Donna Frye: ‘Help Stop Paid Parking at Our Beaches and Mission Bay Park — Please Contact City Council Before Friday, January 9’

By Donna Frye

As we head into the new year, it’s time once again to let the city council know that we oppose paid parking at our beaches and Mission Bay Park for residents and non-residents alike.

Last year, four councilmembers (LaCava, Foster, Moreno and Elo-Rivera) included paid beach and bay parking in their budget priority memos as a potential revenue source.

Fortunately, on November 18, 2025 the paid parking proposal was not included as part of the council resolution being sent to the mayor’s office for consideration in preparing the FY 2027 budget.

However, as part of the annual budget cycle, the city council is required to update their budget priority memos and provide them to the Independent Budget Analyst (IBA) by January 9.

We need to make sure that the next round of budget priority memos do not include proposals for paid parking at our beaches and Mission Bay Park.

There are many reasons why paid parking at our beaches and Mission Bay Park is a bad idea.

First, it limits public access.

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. Link to IBA Report.

This includes ensuring equitable public access in compliance with state law.

Third, since the issuance of the 2022 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  November 5, 2025 report from the Office of the City Auditor “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.

It is irresponsible to seek new revenue when the city cannot account for the revenue it already has.

For all of the above reasons, it makes no sense to include paid parking at our beaches and Mission Bay Park.

Please call or email the city councilmembers before January 9. Let them know you oppose including paid parking at our beaches and Mission Bay Park as a revenue source as part of their budget priority memos.

Please do it today and ask others to do the same. It’s easier to prevent this from happening in the first place than it is to fix it after the fact.

CD1 619-236-6611 joelacava@sandiego.gov
CD2 619-236-6622 jennifercampbell@sandiego.gov
CD3 619-236-6633 stephenwhitburn@sandiego.gov
CD4 619-236-6644 henryfoster@sandiego.gov
CD5 619-236-6655 marnivonwilpert@sandiego.gov
CD6 619-236-6616 kentlee@sandiego.gov
CD7 619-236-6677 raulcampillo@sandiego.gov
CD8 619-236-6688 vivianmoreno@sandiego.gov
CD9 619-236-6699 seanelorivera@sandiego.gov

Author: Source

23 thoughts on “Donna Frye: ‘Help Stop Paid Parking at Our Beaches and Mission Bay Park — Please Contact City Council Before Friday, January 9’

  1. Thx, Donna, for this update and “call to action.” I’m sending to council and mayor now, and posting on social media.
    I urge others to do the same.

  2. Big thank you to Donna Frye for compiling these facts so San Diego citizens can let the City Council know why they should not using fees as revenue.
    I’ve sent my emails today

  3. The City Council appears to be disregarding residents’ concerns about rising fees and parking rates across San Diego and is now proposing additional charges at one of the city’s most valued public spaces—the beach.

    This approach is not surprising given statements by Sean Elo-Rivera that frame San Diego’s natural resources as revenue opportunities. Measures such as paid beach parking, tourism wage mandates, proposed second-home rental taxes, and other fees are often presented as targeting tourists. In practice, however, residents are likely to bear most of the cost. San Diegans both live and play locally, and about 80% of vacation rentals are owned by local “mom-and-pop” residents who invested personal savings to support their families.

    Despite record city revenues, poor fiscal management by the Council has resulted in a significant budget deficit, including the rejection of proposed budget cuts from Todd Gloria, reportedly to align with what Councilmember Elo-Rivera describes as “abundance thinking.”

    The select committee on the cost of living has done a great job making SD less affordable for residents! Rumors have it Elo-Rivera seeks to run for mayor, let’s make sure we stop this nickel and diming mentality here and now, and remind voters on the campaign trail that trash fees, Balboa parking, tourism wage mandates, beach parking, and rental property tax proposal originate with Elo-Rivera, and vote no thank you!

  4. Belmont Park has been promoting paid parking in their lots for some time. Why, because they want turnover at the beach. This increases foot traffic at their stores and therefore increases revenues. The last thing they want is visitors parking and staying all day at the beach, as if they had some right to access to our beaches. Thanks to Donna for her work on this issue.

  5. Back in the day, I had a bunch of friends who lived in Venice — part of LA. Venice used to be a lot like OB, just 3 times larger. So I would often drive up there and visit my friends. When LA installed paid beach parking in Venice, I literally watched the community go down hill — not economically, but socially, culturally — as a community and neighborhood. Paid parking helped destroy the Venice that many knew. Don’t let it happen in OB or other local beaches.

    1. With you 100% on this. What has happened to the party of Joe Lunchbox, who just wants to take the family out for an afternoon at the beach or park? It is beyond sad.

  6. Its time to tell city hall that parks are OFF LIMITS to their revenue and development schemes !
    Why the push for luxury apartments and paid parking in dedicated Mission Bay Park?
    Why the thirty four highrise hotels and counting on San Diego Bay public tidelands
    instead of park and recreation?
    No other city would even propose such outrage !

  7. Nov 26th interview with Elo. Question is, do you believe him after his past actions?

    Elo-Rivera: I don’t want to focus on resident fees. I don’t want them to be paying more.

    Safchik: Now, we’re also looking ahead, shifting to possibly charging for parking at the beaches and bays. Do you expect city residents to be on the hook for that?

    Elo-Rivera: Absolutely not. That’s a nonstarter for me.

    Safchik: You would not proceed with it?

    Elo-Rivera: I will not support San Diego residents paying for parking at the beaches and the bays. And apparently, I wasn’t explicit about it, explicit enough about it with Balboa Park when that conversation started. So now knowing that, we need to be 100% clear, that is a a resource for San Diegans. They absolutely should not be paying to park at the beaches and bays. That’s a nonstarter.

    https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/politics/politically-speaking/sean-elo-rivera-wants-corporations-to-pay-up/3937740/

  8. This is confirmation that Elo Rivera is running for mayor.

    He lied to the people of D9 that he would advocate on their behalf when he first ran in 2020. Instead he marginalized their concerns and cut off communication with people who disagreed with him.

    He can’t be trusted.

  9. I’m all for paid parking in beach lots. As a surfer I’m tired of all the people who take over the lot(s) for the whole day in their vans and RV’S leaving little or no parking for recreational users who just want to park for a few hours. Tourmaline Surfing Park is a perfect example. Paid parking would solve this problem.

    1. AndrewC, you are a Kook and you do not surf. If you did surf everyday, you would oppose paying for parking everywhere you try go surf. Parking is now $35 in Huntington Beach. Tourmaline Surf Park was created for specifically to accomodate surfing recreation. The parking lot gets filled BECAUSE it is the ONLY beach parking lot in Pacific Beach.

      1. Always good to descend into personal abuse when you don’t like someone’s point of view.
        Much of the Tourmaline lot is taken over by “lot lizards” that move in at dawn and stay all day. They are often drunk and sometimes harass those who they perceive to be non locals. Lately there is a crew of van lifers who have moved in. Ask the local residents what they think, I know they hate it. Problem solved if you bring in paid parking.

        1. Whether intentional or not, what you are advocating for is privatizing our beaches. Rather an elitist mentality Andrew.

          Local residents do not own the beach Andrew. You are advocating for discriminating against those lacking the money to pay for parking to discriminate against them and prevent their families from enjoying the natual resource is the Pacific Ocean. This is something that, according to our existing laws, shall remain available to all.

          How do you go about assigning the “lot lizard'” moniker Andrew?

          What criteria must a beach-goer meet in order to enjoy the ocean that is acceptable to you?And how is it, that you have tasked yourself with the authority to establish their worthiness compared to your own self imposing right to use the beach Andrew?

          Someone who doesn’t surf, but claims to be a Surfer without earning the distinction, is a Kook by definition. That’s not personal abuse.

          Respect begets respect and it is something that you, just like every other Surfer, must work for and earn. If you surfed, you would know that gaining the wave knowledge needed to become a proficient Surfer is only accomplished by dedicating yourself everyday to Surfing and is the only thing that will lift you from Kook status to becoming a respected Surfer. You’re obviously not there yet, and from the sounds of it you most likely do not possess the commitment it takes to become an actual Surfer.

          The problems you are whining about are the result of decades of understaffing at the San Diego Police Department, the Politico-corporate monopolization housing policies that force people into Van Life-ing on the 5th of each month, Incompetent leadership, mismanaged budgets and 0 shits given for anything pertaining to the public good. (With the exception of the ones that our corrupted public officials and “the Party” can immediately profit from. And these are the very ones that you are now championing here.)

          Citizens of the entire County come down to Tourmaline Canyon to park and surf, including tourists.

          Get up earlier, if you want to avoid the crowds.

          It should not be incumbent upon us to have pay $35 every time we want to go for a surf because you are too lazy to get up early and can’t find a parking space due to SCARCITY!

          Park in the neighborhoods and walk to the beach, because it’s something that we all have to do to surf some days. You won’t though, because Instead you’d prefer to isolate yourself from the surf community, most likely because you cannot surf. Ironically your actions and attitude are alienating yourself from the very Surfers that can help you learn.

          I am a local resident.

          Residents do not hate the Surfers and Surf Clubs that hang out in the Canyon and clean up the beaches everyday, this I can assure you.

          Van lifers are an issue EVERYWHERE in this city for the above mentioned reasons. Punishing the stewards of the ocean by charging taxpaying residents $35 to park everyday at our parks bays and beaches and subsequently jacking those rates every year will do nothing about the root causes of the very problems you are misdirecting the blame onto and installing parking meters at the beach will inevitably facilitate more and more fiscal irresponsibility.

          Advocate for reasonable fiscal responsibility Andrew. Do not advocate to further shake down San Diegans to gouge the public who’s taxes already pay to maintain our beaches, bays, parks and provide what staff we do have on the San Diego Police Department.

    2. How’s about just signing it as 3 hours maximum parking in 24 hours. We don’t need to monetize beach parking to solve a solvable problem.

  10. I support paid parking at beaches for tourists, with annual passes for residents of San Diego for an immaterial price. We should absolutely be monetizing parking at the beaches for tourists who take up the majority of our parking in the summertime. There has to be a compromise somewhere, parking won’t stay free forever considering the city’s budget deficit. Let’s get ahead of it now before locals get left behind!

    1. That is the silliest most nonsensical thing I have read today. No there needn’t be any compromise, the city’s budget bullsh1t should not effect leisure nor businesses. This is a regressive tax and it is wholly unjustified.

      John Smith, did you read that the City cannot account for it’s current revenue? How can the City Council even take this up as an agenda item without a completed audit? And why should they bring this up as an agenda item against recommendation after recommendation after recommendation against it? So John Smith, how are we “getting ahead of it now before locals get left behind?” That’s a pretty moronic statement.

      The city’s inability to enforce laws that I pay them to enforce should not cost me an ever increasing amount of money each day. By eliminating apartment construction tax subsidies, and actually allocating development impact fees instead of returning them because they were ddliberately allowed to expire to the tune of a billion dollars we can balance the budget and have a surplus.

  11. Today, a few councilmembers are saying that they’re having second thoughts about surge parking rates downtown and/or paid parking in Balboa Park. So I just sent my email, as this article requests, with some hope that there may be chance of enough of them listening this time. Thanks for providing the relevant info for making a strong argument against adding one more parking fee fiasco to the list.

  12. Mr. Smith, you don’t seem to understand the public trust doctrine. This is a tradition that goes back to the Byzantine empire and beyond. It holds that the waterfront is the commons, open to everyone. Not a property owner, not people who live in a certain jurisdiction, city or state, but everybody. It is enshrined in the California constitution and given teeth by the California Coastal Act. If you are a local, as you seem to imply, where is your aloha? Wait, I don’t think you know what that means either, do you? If you like to pay for parking, go back to New York, or wherever you came from.

    1. John, fact is that city taxpayer dollars go to maintaining parking lots, beach parks, streets, lifeguards, law enforcement, the list goes on and on. The city is running at a budget deficit, the OB pier is withering away and the city cant afford to tear it down, much less build a new one. OB locals know the truth, that tourists, van lifers, riff raff take take take from our community and offer nothing back in return. They cost taxpayers money. You know who picks up their trash? Locals and city workers. If we want to preserve our community and coastal areas, the money needs to come from somewhere. Let them pay their fair share, or watch as locals continue to get squeezed out in favor of gentrified short term vacation rentals and junkies. I guess we have different interpretations of aloha….

      1. As was explained, many people are doing the van life thing because they were priced out of having an actual roof over their head. Unlike homeless who are sleeping on the streets or sidewalks and even in their vehicles, “van lifers” by and large people who work. There are even people active duty in the military who are who go through temporary periods sleeping in their vehicles (I work in military admin). I think is safe to say you know all this so when you make the blanket statement that these people are not contributing, you know it’s a false statement.

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