The City of San Diego is revisiting existing regulations that prevent private events, like luxury pop-up picnics, from happening on city beaches and limits where they can be held off-sand.
“These rules have been in place for years already,” Jose Ysea, a public information officer for the city, told NBC 7. “The sand is obviously a great place to relax on, but you have a lot of traffic and activity on the sand already, to have somebody come and set up, it's a public safety issue.”
Ysea referred to a municipal code that prohibits, “commercial operation which involves delivering merchandise, a rental item, or a service to a beach area whether or not a financial transaction takes place within the beach area.”
He said that would include private event companies that set up for things like picnics, regardless of size.
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“I have definitely been the most stressed I've ever been as a business owner,” Madison Price, the owner and founder of Beachin’ Picnics, told NBC 7. “Maybe even more stressed than when I was just setting up my business.”
That’s because, she said, despite her best efforts to research and follow every city rule she could find, she had recently been made aware of the law mentioned above that prevents her business from happening on the sand.
“Which is pretty difficult for me, ‘beach’ is in my business name, so most of my events take place on the sand, on the beach,” Price said.
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Ysea explained while the rule is not new, the city is bringing it to the forefront of conversation since private beach events, like picnics, have become more popular post-pandemic.
“This is not an outright ban on this industry, on a cottage industry, but just trying to comply with the rules and regulations,” he said.
Price said she would like to see the rules laid out more clearly, and that she has been operating since 2021 without any comments or education from the Parks and Recreation Department that she works with closely for permits.
“I wish that more picnic companies and small business owners who actually make their living in public spaces would have been given more of an opportunity to help come up with some of the regulations that have been implemented,” she said.
This does not mean that private picnics can’t happen. The city has a page for “Luxury Picnic Permitting” on its website and it lists 12 spots at local parks, including Mission Bay Park, where people are able to apply for a permit to host a picnic. However, Price explained that it is limiting for her and her competitors because it only allows one picnic per day at each location. She also mentioned there are additional fees, like for special equipment, that add to her operating costs.
“I’ve been doing everything right. I’ve been making sure I’ve been following the rules. I have my business license, I have insurance,” Price said. “Now, I’ve just been scrambling to kind of adjust.”
