Donna Frye: Contact City Council before the Budget Hearing on November 18 to Oppose Paid Parking at Mission Bay Park

Donna Frye Lays Out 4 Reasons Why This is Such Very Bad, Bad Idea

By Donna Frye

On November 18, 2025 at 2 pm the San Diego City Council will be having a hearing to discuss their budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.

It is Item-331 on the agenda.

There are many very important issues related to the budget and I am only focusing on one of them right now, which is Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera’s proposal to charge a non-resident vehicle entry fee to use Mission Bay Park. The proposal includes fees for parking a vehicle, mooring a boat or launching a boat.

This is wrong on so many levels it’s hard to know just where to start.

First, we all know that if this proposal is supported it will only be a matter of time before residents are forced to pay to use Mission Bay Park too. All one needs to do is look at what’s happening at Balboa Park with the proposed parking fees to understand how this works.

Second, on November 25, 2022, the Independent Budget Analyst wrote a report (Number 22-31) that provided details about the myriad challenges of this proposal.

There are implementation issues that include ensuring equitable access to Mission Bay for all members of the public in compliance with state law and revenue issues such as whether it would be legal for the proposed fee revenues to be allocated into the city’s general fund.

Link to IBA Report.

Third, since the issuance of the IBA Report, a City of San Diego Parking Demand Management Study was conducted and released in January 2025. Included in that study was a comprehensive analysis of Mission Bay parking demand. The study concluded on page 38 that “…it is not recommended that paid parking be implemented in the other facilities of Mission Bay where demand is not consistently high enough to require it.”

Link to Parking Study.

Knowing this, it is unclear how this proposal could generate revenue sufficient to offset the costs to properly implement, maintain and audit it.

Finally, no new fees should even be considered until there is a full accounting of Mission Bay Park revenues.

According to a report from the Office of the City Auditor dated November 5, 2025 and heard at the Audit Committee today, November 12, regarding Mission Bay Park revenues, “The Office of the City Treasurer could not formally issue potential audit findings from the required percentage lease revenue audits for FY2024 due to a City Management-directed moratorium on revenue audits, which increases the risk of loss of revenue and reduces transparency and oversight for the City.”

The auditor’s report went on to say “Therefore, at the time of this audit, we could not confirm that all Mission Bay Lease Revenue payments in FY2024 have been applied appropriately…”

Link to Auditor Report.

Has anyone ever heard of a “City Management-directed moratorium on revenue audits?” I haven’t and it sure seems like a really, really, really bad idea to direct city employees not to conduct a required audit.

(I am practicing many deep-breathing exercises right now to write this without using a lot of curse words.)

Please contact the city council and let them know you do not support charging fees to visit and enjoy Mission Bay Park and not to include it as one of the proposed revenue sources to balance the city budget. It’s a bad idea.

Here is a link to the webform to provide your comments on Item-331.