Thursday, October 1, 2026
In an effort to make up a shortfall in beach fees of more than $1 million last year, the Long Beach City Council is looking once again to raise the fees, including those in the most widely used category, the resident family plan.
It would be the second straight year fees have been raised, after a number of years in which they remained unchanged. Officials have scheduled a public hearing on the beach fee proposal for Tuesday, April 19, at 7 p.m.
Under the proposal, the resident family plan would jump nearly 27 percent, to $115. The cost for non-resident families would rise about 20 percent to $225.
Resident individual fees are proposed to remain at $70. Daily fees for residents would also hold at $12.
Beach revenues fell short of expected benchmarks last year, city officials said, thanks to a combination of the lingering coronavirus pandemic and less-than-optimum weather. City Council President Karen McInnis said earlier this week that she wanted to make up the shortfall in the early part of the beach season.
Long Beach can anticipate many of those financial needs, McInnis said, thanks to City Comptroller Ina Resnick.
“You have a council that, for the first time I have ever seen in my 17 years of living here, actually has an Ocean Beach Park revenue and expense analysis,” she said. “If previous councils were provided wit that information, they as fiduciaries would have had a much harder time ignoring the plain fact that the beach cost more than it took in.”
Residents had mixed reactions to the proposal.
”As a consumer, I Iike the lowest prices,” said one longtime resident, Francis McQuade. “But (the beach has) been an undervalued asset. I would begrudgingly say it’s necessary.”
But James Hodge, another long-time resident and board chairman of the MLK Center, was opposed.
“When I was a kid coming up, the beach was not affordable to some,” he said. ”Now it appears to be less affordable for more people.”
Rich Rothberg buys the senior pass, which would cost $10 more this summer under the plan. But he still considers that pass a “bargain.”
Long Beach “needs more revenue,” he said. “I personally have no complaints, but it’s a little conflicting. The city needs revenue, but the prices can’t be so high that out-of-towners don’t pay it.”
Former city councilman Mike Delury, who also buys the senior pass, agrees.
“If you think about it, do the math and you go to the beach often, the family pass is still around $2 a day,” he said. “Also, the senior rate is still a bargain because $30 for a beach pass is very reasonable.”
Leah Tozer, co-chair of the Chamber of Commerce, doesn’t have a problem with the new prices, saying she’s “personally fine with the given numbers.” Tozer is more concerned on how the city will enforce the use of passes and the checking at the booths on the boardwalk.
Kim Ashmead, a mother of three, isn’t an everyday beachgoer, but spends her fair share of time in the sand. She said she has noticed how “everything is getting more expensive,” though the new passes still aren’t “outrageous.”
“It all sounds reasonable,” Ashmead said.
