SAN DIEGO — The City of San Diego and the community are celebrating the long-awaited cleanup of part of De Anza Cove.

Several dilapidated homes have long blighted the peninsula in San Diego’s Mission Bay Park. FOX 5 got to see first hand the demolition and removal of these abandoned homes on Wednesday.

Over the past few months, a contractor has been working on demolishing and removing nearly 170 run-down properties. There are close to 20 remaining.

No one has lived on the city owned property since 2019.

People from advocacy group Friends of Campland watched and celebrated Wednesday.

It’s been a long time coming. Permits to remove the toxic structures were secured last July, following three years of Coastal Commission negotiations.

Jacob Gelfand, Vice President of Operations for Terra Vista Management, Inc. that runs Mission Bay RV and Campland on the Bay, says what’s happening to the land now is a win-win.

“This project is going to benefit both the community and the environment and the community has been waiting far too long for this project to move forward,” said Gelfand. “We are just so excited to show everyone the progress that we’re making cleaning up the abandon mobile homes, moving forward with the repairs to the bike and pedestrian path here in De Anza Cove.”

San Diego officials will open the area up to RV campers and the public during the next few years, while the city studies the long-term fate of 70-acre De Anza Cove.