Funding for a new Ocean Beach Pier, bike path lighting, trash cans and ongoing park and pedestrian issues are among the list of things the Ocean Beach Planning Board would like to see in the city of San Diego’s budget for next fiscal year.

The volunteer advisory group even included San Diego County in the 2026-27 wish list it created during its meeting Jan. 6, calling for funding for what it considers necessities and vital areas of interest in Ocean Beach.

The San Diego City Council intends to vote on the new budget in June. The fiscal year begins July 1.

Much of the Planning Board’s budget request is the same as in previous years, including items such as park maintenance, public space enforcement and pedestrian safety.

Multiple board members voiced concerns about dogs being off leash and who should be enforcing rules against it.

“This has been something in our previous budget memos as well. We want to raise this to a higher concern and priority,” said Planning Board Chairwoman Andrea Schlageter.

However, several new items were added during the meeting.

“We have decided to add the OB Pier back into the budget [request],” Schlageter said. “We would like the city to start financing that rebuilding project.”

Spurred by huge projected budget deficits, the city put its plans to replace the shuttered, damaged and dilapidated pier on hold with the price tag estimated at nearly $200 million.

OB leaders have estimated the community is losing up to 1,370 daily visitors since the pier was closed to the public in October 2023.

Randy Reyes, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s representative for City Council District 2, which includes Ocean Beach, said last summer that the city is continuing to apply for environmental and other permits for the project and drawing up plans for sanitation and maintenance.

“We’re working on maintaining what we have now and figuring out next steps, but the big part is the money,” he said. “We’re open to public/private partnerships. Anything we can get so we can get this going.”

Schlageter said the Planning Board also is “concerned that the bike path is not well-lit. We have had concerns voiced from board members that the lighting needs to be bird-compatible, but we would like to find some common ground where it can still be well-lit. This is especially important during winter months.”

Additionally, the board is requesting more trash cans across Ocean Beach, particularly along Abbott and Bacon streets between West Point Loma Boulevard and Newport Avenue.

“We had several board members voice that there has been a significant uptick in trash lately and we hope this will get trash off the streets and out of the ocean,” Schlageter said.

Another key topic of the budget discussion was homelessness across Ocean Beach.

“We are all very concerned about the long-term unhoused residents who are in mental crisis and not receiving any help,” Schlageter said. “We typically do these budget memos just to the city, but because the county seems to be taking a very combative stand and they are the ones in charge of mental health services, we are requesting they step up and provide the dollars back. … We [San Diego] are the county’s biggest municipality and we are the ones who are facing the largest crisis.”

Schlageter said she would write a letter to county Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, whose District 3 includes Ocean Beach and Point Loma.

San Diego County has struggled to keep up with the increasing demand for mental health care services, with beds in locked, hospital-based units usually full and patients often held in emergency departments for long periods.

Initial investments have focused on helping those immediately in crisis by opening new stabilization centers and adding specialized response teams. But experts have warned that a more holistic approach is needed over the long term that would allow a steady flow of services rather than responding when symptoms become so severe that law enforcement must get involved.

A 2022 report concluded that the county faced a mental health care staffing crisis and needed 18,500 more mental health workers by 2027 to catch up.

However, in October last year, the county launched a $75 million grant-funded program to support training for mental health care workers, targeted at increasing the number of professionals in the field.

Also in October, the county announced it intended to ask the state for a $100 million grant to help build a “behavioral health wellness campus” on Rosecrans Street next to the San Diego County Psychiatric Hospital. It would include a crisis stabilization unit, a mental health rehabilitation center, a social rehabilitation facility, an adult residential substance use disorder treatment facility and an outpatient community mental health clinic.

Schlageter said the board’s request list was compiled from items left over from prior years as well as additions of things brought up by community members and board trustees.

The budget memo will be available for viewing at oceanbeachplanning.org, Schlageter said.

Board election

The Planning Board also discussed the upcoming election for four of its 12 seats.

It approved a plan to hold an in-person election during its meeting Tuesday, March 3.

“We will also have early voting options with drop-off ballots,” Schlageter said.

Each elected member serves a three-year term.

Potential candidates must be 18 or older and live, own property or own or operate a business in Ocean Beach. They also must gather 20 signatures from Ocean Beach residents, property owners or business owners and submit a formal application via mail or email. They also have the option to include a candidate statement up to 200 words.

Applications to be on the ballot will be accepted through Tuesday, Feb. 17. For the application and the mail and email addresses, visit oceanbeachplanning.org/elections.

All of the eligible incumbents — Tracy Dezenzo, Greg Diamond, Tyler Martin and Chris Szulewski — will be running for reelection, Schlageter said.

“Myself and two others will be in charge of counting the votes and running how everything goes,” she added.

All OB residents and property and business owners may vote.

— Writer Steven Mihailovich and San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Paul Sisson contributed to this report.