Despite study by S.D. crews, parking meters aren’t coming to La Jolla Cove anytime soon, city says

The recent presence of San Diego city crews near Scripps Park at La Jolla Cove has raised alarm among some local residents that paid parking might be coming to the area.

Looking to quash the rumor, city representatives said this week that the crews were there as part of ongoing data collection and that there are no immediate plans to put parking meters at The Cove.

At the Sept. 24 La Jolla Community Recreation Group meeting, board member Mary Coakley Munk reported that “someone said they saw crews measuring for putting in parking meters there. … When the people were asked why they were there, they stated it was [related to] parking meters.”

Joaquin Quintero, representing the office of San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla, responded that “there has been no proposal that I’m aware of” to create paid on-street parking in that area.

Less than a week later, at the Sept. 30 La Jolla Parks & Beaches meeting, board President Bob Evans asked Quintero and San Diego mayor’s office representative Fatima Maciel about whether paid parking is coming to the coastal area. Evans told the La Jolla Light he asked because of “wonderings by folks in the community.”

Both representatives said they were unaware of any active proposals to install parking meters, though Maciel said “I have heard suggestions from residents that have been brought to us [on that subject], but in terms of us moving that forward, I have not heard anything.”

“Even if it did go forward,” she added, “it would involve a very lengthy process, [including review by] the [California] Coastal Commission, and we know how long that process is.”

City spokesman Anthony Santacroce told the Light this week that a city vendor “is collecting data citywide, including the La Jolla area, for the development of future parking studies. This activity is performed on an ongoing basis and there are no immediate plans to implement paid parking or install meters in the area at this time.”

Additional details about the studies and when the results might be released were not immediately available.

Parking meters have long been a point of contention in La Jolla.

In 2005, La Jolla’s Community Parking District, a mechanism to generate revenue for possible parking solutions, formed with the city of San Diego as a partner. CPDs typically facilitate paid parking and increase free on-street options through parking realignment and removing red curbs.

A 2008 survey by the La Jolla Village Merchants Association indicated that 642 merchants opposed paid on-street parking and 73 favored it. Though the La Jolla CDP still wanted to explore the option, nothing came of it.

The CPD had a period of inactivity before it was dissolved in 2016. Then-City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner said at the time that “soon after the La Jolla Community Parking District was created, the community of La Jolla blocked the efforts … to install paid parking meters in La Jolla. Without any parking meter revenues to support the Community Parking District … it was unable to properly function.”

In 2021, a forum was planned to discuss parking options in La Jolla, including bringing back the CPD and installing parking meters. The forum was postponed indefinitely.