This week, City of San Diego crews finished a collaborative effort to remove approximately four tons of debris from an inactive homeless encampment in a canyon just north of the Torrey Pines Gliderport. The City’s Environmental Services Department (ESD) led the operation starting Monday, March 24, with support from the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD), the San Diego Police Department’s Neighborhood Policing Division and Park Rangers. 

“In an extraordinary example of collaboration across City departments, Environmental Services and SDFD worked together to clean this abandoned encampment in the steep open space between the Torrey Pines Gliderport and golf course,” said City Council President Joe LaCava. 

The steep terrain of the cliffside and canyon area created an additional challenge for City crews, as the site was difficult to access with heavy equipment. As a result, the City collaborated with SDFD to use a rescue helicopter, as part of a training operation, to help carry the trash and debris from the cliffside into nearby dumpsters. San Diego Fire-Rescue air crews are required to conduct annual flight training, and this operation helped fulfill those requirements while also supporting the debris removal operation.   

“It just makes air crews that much better,” said Steven Lozano, Deputy Fire Chief of Special Operations with SDFD. “We’d be training otherwise, either in the Poway area, or the mountain regions or off the coast doing some type of training – this just adds another element of difficulty in real world situations. It seems like they’re just slinging loads in and out of the canyon, but really they’re getting situational awareness, they’re looking at the environment, how the winds operate during this time of year, working with the winds off the ocean as well as in the canyon – it’s just great experience.” 

City code officers have visited the encampment site multiple times over the past few weeks to ensure people are not currently living in the area. Following the City’s standard practice, crews posted 24-hour notices for the planned abatement and the San Diego Police Department’s Neighborhood Policing Division visited the site to offer available services, but no one was contacted.   

“This is a very sensitive habitat over here,” said Franklin Coopersmith, ESD Deputy Director. “We've got the cliffs, we’ve got the waterway going right into the ocean – so we really wanted to get the waste out of there.” 

Operations at the Torrey Pines Gliderport were not impacted by the activity this week, however a portion of the northern parking lot in the area was temporarily closed. The City’s ESD conducts regular abatements in the city. Reports of debris or illegal dumping can be made on the City’s Get It Done app.