It’s getting down to the wire for advocates of La Jolla cityhood.

With a deadline of Sunday, Dec. 1, looming to collect up to 1,400 more signatures supporting its cause, the Association for the City of La Jolla has launched a campaign it calls Operation Close the Gap.

“We know we can do this,” said association member Sharon Wampler. “People are showing up more than ever and are gathering signatures in their community and schools.”

The groups effort has been underway since 2022 to have La Jolla detach from San Diego and become its own city. The association began collecting signatures as part of the process June 1, needing support from at least 25% of La Jolla registered voters for the effort to continue.

Story gallery: “Leaving San Diego?” A series about potential La Jolla cityhood

Based on the number of registered voters with full-time residency in La Jolla, the number needed is 6,536. Association members are looking to gather 7,000 signatures as a buffer should some later be deemed invalid when submitted to the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO. Thats down from the 8,000 the group announced at a standing-room-only public workshop in September.

To keep tabs on the progress, the associations board and volunteers “have been doing regular ballot counts to stay abreast of how many we have” and increasing their efforts as needed, Wampler said.

As of Nov. 7, she said, the group has gathered 5,647 of the 7,000 signatures it is seeking.

Many of those signatures were gathered after the September workshop, where it was announced that just under 3,000 had been collected. “We have had an outstanding community response since then,” Wampler said.

La Jolla would become its own city under a proposal a local group has been circulating since 2022. (Ana Lombrozo)

Wampler said shes optimistic that the gradual response is due largely to a lack of awareness of the proposal rather than a lack of support.

“When we go door to door, people are excited,” she said. “When we talk to people, some have not heard about this issue. We didn’t hire marketing people, so its just been grassroots efforts and outreach.”

Thus, the association has launched Operation Close the Gap, an outreach campaign focused on mobilizing volunteers to reach more people. The five-point plan includes frequent communication between organizers and volunteers, giving them real-time progress updates and quick links to access tools and forms; signature targets and incentives for volunteers; recruiting new volunteers; creating a block captain system for volunteers to canvass La Jolla in 12 sections; and making resources and information easier to understand and more accessible.

“The team has been committed and are everywhere, on the street and at events, but they have been collecting when they see the opportunity,” said association volunteer Elise Felicione. “In these last 30 days, we looked at what our goal is and how to get there, so there will be laser focus.

Operation Close the Gap creates ways for all of us to work together and make it easier for volunteers to keep that energy alive. We’re going to be more present. We’ll be out on the street … we want to increase our encounters with those that want to sign the petition.”

Should the association collect at least the required number of signatures, they can be submitted to LAFCO for review. LAFCO would spend the next two months validating the signatures, Wampler said.

“We can’t control whether people are registered to vote in La Jolla, but we can control whether the signatures are filled out correctly,” she said.

If the petition passes LAFCO review, the next series of steps could begin.

Among them are submitting a financial feasibility analysis that has been underway since September 2022, LAFCO’s consideration of the formal cityhood proposal and, if it approves, public voting in which both a majority of La Jollans and the rest of San Diego would need to support La Jolla’s secession.

The proposed city’s boundaries largely align with the 92037 ZIP code, stretching north-south from Del Mar to Pacific Beach and east-west from Interstate 5 to the ocean, with exceptions to exclude Scripps Memorial Hospital and UC San Diego, which has its own ZIP code but currently is part of La Jolla.

The hospital, which is just east of I-5, was included in previous maps, but the association said it has been removed following the discovery that an early La Jolla charter does not explicitly say the hospital must stay in La Jolla.

To sign up for emails and other information about the cityhood effort, visit cityoflajolla.org.