La Jolla cityhood effort: group surpasses signature requirement

Last Updated on June 19, 2025

With enough signatures captured to begin a comprehensive exploration of detachment from San Diego, the effort for a city of La Jolla presses on.

As certified by an April 29 “Certificate of Sufficiency” from the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission, the Association for the City of La Jolla has collected more than the required signatures needed to trigger an official investigation into La Jolla’s viability as its own city.

The certificate, signed by LAFCO executive officer Keene Simonds, confirms ACLJ obtained 6,772 verified signatures, 22 above the needed 6,750 from registered La Jolla voters.

The signatures support ACLJ’s formal application in January to LAFCO asking the San Diego County commission to investigate whether cityhood for La Jolla is feasible, and follow 10 months of petition signing and signature verification.

The ACLJ team – its board and volunteers – “have done an amazing job [over] countless hours,” ACLJ President Trace Wilson said.

“We feel great.”

La Jolla is currently a community within the city of San Diego, beholden to San Diego’s laws and policies; no other groups have gotten this far in recurrent quests for La Jolla’s incorporation.

In addition to the verified petition signatures, ACLJ’s application to LAFCO includes fees funded by $66,000 in donations; a boundary map of a proposed city of La Jolla; and ACLJ’s preliminary fiscal analysis, which shows La Jolla generates $83.8 million in revenue while costing the city $74.8 million in services.

“Based on the results of the petition review,” the Certificate of Sufficiency states, “the proposed reorganization is accepted … and will proceed under [administrative] review for further consideration by the commission.”

LAFCO will now begin interviewing consultants to select one to conduct a Final Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis for the county agency.

The final fiscal analysis numbers will be sent to the county and will be compared against the preliminary analysis numbers, compiled for ACLJ by Richard Berkson.

“This is a county process,” Wilson said, not one overseen by the city of San Diego or the Registrar of Voters.

ACLJ will now continue its multiyear effort into more fundraising. The organization has already raised more than $140,000 of the $750,000 it needs to see the LAFCO application to completion.

ACLJ will also be educating San Diegans as to how La Jolla’s cityhood “is really positive,” Wilson said, through focus groups and other efforts.

La Jolla’s detachment from San Diego is beneficial for all of San Diego, he said, and a city of La Jolla would “be sound going forward.”

ACLJ is also expanding the skillset of its board, Wilson said, currently creating fundraising, legal, public relations and other committees.

“We’re broadening our scope,” he said. “We’ll need a lot more people helping us out” from the La Jolla community and greater San Diego, including volunteers and “serious professionals.”

For more information, visit cityoflajolla.org or email info@cityoflajolla.org.