The city of San Marcos installed temporary summer fencing at Rio Vista Park on May 22.
City council approved the installation of the fences during their May 20 work session to manage park access and better enforce the single use container ban over the summer.
The fencing is part of the city’s “Managed Access Test Plan,” (MATP) where areas deemed key access points will be staffed on the weekends, but not from Monday-Thursday, except during holiday weekends.
“I stress that this is a test. The fencing infrastructure is not permanent,” San Marcos Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzales said during the work session. “Some of our long weekends also incorporate a Monday or Thursday.”
According to Gonzales, the access points will only be used on weekends because that is when large amounts of people visit the river from out of town.
Gonzales said the reason the test is at Rio Vista and not another riverfront park, or all of the riverfront parks, is because Rio Vista is where a large amount of violations of the single use container ban and other ordinances are occurring.
“It is our belief that we will get better compliance through managed access,” Gonzales said. “Because it is a test plan we will see if we need this up… throughout the year. It may be that we only need the fence up during the summer season.”
During public comment in the work session, Kileigh Reed, the owner of Wild Rice Studio and a board member for The Eyes of the San Marcos River spoke in favor of managed access at Rio Vista.
“I was in attendance yesterday, at a Monday morning cleanup, and it was astonishing to see how much trash was left,” Reed said. “I beg you to take a look at what is going on at Rio Vista and create a managed access program, so we can all have river parks that we enjoy.”
During the presentation of the MATP proposal, Gonzales said that the fencing would allow for more signs to educate park visitors about the rules of the parks and river, such as the single use container ban.
In the work session, city staff also proposed charging for river access and creating a permit system for residents, as well as giving parking enforcement the power to call for a car to be towed, instead of waiting for a police officer to call that tow. Council decided to revisit both topics at a later date.
