San Diego city planners mistakenly left Chicano Park and one other property in Barrio Logan zoned for commercial use despite a community plan that designated those sites as parks. Now, city staff are asking the City Council to correct the errors and rezone the land for park use.
City staff also want councilmembers to fix mapping errors that affected parts of Chollas Creek Trail Open Space and two adjacent parks.
According to a report, staff discovered the mistakes as they worked to implement the community plan. But one community member said it was the news that a car wash company purchased a property on Boston Avenue designated for park use that prompted questions about the zoning.
“We’re like, ‘This is not right,’” said Julie Corrales, chair of the Barrio Logan Community Planning Group. “The community plan clearly says it’s park [use].”
A city spokesperson said staff didn’t update Barrio Logan’s zoning map for Chicano Park and another parcel adjacent to Boston Avenue to match the community plan the City Council approved in 2021. Planning staff also made other land use errors by relying on old maps when making plan amendments to satisfy state requirements for coastal communities.
The City Council will vote on the changes on Tuesday. The city’s Planning Department director has asked state commissioners to deny the sale of the property on Boston Avenue.
Still, the mistake has deepened the community’s mistrust in local government and likely kicked off a battle with the car wash company.
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In December 2025, staff with the State Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, told Barrio Logan community groups that they had sold a property on Boston Avenue to Soapy Joe’s Car Wash, Corrales said. The site is near a freeway on-ramp and adjacent to a strip of land Caltrans had plans to build a park on before federal cuts delayed the plans indefinitely.
A state spokesperson said Caltrans is required to sell off excess land if the state determines there is no longer an operational need or use for a transportation project.
Still, Corrales didn’t understand how land zoned for a future park could be sold to a car wash company, so she and other community groups asked the city.
“We were wondering how in the heck Soapy Joe’s would want that or need it,” said Corrales.
City planners discovered that the land was not zoned for park use, but commercial use instead. Planners reviewed Barrio Logan’s entire community plan and found that other parts of Barrio Logan, including Chicano Park, were also zoned for commercial use.
Other land use designations also didn’t align with the 2021 plan.
Peter Kelly, a spokesperson with the city’s Planning Department, said staff made two mistakes. When the City Council approved the community plan in 2021, the zoning for Chicano Park and the parcel on Boston Avenue did not match the community plan so the approved rezoning wasn’t applied, he said. Later, staff used old land use maps while making amendments to the plan in 2023. Those amendments were required to get final approval of the California Coastal Commission, which oversees land like Barrio Logan that falls in the state’s coastal zone.
Corrales said city staff told the community planning group about the mistakes at a February meeting.
The California Transportation Commission is scheduled to review the approval of the land purchase between Soapy Joe’s and the state on later this week.
City planning officials asked the commission to reject the sale.
“Allowing the sale of this property to proceed is problematic for several reasons,” wrote Heidi Vonblum, planning department director, in a Feb. 10 letter. “First, it would result in the transfer of publicly-owned land to a private entity for a use that was never intended under the adopted community plan, permanently foreclosing an opportunity to provide much-needed park space in Barrio Logan.”
Representatives with Soapy Joe’s Car Wash did not respond to a request for comment.
For decades, Barrio Logan residents fought for a community plan that would make way for more green space, including a future park along Boston Avenue. For community members, the city’s mistakes only sow more public distrust in government.
“When you hear something like, ‘there’s parts of Chicano Park that have been listed as commercial, parts of the [Boston Avenue] Linear Park that is commercial’ then you get residents — the back of their hair stands up — and they’re ready to fight all over again,” said Josephine Talamantez, founder and board chair of the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center.
Assemblymember David Alvarez has been looking into the Boston Avenue sale. He believed the land was protected under the California Surplus Land Act, which requires local agencies to prioritize the sale or lease of public land for affordable housing, parks, or schools.
A spokesperson with Caltrans told Voice that the surplus land act does not apply to state-owned property. Alvarez said that when he talked to Caltrans officials, he learned they were instructed to sell the property after receiving directions from the Federal Highway Administration.
The city’s mistake, Alvarez said, raises serious questions about accountability.
“When residents are told that land will be protected for neighborhood-serving uses but later see a car wash proposed in what should be a residential area and directly across from a planned park, it undermines confidence in the process,” he said.
Corrales, the community planning group chair, said even if the state greenlights the sale to Soapy Joe’s the company is going to face community pushback.
“If for some reason they chose to go that way, that would be an uphill battle,” said Corrales.
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