The California Coastal Commission’s approval of the De Anza Natural Plan on Aug. 14 marks genuine progress. After more than two years of delay and more than a decade of planning, San Diego can finally move forward on redeveloping hundreds of acres in northeastern Mission Bay into wetlands, recreation space and camping.

Yet a finished project, and a well-maintained park that meets the needs of the community, remains far from complete. With a potential $1 billion price tag, how do we square that future investment with a city that has struggled even to keep park restrooms open?

That raises a larger question: What do we expect Mission Bay Park and its public infrastructure to be in the decades ahead?

Most people do not know that a complete local coastal program requires two certifications from the Coastal Commission. The first is a land use plan. Mission Bay has one through its master plan, certified in 1994 and now amended for De Anza Natural.

The second is an implementation plan: the zoning, design standards, permit rules and other actions that make that vision enforceable. Maintenance standards can, and should, be part of it.

For more than three decades, the city has never completed that second portion. As a result, Mission Bay remains in deferred certification, with the Coastal Commission retaining permit jurisdiction and regulatory oversight.

Completing the implementation plan would translate the master plan’s promises into enforceable standards. Done properly, it could require the continuous waterfront pedestrian routes promised in 1994, restore neglected public edges, improve connections between parking and the water, and establish minimum service levels for facilities that make a day at the park possible.

Today, projects from restroom replacements to wetland restoration are treated as separate negotiations, vulnerable to years of delay and future budget cuts.

An implementation plan could change that. If comfort stations, drinking water, picnic benches and maintained paths are identified as essential facilities supporting public access, closing them would require justification against the certified plan rather than simply becoming another budget decision. Parking policies affecting access to the water could be held to the same standard.

There’s already a potential funding source. Under Proposition C, the first $20 million in excess Mission Bay lease revenues goes to the general fund, providing a potential mechanism to help fund the priorities established in an implementation plan.

Without clear standards and a plan for funding them, these decisions remain ad hoc and vulnerable to the next fiscal crisis.

Louis Kahn, who designed the Salk Institute, famously asked what a brick wants to be. His answer: an arch. When a brick becomes an arch, it achieves its highest order. We should ask the same question of Mission Bay Park: What does this park want to be?

It wants to fulfill its promises: continuous public access to the water, cared-for spaces, reliable facilities and a daily experience that invites people to enjoy and stay. To reach that potential, Mission Bay needs the framework that allows it to become fully itself. That framework is the missing implementation plan.

The commission’s action last week demonstrated the value of clear, enforceable standards. It strengthened language from “should” to “shall,” protected tent camping and kept a new bike path out of the marsh. Those are the right instincts: prioritize the experience of the park, then establish rules that endure beyond a single budget cycle.

The path forward is clear. The city should direct planning and parks to prepare an implementation plan for the entire park.

The Mission Bay Park Conservancy is ready to partner with the city to help carry this work forward. What matters most is ensuring the places people use and the experience they have are treated as essential, not optional.

After more than 30 years, it is time to finish the job and give Mission Bay a framework worthy of its future.

Schnell is the founder and president of the Mission Bay Park Conservancy and owner of the Mission Bay Beach Club.