Councilman Raul Campillo’s proposal is scheduled to be heard at the Rules Committee meeting on March 18.

SAN DIEGO — San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo is proposing a ballot measure to ensure that access to San Diego bays and beaches remains free.

San Diego leaders are currently working on ways to address the projected $120 million budget deficit for the 2027 fiscal year. Some previous suggestions from City Council members, including at a meeting in November, were calls for entry fees at Mission Bay Park and paid parking at beaches to increase City revenue. 

“I don’t want… to have to pay additional [money] to enjoy what we have here,” Marco Gamez, a Rancho Bernardo resident who often visits Mission Bay Park, said. 

The proposal from late 2025 received immediate pushback from the public. People visiting Mission Bay Park on Sunday, including resident Anant Goel, are also opposed to entry fees at the park or paid parking at beaches. 

“It would definitely make me second-guess coming here. Which would probably end up having me come here even less. So, I wouldn’t want parking to be the determining factor of me spending a day at the beach or the park,” Goel said. 

When the topic of paid parking at bays and parks was discussed by the San Diego City Council in November, Campillo made it clear he would not support charging residents or non-residents for parking. 

“I was one of the few Council members who voted ‘no’ on Balboa Park parking fees, and it’s because I could tell it was going to backfire… I was really worried that they were going to turn to the other magnet for tourism and San Diegans,” Campillo said. 

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 fiscal year 2027 budget. Councilmembers have recently voiced in budget hearings that they are focusing on potential budget cuts to address the shortfall, emphasizing alternatives to raising taxes or putting fees on residents. 

But Campillo told CBS 8 that he wants to avoid another Balboa Park paid parking situation in the future. 

“I’m bringing forward a ballot proposal to the Rules Committee next week, and I hope [it] will appear on the ballot in November, and what it would do is place protections directly into our City law to ensure that parking at our City beaches and bays remains free,” Campillo said. 

His proposal is scheduled to be heard at Wednesday’s meeting of the Rules Committee. 

“Our constituents feel like they’ve been nickel-and-dimed for so much over the last year. And one thing they do not want to see us do is all [of a] sudden turn to our beaches and our bays and start charging them to park there,” Campillo said. 

Sunday afternoon, CBS 8 reached out to the City of San Diego and other councilmembers for comment on this topic, and a City spokesperson shared that they would not be commenting.