Medians, Landscaped Islands and Maintenance Assessment Districts in San Diego

There is no single answer for every median. The City's own documents describe several arrangements:

• The Gas Tax Median Maintenance Program (Parks and Recreation). A February 20, 2025 presentation to the Parks and Recreation Board says the program "includes maintenance of over 300 medians and rights of way (ROW) throughout the City of San Diego for the purpose of providing safe, attractive, and usable spaces." It lists irrigation, shaping and training of trees, shrubs, turf and groundcover, fertilization, litter and weed control, plant disease and pest control, mowing, edging, hardscape maintenance and street and gutter sweeping, and says the work is performed by a contractor. The City's Gas Tax Fund budget page says the fund supports "street maintenance, median landscaping, tree-trimming, and waste removal in the street right-of-way."
• Maintenance Assessment Districts. The same budget page says: "The Maintenance Assessment Districts (MADs) provide landscape maintenance for center medians and right-of-way within residential and commercial areas." Most are managed by Parks and Recreation; business-district MADs are overseen by the Economic Development Department. See the next section.
• Other arrangements. The 2025 board presentation names Encroachment Maintenance Removal Agreements (EMRA) as another "maintenance arm." For new subdivisions, the City's How MADs are Formed page says the developer must sign a Landscape Maintenance Agreement "guaranteeing to maintain the assets until maintenance responsibility can be turned over to a Homeowners' Association, MAD, or other entity." So some landscaped islands, especially in newer neighborhoods, are cared for by a homeowners association or developer, not the City.
• Trees, lights and sweeping. Get It Done routes Tree Maintenance reports to the Transportation Department, which also handles street lights; see our street trees guide and street lights guide. The Stormwater Department's street sweeping page says it performs special cleaning of "center medians upon request." Inside a MAD, the district may pay for extra tree pruning, sweeping or decorative lighting on top of those City services.

The Parks and Recreation Department's Maintenance Assessment Districts page says: "A Maintenance Assessment District is legal mechanism by which property owners can vote to assess themselves to pay and receive services above-and-beyond what the City of San Diego normally provides. This above-and-beyond service level is called a 'special benefit.' What the City normally provides is called the 'general benefit.'"

• What districts can pay for. The City's Special Benefits page lists landscape maintenance of "medians, rights of way/parkway landscaping strips, slopes, green belts, mini-parks and undeveloped areas," including irrigation, weeding, pruning, dead tree removal and plant replacement; hardscape sweeping and weeding, graffiti removal on public rights of way and litter removal; extra street sweeping "for center medians or parkway curb and gutters"; and street lights that exceed City standards, such as decorative acorn lights, tree twinkle lights and up-lights.
• What they usually do not cover. The same page lists brush management on City open space (handled citywide by the Brush Management Unit; see our brush and weeds guide), park ranger services, code compliance, retaining walls, slopes that cannot be seen from roadways, and private property without an easement.
• Who runs them. The Parks and Recreation Department's January 22, 2026 public notice lists 54 districts it manages, from Bay Terraces to Webster-Federal Boulevard, two of them (Bird Rock and Civita) self-managed. The Economic Development Department's MAD page says it oversees ten more, eight of them self-managed by nonprofit organizations such as local business associations.
• The legal basis. The City's Laws page says MADs are authorized by the state Landscaping and Lighting Act of 1972 and Proposition 218 (Article XIIID of the California Constitution), and locally by the Maintenance Assessment District Ordinance (Municipal Code section 65.0201 and following) and Council Policy 100-21. Forming a district takes a mailed ballot of affected property owners, separate from Election Day; the page explains that votes are weighted by each owner's proposed assessment. The City's How to Establish a MAD page says the process normally takes one to two years.

• Maps. Parks and Recreation publishes a Map of Maintenance Assessment District Boundaries (PDF) and a separate map of Street Lighting District #1 sub-district boundaries (PDF). The City also has an interactive Assessment Areas map, which a May 2025 Parks and Recreation Board presentation points to for more information.
• Annual reports. The Assessment Engineer Reports / Annual Reports page has a report for each Parks and Recreation district, by fiscal year. Each describes the district boundary and the improvements it pays for. For example, the North Park MAD report for Fiscal Year 2027 says the district's work "generally consist[s] of maintenance and servicing of street lighting, median and right-of-way landscaping, streetscapes, community identification signs, and cleaning and repair of sidewalks along the major streets in the District."
• Your property tax bill. The City's How MADs are Formed page says buyers "are informed of the existence of the MAD as a line-item on their property tax bill."
• Ask. The Parks and Recreation quick reference phone list gives the Maintenance Assessment Districts section at 619-685-1326, the same number on the MAD page. Business-district MADs are listed, with their managing organizations, on the Economic Development MAD page.

As of November 3, 2026, the Get It Done service list has no report type named for medians. Use the closest type below, or contact the department directly.

• Broken irrigation or sprinklers spraying the street. Get It Done Sprinkler/Irrigation, under Parks and Recreation, says: "Please use this form to report issues such as broken sprinklers and irrigation lines that are damaged, missing, leaking or spraying water improperly. This form can also be used to report sprinkler systems that are having timing issues." As of November 3, 2026, it showed an estimated resolution time of 20 days. Over-watering that sends water into the gutter or a storm drain can also be reported as Over Irrigation, which Get It Done describes as "over irrigation of landscaping, causing water to enter the City's Storm Water system" (60 days as of November 3, 2026). For water gushing as if from a broken main, call 619-515-3525; our water leaks guide covers that.
• Dead plants, weeds or overgrown shrubs. If the median is in a MAD, call the Maintenance Assessment Districts section at 619-685-1326. Otherwise, use the Ask Parks form (it has a Park Maintenance subject) or [email protected], since Parks and Recreation runs the Gas Tax Median Maintenance Program. Get It Done Other also works, though the City says reports under Other are not automatically processed and may take longer to review.
• Plants or trees blocking sightlines. A tree blocking a traffic signal or sign, or one that is dead, unstable or down, is a Get It Done Tree Maintenance report; its subtypes include "Visibility of traffic signs/signals." As of November 3, 2026, it estimated 150 days and said requests "may require extended wait times" and that public safety and urgent issues are prioritized. For shrubs that block drivers' view, contact the MAD section or Ask Parks as above; Get It Done lists 619-527-7500 for urgent street-related issues. Private hedges growing into the street are a different report, covered in our overgrown hedges guide.
• Litter and dumped items. The Stormwater Department cleans center medians on request; use Get It Done Street Sweeping, as its sweeping page directs. A dumped couch, mattress or pile of trash is an Illegal Dumping report. See our street sweeping guide and illegal dumping guide.
• Lights, graffiti and signs. A dark light in a median is a Get It Done Street Light report; graffiti on a median wall or sign is Graffiti. Decorative lights paid for by a lighting district, such as Street Light District #1 or the Mission Hills and Kensington lighting districts, can also be raised with the MAD section. Broken traffic signs in a median: see our traffic signals and signs guide.
• How long things take. The City's resolution timeframes list gives the same estimates for these types. For how Get It Done works in general, see our guide to reporting a problem to the City of San Diego; for sprinklers and landscaping inside a park, see our parks guide.

• Property owner representatives. Municipal Code section 65.0212 says: "Property owners may establish representatives for the purposes of communicating with the City on matters within their district." For a City-managed district whose boundaries are substantially the same as a community planning group's, "the community planning group shall be the preferred property owner representative," and it may form a committee for the role. Otherwise, "the property owners within the district may establish their own advisory group made up of designated representatives."
• Annual public meeting. Section 65.0219 says City representatives "shall participate in or conduct at least one publicly noticed meeting" with the representatives, or the property owners, of each district "to discuss the budget, improvements, and activities for the following fiscal year," and should meet regularly with the advisory group "to evaluate the performance of the contractor or the City." For example, the Parks and Recreation notice dated January 22, 2026 announced a February 3, 2026 meeting at the War Memorial Building to present proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budgets for its districts.
• Where to find notices and reports. The MAD page points to the City Clerk's public notices for upcoming MAD meetings ("select 'Miscellaneous' from the menu"). Section 65.0220 requires an annual report for each district, approved by the City Council, listing the improvements and activities for the year; these are on the annual reports page. The City's Laws page explains when the Council considers district budgets each year. To ask which group represents your district, call 619-685-1326.

• Location. The street name, the nearest cross streets, the direction of travel (for example, the median between northbound and southbound lanes, just north of a named intersection) and, if you know it, the district name. Medians rarely have addresses, so a dropped map pin in Get It Done helps.
• What and when. Which plants, heads or lines are affected, whether water is reaching the street, and the day and time a sprinkler runs at the wrong time. The Sprinkler/Irrigation form asks for "a detailed description" and says photos "will help crews assess and resolve the issue more efficiently."
• Photos, from the sidewalk. The form asks for "multiple photos (not just close-ups)." Take them from the sidewalk or a safe, legal stopping place, never while driving.
• Do not work in medians in traffic. Do not cross lanes to reach a median, stand in one to trim plants, pick up litter or adjust a sprinkler, or park in a traffic lane to do so. Medians sit between moving traffic, and crews use traffic control for a reason. Report it and let the City or its contractor handle it. Call 911 if a fallen tree, debris or a crash is blocking the road.