reopen Harborside Park again.
On Thursday morning, workers with the city’s Parks Division were bustling to assemble the final touches, including a miniature soccer field — a surprise addition funded by Chula Vista-born professional soccer player Paul Arriola.
The park has a new grass field, resurfaced basketball courts and renovated bathrooms. It now also has a permanent park ranger station and is surrounded by a tall, black fence.
City leaders originally said they would repair the park late last year, but only recently unveiled an official reopening date. Earlier this week, City Councilmember Jose Preciado said the city plans to hold a ceremony and declare the park open to the public on Monday.
Many Southwest Chula Vista residents who live near the park have celebrated the Council’s move to reopen it. They were frustrated by the lengthy closure and the lack of other parks in the neighborhood.
“I feel happier for the kids that can come out and play now,” said Genesis Sainz, a longtime resident of the Harborside neighborhood. “Nobody wants to be stuck in their apartment complex.”
It wasn’t always certain that city leaders would reopen Harborside. In recent years, the small, Southwest Chula Vista park has become the center of several citywide debates over housing, homelessness and environmental justice.
Councilmembers initially closed the park in 2022 so they could evict dozens of unhoused residents who had taken shelter there amid the turmoil of the pandemic. City officials cited higher rates of arrests and reported crimes at Harborside compared to other city parks.
Homelessness advocates and unhoused residents tried to stop the closure with an injunction. But city leaders ultimately moved forward and closed the park to visitors — raising a tall, chain link fence around the edge.
At the time, the plan was to reopen it as soon as possible. But as the months went by, city leaders started talking about closing the park permanently and replacing it with affordable housing apartments.
Chula Vista does have a need for more affordable homes. A 2023 San Diego County Grand Jury report found that the county’s second-largest city failed to meet most of its state-mandated housing goals, as did almost all other cities.
Still, the prospect of the park closing for good shocked residents who live nearby. There was already a clear divide when it came to access to parks between newer, wealthier East Chula Vista and poorer, more industrial West Chula Vista. They worried that closing Harborside would worsen that disparity.
Dozens of residents pushed back at protests and public meetings, asking city leaders to change course. In a letter to the Council last year, Parks and Recreation Chair Martín Calvo called the community support for keeping the park "undeniable" and "overwhelming."
Late last year, councilmembers reversed course. They agreed to reopen the park and set aside $1.25 million in infrastructure funding to fund a first set of renovations.
Some, including Sainz, still have lingering questions about how Harborside Park will fit into Chula Vista’s approach to homelessness — something that remains unclear.
In recent months, Chula Vista has joined many other California cities in adopting harsher restrictions on homeless encampments following a major U.S. Supreme Court decision in July.
Chula Vista’s restrictions specifically target public parks, making it a crime to set up any kind of tent or sleeping bag within 1,000 feet.
Ultimately though, Sainz thinks reopening the park was the right decision for the neighborhood.
“We (can) only just hope for the best,” she said.
