Otay Mesa ( ) is a community in the

southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

section of the city of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

, just north of the U.S.–Mexico border. It is bordered by the

Otay River The Otay River () is a river in southern San Diego County, California. The river begins at San Miguel Mountain, flows through the Upper and Lower Otay Reservoirs, and continues on between the southern part of the Chula Vista and the Otay Mesa ...

Valley and the city of

Chula Vista Chula Vista (; ) is the second-largest city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh largest city in Southern California, the fifteenth largest city in the state of California, and the 78th-largest city in the United States. The popul ...

on the north;

Interstate 805 Interstate 805 (I-805) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. It is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running roughly through the center of the Greater San Diego region from San Ysidro (part of the c ...

and the neighborhoods of Ocean View Hills and

San Ysidro San Ysidro (Spanish for " St. Isidore", ) is a district of the City of San Diego, immediately north of the Mexico–United States border. It neighbors Otay Mesa West to the north, Otay Mesa to the east, and Nestor and the Tijuana River Valley t ...

on the west; unincorporated

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

on the north and east including

East Otay Mesa East Otay Mesa is an as-yet undeveloped area in the South Bay region of unincorporated San Diego County, southern California. It is located along the northern side of the U.S.-Mexico border, with plans for future developments, including an ord ...

and the San Ysidro Mountains; and the

Otay Centenario Otay Centenario is a borough of the municipality of Tijuana in Baja California, Mexico. It is the result of a merger between the former boroughs of Mesa de Otay and Centenario which took place on January 1, 2014. The borough is located east of th ...

borough of

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

on the south. Major thoroughfares include Otay Mesa Road/

California State Route 905 State Route 905 (SR 905), also known as the Otay Mesa Freeway, is an State highway (US), state highway in San Diego, in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of California. It connects Interstate 5 in California, I-5 and Interstate ...

, Otay Valley Road/Heritage Road, Siempre Viva Road, and

California State Route 125 State Route 125 (SR 125) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that serves as a north–south freeway in the San Diego area. It runs from SR 11 and SR 905 in Otay Mesa, near the Mexican border, to SR 52 in ...

. Otay Mesa is the second-least walkable neighborhood of San Diego.

History

''Otay'' is derived from the

Kumeyaay language Kumeyaay (Kumiai), also known as Central Diegueño, Kamia, and Campo, is the Native American language spoken by the Kumeyaay people of southern San Diego County, California, San Diego and Imperial County, California, Imperial counties in Californ ...

. Although its meaning is disputed, possible derivations include "otai", meaning "brushy"; "Tou-ti" meaning "big mountain"; or "etaay" meaning "big". ''Mesa'' is the Spanish word for

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ha ...

, table or tableland. Aviation pioneer

John J. Montgomery John Joseph Montgomery (February 15, 1858 – October 31, 1911) was an American inventor, physicist, engineer, and professor at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, who is best known for his invention of controlled heavier-than-air ...

made the first controlled flights in the western hemisphere using a series of gliders from the west rim of Otay Mesa in 1883/1884. The area which now includes Otay Mesa was annexed from

along with other portions of South San Diego in 1957. Additional annexation of almost four thousand acres was approved in 1985. Since 2010, seven cross-border tunnels have been found linking Warehouses in Otay Mesa with entry points within Mexico.

Climate

Otay Mesa has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

: ''Bsk'') with mild winters and warm, almost rainless summers.

Border crossings

The

Otay Mesa Port of Entry The Otay Mesa Port of Entry (Spanish: ''Puerto de Entrada Mesa de Otay'') is one of three ports of entry (POE) in the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan region, in the U.S. state of California, connecting Otay Mesa in the City of San Diego with th ...

is one of two border crossings within the city of

, the other being the

San Ysidro Port of Entry __NOTOC__ The San Ysidro Port of Entry (aka San Ysidro Land Port of Entry or San Ysidro LPOE) is the largest land border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, and the fourth- busiest land border crossing in the world (second-busiest if one exclu ...

six miles to the west. Trucks are generally instructed to use the border crossing in Otay Mesa instead of the San Ysidro one. Otay Mesa also houses an immigration detention center. Two miles east of the Otay Mesa border crossing in the unincorporated area of

, the new

Otay Mesa East Port of Entry The Otay Mesa East Port of Entry is a planned border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, approximately 2 miles east of the existing Otay Mesa Port of Entry. The crossing will connect the Otay Centenario borough of Tijuana with East Otay Mes ...

is planned to be in service as early as 2023. The

Cross Border Xpress Cross Border Xpress (CBX), historically also called the Tijuana Cross-border Terminal and the Puerta de las Californias, is an airport terminal located in the Otay Mesa area of southern San Diego, California, United States, with an access bridge ...

(CBX) is a terminal serving and a pedestrian bridge crossing to the main terminal of

Tijuana International Airport General Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional General Abelardo L. Rodríguez) or simply Tijuana International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional de Tijuana), , in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, is ...

. This crossing has a facility in Otay Mesa. It was established by Otay-Tijuana Ventures LLC and had a cost of $78 million and opened in 2015. CBX makes Tijuana Airport the world's first geographically binational airport, because unlike the binational airports serving the Swiss cities of

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

(entirely on French territory) and

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

(entirely on Swiss territory), the CBX terminal is physically located in the United States but serves an airport whose main terminal and runways are in Mexico.

Highways

(Future I-905)

Other landmarks and facilities

Located 1.5 miles north of the Mexico-United States Border, is the 603 megawatt Otay Mesa Energy Center, which came online in 2009. This

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

will be joined with the Pio Pico Energy Center peaker, which will generate an additional 300 megawatts. Pacific Gateway Park is located between Otay Mesa Road and the international border. Five major law-enforcement facilities are located in an

unincorporated area An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in the Otay Mesa region: * the state's Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility * the federal

San Diego Correctional Facility The San Diego Correctional Facility, also known as the Otay Mesa Detention Facility, is a minimum / medium security federal prison for men, managed by Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the United States Marshals Service and U ...

privately operated by the

Corrections Corporation of America CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasley ...

* the George Bailey County Detention facility * the East Mesa Detention facility, operated by the City of San Diego * and a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement firearms training complex used by the FBI, the Customs Service, and local police forces *

Education

Otay Mesa is in the

San Ysidro School District The San Ysidro School District (SYSD) is a public school district in San Diego County, California, United States. It includes five elementary schools, one middle school, and several preschools in the San Ysidro community in San Diego, California ...

(SYSD) and the Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD). Public schools in and near Otay Mesa include: * Finney Elementary School * Juarez Lincon Elementary School * Los Altos Elementary School * Howard Pence Elementary School * Silverwing Elementary School * San Ysidro Elementary School The area is zoned to Montgomery High School.
Shown as approved
/ref>

References

External links

Otay Mesa community profile, city of San Diego

* ttp://www.sandiego.edu/tbi Trans-Border Instituteat the University of San Diego
Mesa de Otay Delegation, Tijuana, Mexico (In Spanish)
{{Authority control Neighborhoods in San Diego South Bay (San Diego County)