SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — With summer just around the corner, leaders in San Diego may dramatically scale back access to city lakes to address a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar budget deficit.
“We come here every day to walk. It is the only exercise that one of our family members gets for medicinal purposes, so it would be terrible for us,” said local resident Anson Cape.
The thought of losing access to Miramar Reservoir is a painful prospect for him. For the past two years, the site has become more than an outdoor escape, and not just for him and his family. “We see the same people every day. Families, people with dogs, people that run and walk and people that picnic,” said Cape.
However, cutting lake hours is on the table as Mayor Todd Gloria works to plug a $258 million hole in the city budget.
Miramar Reservoir and Lake Murray Reservoir could potentially see the biggest reductions, opening just two days a week — Saturday and Sunday — from the current seven.
Lake Hodges, Otay Lake, and several others would see similar changes to services and hours.
A report by the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst shows the FY 2026 Proposed Budget for reservoir recreation program expenditures is $2.2 million, which is a decrease of $891,000 from the FY 2025 adopted budget. Revenue to support the program is budgeted at approximately $1.6 million for FY 2026.
The majority of the decrease for the General Fund is due to proposed budget mitigations to
reduce the days various lakes are open for recreational use. The total reduction includes $889,081 in expenditures, with an additional $266,896 in revenue decrease due to lower permit fee revenue associated with the lake closures. The cuts would save the city $622,185.
Local resident Meg Feingold worries tourism may be an unintended casualty. “If something like this were closed and they were visiting from out of town, out of country that might deter people from wanting to come back again and visit family or friends or just vacation,” said Feingold.
She believes the city should find savings elsewhere. “Maybe they can look at migrating money from another source over to help the deficit,” said Feingold.
Others are urging city leaders to keep something in mind. “You know we can cut waste. This is not waste. Having a park open for public use is not waste,” said Anson Cape.
The city council will hold a series of hearings from May 5-9, and the mayor will release his revised final budget proposal on May 14. A final budget will be adopted in June.
