La Jolla’s Separation from San Diego Moves Forward Following Signature Gathering Confirmation

An effort by the Association for the City of La Jolla to secede from the city of San Diego reached a critical milestone this week following confirmation that enough signatures have been verified to move the process to cityhood forward.

According to the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), the agency in charge of new city creation in San Diego County, the ACLJ has collected more than the required 6,750 signatures needed to continue on with the process. Up next in the process is drafting a final certified financial analysis, with an ultimate goal by supporters being a vote for all citizens in San Diego on whether or not La Jolla could break away from the city.

“It’s a relief. It’s like, finally, this is done,” said ACLJ Vice President Diane Kane. “We would like to make this the jewel it was many years ago. It’s lost a lot of its luster, and we just want to fix it for everybody.”

However, despite the high number of signatures in favor of the split, many within the city of San Diego have remained dead set against a split and have challenged the validity of the signatures. Leading the movement to keep La Jolla and it’s 46,000 residents within the city has been San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. In particular, Gloria was incensed this week that LAFCO convinced the San Diego Registrar of Voter’s to undo their earlier decision to not count some of the signatures on the ACLJ petition. As the decision helped moved the number of valid signatures over the needed amount, Gloria vowed legal action to help the stop the break away attempt.

“The City formally objected to many of LAFCO staff’s interpretations, including the allowance of names not matching registered voter data, incorrect addresses and ZIP codes, incomplete addresses, and illegible submissions already rejected by the Registrar,” said Gloria in a statement this week. “To ensure full transparency regarding LAFCO’s override of the ROV’s Certification of Insufficiency, the City will issue a formal Letter of Objection and continue to explore the legal options available.”

A La Jolla breakaway

For a long time, La Jolla’s roughly 46,000 of San Diego’s roughly 1.38 million residents, have wanted to separate from San Diego. Many in the neighborhood feel like needed projects there, including infrastructure, public safety issues, and road repairs, have taken a backseat to other areas of the city despite the neighborhood giving a lot through taxes to the city. In 2023, the ACLJ pushed forward and began studies and paperwork on making La Jolla a city.

Unlike other recent attempts by neighborhoods in cities like Los Angeles that never made it past that phase, the ACLJ managed to do so. In May 2024, they moved onto the signature gathering phase, and for months, gathered the needed 25% of all registered voters in La Jolla, or about 6,500 people, in order to place the issue on the ballot. The issue, initially written off by many in San Diego, finally began to be taken seriously in November when the number of signatures began to climb. While Gloria and others in San Diego tried to convince those in La Jolla to stay, it was too late. This led to the announcement that enough signatures were gathered, as well as Gloria’s attempt to stop the secession. And, despite the effort, the ACLJ has said that they are going to continue on with the process.

“The Local Agency Formation Commission follows a different part of the code to state law,” added ACLJ treasurer Ed Witt. “I respect the mayor. I know Todd is a great guy, but he’s wrong. We think we can take that burden away from the city for our infrastructure and save them money and save them liability and make La Jolla and the city of San Diego better for everyone.”

Should La Jolla successfully become its own city, San Diego stands to lose taxes that contribute 6% to the city budget, and 3% of their total population.