Panel Votes to Ban Alcohol at Parks, Beaches : Recreation: The surprise recommendation carries the votes necessary for passage when it goes before the full City Council next month.

The days of sipping wine in Balboa Park or guzzling a cold beer at the beach may be numbered after a San Diego City Council committee voted Wednesday to ban alcohol consumption at all city beaches and parks.

The surprise recommendation drew the unanimous approval of the five members of the Public Facilities and Recreation Committee, giving the total ban the necessary votes for passage when it comes before the nine-member council, probably in January.

The ban is targeted at complaints of public drunkenness, crime and noise that have come from representatives of some beach communities. The complaints have prompted the council to impose a nighttime booze ban at beaches north of the Mission Bay channel entrance and on Mission Bay last year.

But in the eyes of some council members, the plan has not worked.

“It just seemed that the problem was citywide, it was increasing and the police favored this as a way to deal with it,” Councilman Bob Filner, the committee’s chairman, said of Wednesday’s vote. “Although it’s unfortunate that a really few people cause the problem, the problem has become overwhelming for a large number of communities.”

“The time has come when (the current ban) can’t be enforced, and the drunken mobs are taking over,” said Sue Oxley, a former board member of the La Jolla Shores Assn., whose complaints about the La Jolla Shores beach Wednesday sparked discussion of a citywide ban.

“They’re pushing out families, and those people who use (alcohol) in moderation will not be able to do that at the beach,” she added.

Technically, the committee included no exceptions in its vote, but aides to Filner called the decision “conceptual.” Filner acknowledged that specific exemptions for restaurants and large events will almost certainly be included in the ordinance to be brought before the full council.

For example, the Cafe del Rey Moro in Balboa Park is licensed to serve beer, wine and alcohol, and the Old Globe Theatre serves beer and wine at intermission, officials at the two establishments said. Filner’s aides said the ban is not intended to include spots such as those.

Also, the Over-the-Line tournament, as synonymous with beer as it is with softball, is held each year on Fiesta Island.

An alcohol ban “would be very detrimental to the tournament itself,” said Steve Miner, whose Beachcomber team has won the open division of the tournament for the past two years. “The large majority of people are there to have a good time and enjoy a few beers and watch some good athletes play ball.”

But individual consumption of alcohol may soon become a misdemeanor if Filner and Council Members Abbe Wolfsheimer, John Hartley, Bruce Henderson and Judy McCarty repeat their votes when the issue comes before the full council.

“That’s how it appears right now,” Filner said.

Most Southern California communities already ban drinking on beaches, according to a report by Deputy City Manager Coleman Conrad. In 1987, McCarty proposed that the city expand its drinking ban to include all city beaches and public places. But a council committee rejected the idea.

However, besides the 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. drinking ban at most city beaches, the city also has imposed restrictions on alcohol sales in parts of downtown, prohibited possession of alcohol on Santa Clara Point in Mission Bay Park, prohibited possession of any glass container at all city beaches and prohibited possession of an open alcoholic-beverage container in a city parking lot, according to the report.

Complaints of rowdiness, gang activity and drug and alcohol use prompted the council to authorize nighttime closure of parking lots at the two Mission Beach sites last year.

A report from City Manager John Lockwood’s office in August showed that 44 of the city’s 174 parks had experienced some kind of problems that brought in police, including gang activity, drug and alcohol use and crimes by transients.

In response to complaints by La Jolla Shores Assn. representatives, the committee also adopted rules limiting the height of woodpiles for bonfires in fire rings and allowing the nighttime closure of parking lots at La Jolla Shores beach and adjacent Kellogg Park.

The alcohol ban was one of a number of suggestions contained in Conrad’s report on beach and park safety.

“Communities which have banned alcohol use are pleased with the results of the ban, as crime and offensive behavior were substantially reduced,” Conrad wrote.

Because of the controversial nature of some of the suggestions, Conrad proposed airing them at public meetings before bringing them back to the committee, but the panel short-circuited that process by adopting the conceptual plan Wednesday.