Non-residents will be required to pay parking fees within the City Park parking lot to cover park department cost recovery beginning May 1, 2025.
On Dec. 3, the San Marcos City Council approved an ordinance that would require non-residents to pay parking fees from 6:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m. within the City Park parking lot. San Marcos residents will receive free parking.
Parks and Recreation Director Jamie Lee Case said the Parks and Recreation board provided the paid parking plan in 2020 within the city’s riverfront parks as a recommended cost recovery method for the department.
The ordinance will provide funding support for managing riverfront park operations and parking lot maintenance.
“Ultimately, what was decided by the city council at the time was that they were okay with implementing paid parking at the City Park parking lot as part of a three-year paid parking pilot,” Case said.
Beginning May 1, 2025, non-residents will receive the first 30 minutes of parking for free, but the fee would increase to $15 for the day, with a flat fee of $25 during holidays.
San Marcos residents can obtain free parking by registering with proof of address, which may include a valid driver’s license, a utility bill or an expanded San Marcos Public Library card.
Case said they are working on the registration process for San Marcos residents, including how non-residents will be able to verify their residency status. Specific details on the method of verification will be shared with the public once the process is finalized.
“[Students] might still have their home address, which is their permanent address so lease agreements that have a proof of address or a utility bill [would work],” Case said.
The city will utilize license plate recognition technology with stationary cameras to identify residents and non-residents and track their specific parking times at City Park.
“There will be four kiosks available for folks that are not residents of San Marcos where they’ll have the opportunity to either pay via an app, or they can pay right at the kiosk accepting cash or card,” Case said.
During the Dec. 3 city council meeting, Charles Campbell, the multimodal parking initiatives manager, said under the ordinance a level 1 violation allows for a 17-day window in which citations mailed to violators will receive a 50% discount if paid within 14 days of issuance. An additional three days are allotted for mail delivery of the ticket.
“We looked at what delivery time is normally for the United Post Office for first-class letters and their average is 2.5 days, we felt that this allowed for that additional time to have the letter delivered to the registered owner,” Campbell said.
Mayor Jane Hughson said she was concerned over the two weeks for citation delivery being too short for some non-residents.
“If the letter is going to go to the registered owner of the vehicle, which is for some people that is going to be mom and dad in a different city and there needs to be some time there,” Hughson said.
In the amended ordinance, for the level 1 violation within 12 months, the 50% discount will be applied to the penalty if paid within 29 days of the citation issued by mail.
Virginia Parker, executive director of the San Marcos River Foundation, said the visitors bureau reported the majority of river and park visitors in the summer months are non-residents.
“Which means the trash, the safety impacts, the cost of protecting both safety and environmental aspects of the river are paid by residents, so the financial burden is being put on San Marcos, but for the benefit of the rest of Texas,” Parker said.
In May 2024, San Marcos’ single-use container ban went into effect prohibiting the use of disposable containers along the river banks and designated areas.
During its educational period, the amount of litter did not decrease with trash varying from soda cans to inflatable tubes found on the banks of the San Marcos river, as previously reported by The Star.
Parker said she hopes the paid parking ordinance helps the fight for long-term sustainability and preservation of the river will progress.
“My hope is that this one small step in the name of the environment will not only make a positive impact to the San Marcos River, but also people can take that little nudge to their own communities and start to think about the bigger picture,” Parker said.
Case said the department is currently working on the registration process, signage for the parking zone and possible parking fee requirements for other San Marcos parks.
“We’re working through the parking advisory board to receive their support to implement paid parking in the Rio Vista Park area,” Case said. “We don’t exactly know what that implementation is going to look like just because there’s so many different parking areas,”
The ordinance is set to go into effect on May 1, 2025, and will run until April 20, 2028.
