Lifetime Achievement - SOHO PIP 2023

Preservationist Diane Coombs is a dedicated advocate and activist for the environment and community. She has perpetually contributed to numerous land-use and preservation projects in San Diego County for decades throughout her career and as a volunteer before and since her retirement. As a member of Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 (C-3), she advanced C-3’s commitment to fostering good governance, thoughtful planning and design through citizen engagement. Highlights of her tenure include the tremendous success in preserving the Tijuana River Estuary, now the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Southern California’s largest coastal wetland and open to the public, and helping to stop plans for a concrete flood control channel of the San Diego River through Mission Valley.

Diane represented C-3 in the coalition that resulted in the 1985 Managed Growth Initiative, which requires public review and a city-wide vote to approve major developments in lands set aside by the City of San Diego for future development.

Following many years as Land Use Policy advisor to several San Diego County Supervisors, she dedicated a decade as executive director of the San Dieguito River Valley Regional Park Joint Powers Authority (JPA). In that role, she secured swaths of land and water, collaborated with new and established partners, and helped to introduce city dwellers to our county’s natural richness. Her actions began the ongoing successful preservation and protection of the remaining San Dieguito River Valley as a natural open space regional park.

Ambitious goals already met include many segments of the Coast to Crest trail between the coast at Del Mar to Volcan Mountain, north of Julian, with more to come, and the preservation and restoration of the historic 1870s Sikes Adobe Farmhouse, now a museum.

Volcan Mountain Trail

Tijuana Estuary

San Dieguito Lagoon. All photos by Sandé Lollis

PAST PEOPLE IN PRESERVATION AWARD WINNERS