Parking at the Kellogg Park lot in La Jolla Shores and other city-owned beach and bay lots would stay free for the next decade under an ordinance heading to the San Diego City Council Rules Committee on Wednesday, Aug. 26.

Councilmember Raul Campillo will formally introduce the measure, which he co-drafted with Council President Joe LaCava, who represents La Jolla in District 1. The ordinance would add a new section to the San Diego Municipal Code prohibiting the city from charging for parking at any city-owned lot serving beaches or bays, covering locations from Kellogg Park south to Ocean Beach and around Mission Bay.

The prohibition would sunset in 2036. The sitting mayor and council could then revisit it.

"They're worried about the next shoe to drop to try to fix our budget problems in the city of San Diego, so I want to assure them this ordinance makes sure we do not use the beaches as the next bargaining chip to close those budget problems," Campillo told Fox 5 San Diego.

San Diego faces a $120 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2027, and city leaders have previously floated paid beach parking as a potential revenue source. LaCava himself had initially supported that idea before reversing course. In a September 2025 budget memo, LaCava said he came out strongly against paid beach and bay parking because he anticipated what the FY2027 budget conversation would look like, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Balboa Park paid-parking experiment, which began in January 2026, offered a cautionary tale. Museum attendance there dropped 34 percent on average after meters went live, with some institutions seeing declines of up to 60 percent, according to the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership. The city voted May 20 to end that program as part of a lawsuit settlement, with paid parking set to expire by Dec. 31. Campillo was the only council member who had voted against both the trash fees and Balboa Park paid parking.

LaCava and Campillo's deputy chief of staff Vic Vettiyil presented the draft ordinance to the La Jolla Community Planning Association at its Thursday, Aug. 6, meeting.

Campillo had proposed a ballot measure in March that would have let voters permanently ban paid beach parking, but said that approach would have cost several hundred thousand dollars to put on the ballot and run a campaign.

The ordinance needs three votes in the Rules Committee to advance to the full council, where five votes are required for approval. It then goes to Mayor Todd Gloria for his signature. Gloria has not publicly taken a position on the measure.

The ordinance addresses parking lots only and does not change metered street parking near beaches. The Rules Committee meets Wednesday, Aug. 26, and residents can submit public comment through the city clerk's office.