A revision of the city of San Diego’s draft budget restores 40 of 60 hours after the La Jolla Rec Center was proposed for full closure.

La Jolla Recreation Center will not fully close but will have a reduction in hours from 60 to 40 weekly, according to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s May budget revision. 

The announcement, made during a May 13 press conference, comes just two weeks after a city of San Diego memo and related attachments recommended the La Jolla Recreation Center for full closure.

The city is “restoring 40 hour operations” at the La Jolla Rec Center, Gloria said.

Other reductions in hours at rec centers were proposed to reduce expenditures for the Parks & Recreation Department by $5.4 million and the Library Department by $2.4 million to meet a budget deficit of $118 million for Fiscal Year 2027, which begins July 1.

Most of those proposed reductions have now been taken off the table, with full restorations in City Council districts with typically underserved populations.

The La Jolla/Riford Library had also been recommended for a half- or full day closure on Saturdays. Detailed information on that recommendation is not yet available.

“I’m so proud of the [community recreation] board and community support that responded to our call to action and emphasized the criticality of the La Jolla Recreation Center and others across San Diego,” recreation board President Alan Dulgeroff said just after the press conference.

Though details are not yet available as to which 40 hours the Rec Center would remain open, Dulgeroff is hopeful the hours will reflect what’s best for the community, he told lajolla.ca.

“The council is listening,” San Diego City Council President Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla, said at the press conference.

LaCava thanked Gloria for restoring rec center hours in La Jolla and in underserved areas in the city, which LaCava said shows a commitment to equity.

After the La Jolla Rec Center was proposed for full closure, community members sprang into action.

Speaking at a “special emergency meeting” of the CRG May 4, Dulgeroff said the city’s analysis “got it wrong,” emphasizing the La Jolla Rec Center “is not just for La Jolla,” rather serving the whole county as a free place for beach visitors to enjoy recreation.

Following the meeting, parents and children who use the Rec Center began petitions and fundraising drives as grassroots attempts to save the community gathering space.

Others wondered about the building’s fate, as the La Jolla Recreation Center began as a gift in July 1915 from famed La Jolla benefactor Ellen Browning Scripps, who envisioned the center as a community house and playground.

A notarized document filed with the San Diego city clerk on July 6, 1915 (La Jollan Trace Wilson furnished lajolla.ca with a copy) conveys the land for the Rec Center from Scripps to the city, with deed conditions that should the city close the Rec Center, the premises would revert back to Scripps and her heirs.

May 12, Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation Executive Director Doug Dawson told lajolla.ca that had the Rec Center closure gone through, “we are prepared to take appropriate action to honor Ellen Browning Scripps original 1915 directions in order to preserve her philanthropic legacy.”

The May revised budget draft took community feedback seriously, Gloria said May 13.

Further details will be released in coming days and the City Council will continue holding hearings on the revised budget through May. 

The City Council will adopt the final budget in June.