Tecolote Canyon Has Two Closures Right Now, and Only One of Them Is About the Sewer Line

If you walk a dog through Tecolote Canyon on a Saturday morning, you have probably noticed the caution tape, the quiet fairways, and the general sense that something in the canyon is not quite itself this year. Ask five Bay Park neighbors what is going on and you will likely get one answer repeated back to you: construction. The sewer project. Reopens this summer.

That answer is half right, and the half that is wrong matters if you actually use this canyon.

There are two separate things happening in Tecolote Canyon in 2026, and they are running on different clocks. One is a genuine infrastructure project with a defined, multi-year timeline. The other is a 30-year business relationship that just ended, and its return date has almost nothing to do with when the pipes get finished.

The sewer line has a real schedule, and it runs past this summer

The city is in the middle of rehabilitating and replacing 4.7 miles of trunk sewer pipe that runs the length of the canyon. These lines went in during the 1950s and have never been replaced. Construction started in late 2024, and the city has described it as a two- to three-year undertaking, broken into phases that move north through the canyon from the Tecolote Nature Center.

Phase 1b, the stretch north of the USD access point into the golf course, is open again. That part of the story is genuinely finished. Phase 2, which runs through the golf course property itself, is scheduled for fall 2025 through summer 2026. Phase 3 picks up from Mount Acadia Boulevard toward Genesee Avenue and is slated to run from summer 2026 into summer 2027.

Here is the detail worth remembering if you are planning a run: the hiking trail between Mount Acadia Boulevard and Balboa Avenue is closed around the clock until summer 2027. Not rolling closures, not weekday-only restrictions. Closed. That segment has nothing to do with whether the golf course reopens next month or next year. Once the sewer work wraps, the city has said a five-year vegetation restoration effort begins, which means the canyon's look and feel will keep evolving well past the pipe work itself.

The golf course closure is a different story entirely

American Golf Corporation had operated Tecolote Canyon Golf Course for roughly three decades. On January 30, 2026, the city terminated that lease. The course had already been reduced to nine holes since August 2025 to accommodate construction, but on February 11 the city closed all 18 holes, and the driving range followed that Sunday, February 15.

The timing looks like it is all about the sewer project. It is not, entirely. A citywide audit found that companies leasing and operating San Diego's nine municipal golf courses collectively make about $34 million a year while paying the city just under $4 million in return. Tecolote Canyon's own numbers illustrate the gap: in the most recent fiscal year it generated just shy of $3 million in total lease revenue, compared to $16.7 million at Fairbanks Ranch, $5.7 million at Vineyard, and $4.96 million at Mission Trails. The city's Economic Development Director, Christina Bibler, framed the lease termination as a chance to "revisit the management of the course, improve operations, better align with market value and enhance long-term revenue and public benefit."

That is a polite way of saying the city wants a better deal before it lets anyone back onto the fairways, and it is now writing a request for proposals rather than a construction schedule.

Darrell Madison, who chairs the Tecolote Canyon Citizens' Advisory Committee, has used the pause to push for something beyond a simple reopening. He has asked prospective operators to consider running "a bio-conscious golf course and set an example for the rest of San Diego," pointing to water conservation and reduced pesticide use as conditions the neighborhood would like attached to whatever comes next. Longtime teaching pro Michael Scott, who has worked the course since 2011, put the mood among regulars more plainly, describing "a lot of disappointment financially, and a lot of worry" about whether the course comes back at all.

The city has said publicly that it wants the course reopened once construction ends and a new operator is selected. As of the most recent public reporting this spring, that operator had not yet been chosen. So when someone in Bay Park tells you the course reopens this summer, what they are repeating is the city's stated goal, not a locked date on a calendar. The sewer work and the lease process are two different clocks, and only one of them is fully in the city's control.

What is actually walkable right now

If you are trying to plan an actual route through the canyon this month rather than parse city press releases, here is where things stand:

• The segment north of the USD access point into the golf course property has reopened as part of Phase 1b.
• The hiking trail between Mount Acadia Boulevard and Balboa Avenue is closed 24 hours a day and will stay that way until summer 2027.
• All trails within the golf course footprint remain closed while Phase 2 continues.
• The Gardena Street entrance and the connected Hillside Loop have stayed open even during periods when the main Tecolote Canyon Trail was blocked, according to recent trail reports, making it a workable substitute if your usual route dead-ends into tape.
• The Kelly Street entrance offers a quieter, more local way into the canyon than the main trailheads, useful if you are trying to avoid construction traffic near the nature center.
• The Via Las Cumbres entrance still has street parking only, with no restrooms or facilities, while the Tecolote Community Park entrance about a mile west has a nature center, restrooms, and a larger lot.

None of this is a permanent map. Construction crews move north through the canyon in phases, so the exact boundary of what is open will keep shifting through 2027. But for anyone planning a regular loop, the Gardena and Kelly Street access points are the more reliable bets while the golf course chapter plays out separately.

The loop still ends the same way

Whatever the canyon looks like on a given Tuesday, Bay Park's other daily rhythm has not changed. Morena Boulevard remains the neighborhood's actual gathering spot, and the brewery scene along it has kept expanding even as the canyon has gone quiet. Coronado Brewing Company, on Knoxville Street, has been a fixture here for years. Deft Brewing has kept new releases coming through the spring and summer, from a German-style Schwarzbier in March to an apricot gose in August. Harland Brewing's Bay Park location, part of a small local chain that also runs taprooms in Scripps Ranch, 4S Ranch, Pacific Beach, and South Park, has become a regular stop for the same crowd that used to finish a round at Tecolote and now finishes a walk there instead.

That is the part of Bay Park life that does not require a city press release to understand. The canyon is in transition. The neighborhood around it is not waiting on anyone's timeline.

If you are the kind of person who wants a straight answer about what is happening in the place you live before the official version catches up, that is the same instinct that serves people well when they are ready to talk about their next move here. The Chris Love Team has spent decades tracking exactly this kind of neighborhood detail in Bay Park and the surrounding coastal communities. When the time comes to talk about your own property, or you just want a second opinion grounded in what is actually happening on the ground, reach out and request a personalized home valuation.