Solana Beach's 40th Year Closes Out at La Colonia Park, a Neighborhood Older Than the City
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"With the improvements we've been making in our city, with the programs that we're seeing for our constituents, and the solid partnerships with many of these community groups really have proven an opportunity for us to celebrate turning 40." City Manager Alyssa Muto said that at the March 11 City Council meeting, and how the city followed through says a lot about the place.
There was no gala and no single anniversary weekend. Solana Beach spread its 40th birthday across the events it already holds every year. The fall stretch of that calendar takes place mostly on Valley Avenue, at the park belonging to a neighborhood that existed long before there was a city to celebrate.
Solana Beach incorporated on July 1, 1986. In March, the Union-Tribune laid out how the city planned to mark the milestone: through "the city's usual lineup of community events throughout the year."
The first half of that lineup has already happened. Fiesta del Sol ran May 30–31. The official city birthday party was part of Concerts at the Cove on July 2, and Beach Blanket Movie Night followed on Aug. 8. What's left is Día de los Muertos on Oct. 18, a World Kindness Day event in November, and two December tree lightings. The celebration then continues into 2027 with the spring egg hunt on March 27 and Fiesta del Sol on May 29–30.
That's an anniversary built from repetition. Rather than adding a new event, the city attached the milestone to ones it already runs. So most of the remaining dates fall at the city's two traditional gathering places, Fletcher Cove and La Colonia Park.
The Union-Tribune's anniversary coverage traces Solana Beach's character back more than a century to two origin stories. Mexican farmworkers established the La Colonia neighborhood in the 1920s, and the paper calls it "still a cornerstone of the city." Developer Ed Fletcher shaped what is now Fletcher Cove and much of the early real estate pattern.
The fall calendar leans hard toward the first of those. The biggest remaining anniversary event takes place at La Colonia Park, 715 Valley Ave. The city co-hosts it with the La Colonia Community Foundation, and its stated purpose is "honoring the ancestral legacy of La Colonia de Eden Gardens."
The celebration runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free. The event picks a new theme each year, and the 2026 theme is the city's 40th anniversary. That means photos from across Solana Beach's history as the featured display, a celebratory cake cutting, and a limited-edition mug giveaway.
The program is specific enough to plan a day around:
Food, drinks, and handmade goods are sold on site. The city warns that parking will be limited, asks people to carpool, bike, walk, or take transit, and suggests bringing picnic chairs and blankets.
The pairing is worth a closer look. The year's main fall tribute to the city's 40 years is a photo exhibit set up beside more than 40 family altars, at a park whose neighborhood was settled about 60 years before incorporation.
The anniversary events sit inside a busier October. Here is the full run from this week through mid-December, in order:
December finishes the anniversary year in a fitting way. The city holds two tree lightings, one at each of the places the Union-Tribune named as the roots of local character.
The Fletcher Cove tree lighting is Sunday, Dec. 6, starting at 4:30 p.m. It's hosted by the city and the Parks and Recreation Commission, and Santa is scheduled to arrive with a fire-truck escort at 5:20 p.m.
The La Colonia Park tree lighting follows from 5 to 7 p.m., again with the La Colonia Community Foundation as co-host and Santa due at 5:20. The city's event page lists it for Dec. 13. The March anniversary calendar said Dec. 12, and the city page calls the day both Saturday and Sunday in back-to-back lines. Check with the city closer to the date before you commit to an evening.
Taken together, the two lightings repeat the pattern of the whole year. The city puts on the same event twice so that both of its oldest gathering places get their own night.
The restaurant news along Highway 101 this year follows the same logic as the anniversary calendar. The places drawing attention are building on repeat visits, not on launch buzz.
Lana, at 437 S. Highway 101 in the Beachwalk shopping center, is the clearest example. Owners Travis LeGrand and Mark Wheadon opened it in June 2025 in the former California Pizza Kitchen space. In late July the Union-Tribune reported that they're aiming for a steady neighborhood crowd of 250 to 300 guests a night instead of chasing Michelin attention. The paper says many regulars come twice a week. During happy hour, cocktails are $10 and wood-fired pizzas are $14 at the bar. The top seller isn't the Wagyu or the lamb. It's a roasted half-chicken with mashed potatoes and mushrooms.
The kitchen has settled, too. Executive chef David McIntyre spent years with Wolfgang Puck, including running Cut at 45 Park Lane in London from 2011 to 2020. He rolled out a new summer menu on July 17. He still cooks with the old California Pizza Kitchen wood-fired oven, and on one busy night he told the paper he had 11 pans of chicken roasting at the same time.
Mia's, at 243 N. Highway 101, comes from Bluewater Grill restaurateurs Richard Staunton and Jimmy Ulcickas. In August, executive chef Michael Padilla added 14 lunch and dinner dishes. They include a heritage pork chop, Mediterranean-style ceviche, mushroom-chorizo fundido, a squash-blossom quesadilla, barbacoa short rib, a lox flatbread, and ahi and chicken club sandwiches.
CTZN, at 343 S. Highway 101, opened early this year with a Basque-inspired tapas menu. Siblings Willy Wu Jye Hwa and Karine Beers run it with Chef Juan Gonzalez. It's a good fit for a small-plates dinner after a Belly Up show.
If you'd rather make something than eat out, COMMON PROJECT is new in the Village on Cedros. It's an art and ceramics studio that the Solana Beach Chamber highlighted in its Aug. 12 newsletter. The studio takes reservations daily, holds Sunday walk-ins and Thursday classes, and offers pottery lessons.
For something to read on a slow evening this season, local author Peter House expanded his history of the city, Making Great Better, for the 40th anniversary. He drew on the Civic & Historical Society's archives, and the Society featured the revised book in May.
The anniversary doesn't end in December. It carries on through the March 27 egg hunt and wraps up at Fiesta del Sol on May 29–30, 2027.
A city that marks its 40th by investing in the events it already holds tends to protect the blocks around those gathering places. That affects what homes near Fletcher Cove and La Colonia Park are worth. If you own in Solana Beach and want to know where your home stands as the anniversary year closes, Matt Kidd can bring a builder's eye to the numbers. Request a Free Home Valuation.
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