Measure Would Be on November 2026 Ballot
By Donna Frye
It seems that every 10 years or so, the city comes up with a proposal to charge people to park at the beaches and Mission Bay Park as a potential revenue source. Thankfully, once the public gets involved, the elected officials usually back off this very bad idea.
Most recently, on November 10, 2025, The San Diego Union-Tribune’s David Garrick reported that four members of the city council were proposing entry fees for Mission Bay Park and paid parking at the beaches.
The public rallied against charging anyone to enter/park at Mission Bay Park or our beaches and on November 18, 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.
At that time, the only councilmember who spoke at any length about the issue was Campillo and he made it clear he would not support charging residents or non-residents to park at Mission Bay Park or our beaches.
But that was not the end of it because the city council was required to update their budget priority memos and include proposed revenue sources. Once again, the public spoke up and asked the councilmembers to remove paid beach and bay parking as a potential revenue source.
On January 27, 2026 when the updated budget memos were made public, only one councilmember was still supporting paid parking. Suffice to say, the final budget memos to the mayor did not include paid parking at Mission Bay Park or the beaches.
While it was gratifying to stop the paid parking issue from moving forward, there needs to be a permanent solution to prevent it from happening at all. That’s why it was such welcome news to read Tanja Kropf’s article in the March 5, OB Rag stating that Councilmember Campillo has been discussing a ballot measure proposal at his recent town hall meetings “to codify free parking at beaches and bays, to avoid a similar issue to that at Balboa Park.”
According to Campillo’s office, the proposal is the initial consideration of a “Proposed Ballot Measure for the November 2026 Election to Establish Free Parking at City of San Diego Beaches and Bays.”
Campillo’s proposal is scheduled to be heard at the March 18 meeting of the Rules Committee. Even though the agenda has not yet been posted, there is no time like the present to get involved and show our support since March 18 is fast approaching.
For now, you can send an email supporting Campillo’s proposal to CouncilCommittee@sandiego.gov.
Make sure the subject line is: RULES COMMITTEE, Public Comment, Campillo’s Ballot Measure, 3/18/2026 . Please let your family and friends know too so they can add their support and help get the word out.
As soon as the agenda is posted online, an update with more information will be provided to the OB Rag.
Here is the updated information to submit comments:
March 18, 2026 Rules Committee Meeting at 9:00 A.M.
Item -3, Sub-item F: Consideration of a ballot measure proposed by Councilmember Raul Campillo to establish free parking at beaches and bays in the City of San Diego.
Written comments:
Link to Rules Committee webform:
Reminder that parking people should talk to resiliency board cause there are resiliency plans to relocate most beach parking lots.
How come he did not show up to vote in February 2026 to oppose changes that include allowing the City Council to overrule the city’s Historical Resources Board when the board designates a property historic?
One guy didn’t show up to Land Use and Housing in January or City Council on 2/24!! I don’t know if they use sick leave or vacation time or have other political obligations. No clue. We are just told they are absent. There were three absent Council Members on 2/24, which is a third of City Council. Many constituents were let down in a major way by City Council’s 2/24 decision on Preservation and Progress Package A.
Well, the consent calendar at the city council last week was just that – CONSENT, except for Joe La Cava. Ocean Beach has lost all protection from Complete Communities development (look at the old main Post Office if you want an example).
Wednesday 03/18/2026 City of San Diego City Council Rules Committee Agenda and Zoom link
https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecomm/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=6912&doctype=1
Sub-item F: Consideration of a ballot measure proposed by Councilmember Raul Campillo to establish free parking at beaches and bays in the City of San Diego.
Staff Report
https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecomm/Documents/ViewDocument/Sub-item%20F%20Staff%20Report.pdf.pdf?meetingId=6912&documentType=Agenda&itemId=257111&publishId=1075122&isSection=false
“The proposed ballot measure would add a new section to the San Diego Municipal Code establishing that parking in City-owned beach and bay parking lots shall remain free of charge. The measure would not apply to existing parking meters or other paid parking programs elsewhere in the City. Codifying this policy in the Municipal Code would help preserve access to beaches and bays for residents and visitors while maintaining the City’s longstanding practice of providing free parking in these coastal lots.”
Presentation
https://sandiego.hylandcloud.com/211agendaonlinecomm/Documents/ViewDocument/Sub-item%20F%20Presentation.pptx.pdf?meetingId=6912&documentType=Agenda&itemId=257111&publishId=1075123&isSection=false
One thing residents of Ocean Beach and Point Loma might want to think about in regards to charging for access/parking in Mission Bay is the relative paucity of neighborhood and community parks in our area.
A generally accepted standard for parks recommends two acres of neighborhood park space per 1,000 residents, while eight acres of community park space is recommended per 1,000 residents. That would make a total of about 60 acres of neighborhood and community parks to serve the approximately 60,000 people in the OB/Point Loma area. We certainly do not meet that standard.
One of the justification for not meeting the standard for park space has been well, there’s Mission Bay and there’s the beach. Of course, these are not neighborhood or community resources, but park resources that support the entire region. Due to our proximity to both the beach and bay I (and I suspect many others) view the beach and by as “our” parks, that others from outside the area also get to use, just as communities such as Hillcrest and Banker’s Hill probably think of Balboa Park.
If we are further “taxed” by having to pay to enter Mission Bay or to park at the beach in OB, we are really getting the short end of the park stick. While there may be a carve-out for city residents, that’s certainly not something that we can count on being included in any attempts to charge for beach/bay use. We need to stand up for keeping Mission Bay free for all.
Sadly, we need to memorialize no paid beach parking. . The fact the topic keeps coming up is a red flag. Only this council would keep the option open in spite of the nuclear blowback in Balboa Park. It is estimated that Balboa Park gets 14-15 million annual visitors. Mission Beach and Mission Bay Park get about 30 million. How do they think paid beach parking will go over?
Apparently some of you like the idea of homeless people defecating in our OB parking lots while you rchildren go to school a few blocks away! The public indecency that is presented in some of these transients when our children are present, Keep allowing free parking and the vans / RVs will be here to live for free forever while they dump there septic tanks in our parking lots. I would rather have paid parking and ride my bike to the beach than deal with the homeless people that want to take all the parking spots and drive down the economy from visitors wanting to come here and actually contribute to the local economy and help rebuild our pier that we will never get funding for if noone wants to visit!
Wow! Blame the homeless for everything, why don’t ya? Perhaps you ought to look into why the richest country in the world even has homeless people. And you would usher in paid parking at the beach just so you don’t have to look at those cringey, dirty homeless folks.