South County: Park Dispute Pits Competing Visions for Chula Vista 

For weeks, a beloved Chula Vista park has been at the center of a debate over just who the city should prioritize as it charts its future. 

City parks officials are planning a major overhaul of Rohr Park, a historic 60-acre green space on the city’s northeast side that features athletic fields, walking trails, basketball courts, playgrounds, a dog park and even a miniature railroad. 

Parks officials spent much of last year soliciting feedback from residents about what they want at the park, which draws users from all over South San Diego County. 

In November, officials presented a draft plan for the overhaul. 

That’s when the trouble started. 

Residents of Bonita, a bucolic unincorporated community across Chula Vista’s northeast border, were outraged that what the city called its “preferred plan” quietly eliminated a key park feature: An equestrian arena built decades earlier by a local Bonita horse owners’ club. 

Bonita is one of a handful of communities in South County where residents keep horses in their back yards and ride them on local trails. For years, horse owners have used the arena to stage local equestrian events and exercise their horses. 

Bonitans of all backgrounds united in decrying the city’s move as a blow not just to horse owners but to their community’s longstanding identity as a semi-rural refuge They bombarded city officals with letters and emails and showed up en masse at public meetings. 

“Horses are such a part of our history,” said Stacy Jett, a Bonita resident who owns and trains six horses with her husband, Darrell, a retired adaptive P.E. teacher. “This is why Bonita is so amazing. You can afford a small property for your horses then bring the horses to this arena. It enables middle-income people to have horses too, so it’s not just for wealthy people.” 

Letters from two local civic groups pleaded with the city to consider alternative plans for the park that “accommodate additional sports facilities without eliminating the only equestrian arena available to residents.” 

There was just one problem. Bonita residents are not Chula Vista voters or taxpayers. They were asking Chula Vista residents to preserve an arena that mostly benefits people who live outside the city. 

And city residents have their own long list of unmet recreational needs. 

“We are talking about a city of Chula Vista park, not a Bonita park,” said Chula Vista City Councilmember Jose Preciado. 

Preciado said his west Chula Vista council district has unmet needs for athletic fields and green space, as does the rest of the city’s comparatively park-poor west side. 

Frank Carson, Chula Vista’s parks and recreation director, told residents at a November park planning meeting that recreational facilities and what a city presentation called “sports equity for all youth” were top priorities for city residents. 

Few residents, Carson said, named the horse arena as a priority in city surveys. 

“Frankly, I can tell you that Rohr Park could be 50 miles long and it would have problems because of the competing interests,” said Preciado. “A real story that needs to shine a little brighter is how [many] soccer leagues we have in this community versus how many fields we have.” 

Bonita residents said an even deeper fear undergirded their defense of the horse arena. 

“The fear is that [urban] development is coming to Bonita,” said John Taylor, a longtime Bonita resident who lives across Sweetwater Road from Rohr Park. 

Taylor said planned upgrades to the park would bring additional traffic, lights from evening sports games and possibly loud concerts at an envisioned amphitheater. 

Beyond that, he said, residents fear the park upgrade is just the start of a wave of high density residential development that feels inevitable at a time when developers are eyeing places like city-adjacent Bonita as prime building opportunities. 

“That’s creeping urbanism,” said Taylor. “Up in arms is a mild statement about the feelings [here].” 

In the end, Chula Vista Mayor John McCann turned the tide in favor of the horse owners – and Bonita’s historic identity – by telling city staff in no uncertain terms he wanted the equestrian arena to stay. 

At a Tuesday morning press conference at Rohr Park, McCann publicly urged city staff to restore the arena to the park master plan. He singled out the 60-year-old park’s regional significance. 

“Rohr Park has been a highly valued community asset, including the horse arena, and the master plan needs to ensure that it is included for here, today, and generations to come,” McCann said. “We can modernize and improve Rohr Park while still preserving the equestrian and horse arena that so many in this community rely on.” 

That evening, two more City Councilmembers – Michael Inzunza and Carolina Chavez, whose district includes Rohr Park – also endorsed keeping the arena. 

“It will be a community asset for everyone to use,” said Scott Aurich, president of the Sunnyside Saddle Club, the Bonita equestrian club whose members built the arena in the 1980s. “The arena has an invaluable use to the community.” 

Other Chula Vista News: Also on Tuesday, the City Council unanimously approved naming Councilmember Cesar Fernandez the city’s deputy mayor. The role is largely ceremonial but, since Mayor McCann serves as a commander in the United States Naval Reserves, Fernandez will take over leading the city when McCann is called to duty. 

Elected to the Council in 2024, Fernandez said he was honored to take the role and said he planned to devote his energies on the Council this year to “moving important items forward on the dais” and making “sure our conversations are centered on the community and are respectful conversations.” 

Head of Living Coast Discovery Center Steps Down 

Ben Vallejos, who has led the Living Coast Discovery Center marine wildlife sanctuary in Chula Vista for the past 12 years, announced this week he plans to retire next month. 

Vallejos, 58, said he loved his job but wanted to spend more time with his family, including his parents, who are in their 90s, and his wife, who also recently retired. 

“I don’t want to tear up here,” said Vallejos of his feelings about leaving the wildlife center where he has worked in varying capacities since starting as a part-time clerk in the gift shop in 2002. “It’s been a privilege to be around people who just care about marine wildlife like I do.” 

Under Vallejos’ leadership, Living Coast has grown its annual revenues from $500,000 to $2.5 million, expanded educational programs and upgraded exhibit areas for sea turtles, shore birds and a pollinator garden. 

The center specializes in marine wildlife native to the San Diego-Baja region. It hosts 80,000 visitors per year, including 30,000 local schoolchildren. 

Vallejos said now is a good time to step down because the center is on sound financial footing and looking toward a hoped-for expansion of its classrooms and other educational facilities. 

“It’s tough when you’re in the [same] market with a world-famous zoo,” he said, referring to the San Diego Zoo. “I keep hearing the Living Coast is the hidden gem of San Diego. I’m tired of that phrase. We just want to be the gem of San Diego.” 

Vallejos received his marine biology degree from San Diego State University in 1990. He said he felt fortunate to have been able to devote his professional life to the ocean he loves. 

“Seeing kids get off the bus [for field trips] and when they see the sea turtles, our first exhibit, and see them smile, that’s me as a kid,” he said. “Being able to have this place for those kids is special to me and has kept me going all these years.” 

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