New parking fees for San Diego's Balboa Park

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we'll tell you about the new parking fees at Balboa Park. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. So the San Diego City Council approved parking fees in Balboa Park late Monday. When the fees go into effect a few months from now , we can expect to pay anywhere from $2.50 to to $16 well to $0.50 an hour , rather to $16 a day. Sometimes hard to wrap your mind around , but there could be discounts for city residents. KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen has actually been covering this and is here in the Price Philanthropies Midday Edition studio with me this afternoon. Andrew. Welcome.

S2: Hi , Jade. Thank you. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. So ? So , Andrew , there's a lot to unpack here.

S2: A lot. Yes.

S1: So this vote came after some back and forth and then some some last minute compromises. Tell us about the changes here. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. It's hard to wrap my head around all the different rates and all the different discounts and tiers and all that stuff , so so we'll get into it here. Okay. Um , one of the changes that was to the actual parking rate. So how much you're going to pay ? Um , city staff had come forward with in the Parks and Rec department with more of approached for more flat daily rates , whereas what the city council opted for has a few more options. There's a four hour rate and then a daily rate on top of that. Um , city staff had also proposed discounts for city residents in some of the lots , but not others. The council voted to offer the resident discount in every parking lot in Balboa Park , and they tweaked the pricing structure a little bit. The council also demanded that the city establish quarterly or annual parking passes , so that those people who come to Balboa Park like 3 or 4 times a week to visit , you know , visit the museums or whatever they want to do that they , you know , don't have to pay each time they go. And they can just pay for for one pass. And it's like , you know , all the parking is free after that. And the council decided that no parking fees will be charged at all until those quarterly and annual passes are made available. And that was a bit of a curveball that I'm sure we'll get into. Um , one thing that did not change is that parking will still be free for any employees who work in the park , or any volunteers who do work in the park. And then there are the disabled spots as well. So the , you know , the blue zones on the curb , you know , on the on the street parking spots or in the parking lots will continue to be free for anyone who has a valid Ada placard in their car. So overall , what we ended up with is a bit more complicated than the first proposal that was on the table , but one that really tries to offer a larger menu of options for people so that you're not paying for parking , that you don't actually use or need , and one that really leans in more heavily to this discount for city residents.

S1: Well , that's that's good. I mean , so so then break down these different tiers here. I mean , there are several lots in Balboa Park. Yes.

S2: Yes. So they have three different tiers of parking lots. And there are different rates for for those three tiers. Level one lots are the ones that are the most centrally located and you know , closest to all the major destinations in the park. They will have a non-resident rate of $10 for four hours or $16 for a full day , and then residents would pay half of that. So $5 for four hours for city residents or $8 for a full day. The level two lots will be a flat $10 per day , so just a day rate for the level two lots , and that's $10 per day for non-residents , $5 for city residents. And then there's only one parking lot in the level , three lots. So that is the lower inspiration point lot. That's kind of the forest flung. And where you you can always count on finding a parking spot if you really exhaust all your other options , that one will have three hours of free parking. And then after that they'll they'll have the $5 daily rate for for residents , $10 for non-residents. Now , in addition to that okay , we have the parking meters. So there are street spots in the there will be street spots in Balboa Park that will have parking meters. And those will charge the city's standard rate of 250 an hour. But they'll also max it out at $10. So if you park and you say , say , you know what ? I'm going to take this spot all day. You can pay $10 in that meter and you'll be free for , you know , that'll that'll get you over for the rest of the day. And you know the the resident discount. The city needs to still put together a way to verify who's a resident and who's a not who's not a resident. They estimate that they can get that done around January. But until that point , everyone's just if they start charging , everyone is going to pay the city resident rate. And then once they figure out how to distinguish between residents and non-residents , they will start offering that discount and charge the non-residents more.

S1: All right. So just to be clear here , the resident rate is just for City of San Diego residents. So if I live in la mesa I'm paying full price here.

S2: That's right. And you know , this was something that was really pushed by Councilmember Sean El Rivera. Initially , city staff really didn't want this complication of , you know , two different rates. And then how do we decide who's a resident who's not ? How do we make sure no one's cheating the system ? But Councilmember Ella Rivera argued that San Diego and Balboa Park act as kind of the playground for tourists coming here from all around the world , and that we're not getting the best deal we can out of all of those people who come here to visit. In addition , people who live in the suburbs who who , you know , visit Balboa Park. And , you know , he didn't think that the city has has quite capitalized on the destination that the city of San Diego has become for those people. Um , there's also the point that if you live in the city of San Diego , a portion of your property taxes are already going to pay for the maintenance and operations of Balboa Park. Whereas if you live in Oceanside , National City , la mesa , all of your property taxes are staying in that city and none of them are going to the city of San Diego. So the discount was trying to acknowledge that , you know , San Diego residents are already paying something already , so they shouldn't have to pay the same rate as visitors from other cities.

S1: Well , another recent change to the city's plans to add quarterly and yearly passes for frequent park goers. In your story , we hear from members of a local bridge club. Tell us about them and what they had to say.

S2: Yeah , so the Redwood Bridge Club meets in a very small , one story building on Balboa Park's West Mesa. And it's a lot of people , you know , people who play bridge , a lot of senior citizens , a lot of retirees , many of them low income , who showed up to the meeting. And , you know , they've been able to park for free on Balboa Drive , this this street that goes through the park's West Mesa since forever. And , you know , many of them go to the bridge club. They stay for four hours. That's where they spend their day. That's where they meet people and have connections to their community. And so there was a lot of sympathy for those people from the city council , understandably so. And , you know , they felt that just paying them , asking them to pay every single time they visit is just too much to ask. So. So they pushed this idea of a quarterly or annual pass. So , you know , those folks who come to the park all the time will be able to just have a cap , basically , that they won't pay more than X amount per year. We don't know how much that will be. But , you know , an effort to kind of make sure that people who come to the park all the time , and there are a lot of those people , you know , are not having to pay every single time they visit and that they can get some type of deal. Hmm.

S3: Hmm.

S1: Well , a group of San Diego high School students also protested the new parking fees. What did they have to say ? Yeah.

S2: So San Diego High School is in Balboa Park , and and it is right across from I-5 to all of the park destinations. And the parking lot at Inspiration Point is actually a really convenient place for people for San Diego high School students to park , because there's a pedestrian bridge that you can walk across over the freeway and get straight to the school campus. So they were really kind of concerned about , well , what happens if , you know , I have to pay $5 a day just to park my car to get to school ? Um , you know , there was one comment from a council member that said it would be really easy for us to say , well , this isn't our problem. It's the same. It's the San Diego Unified School District's responsibility to make sure that students can get to campus , and that they don't have to pay to park. This is , you know , this parking lot belongs to the city and not to the school district. Um , but they also had sympathy for those San Diego high school students. And really , the outcome of this , we don't know exactly what what deal is going to be struck there , but there seemed to be a lot of confidence from the mayor's office that they could come up with some kind of deal with the school district and what exactly that looks like. We don't know , but but they basically assured the council and the public that they'll figure something out for those high school students , and they won't have to pay to park their cars just to get to school.

S1: All right. Well , they still have a lot of fine print to work out here , it sounds like. Yeah , well , San Diego city leaders are depending on this , this parking revenue to help balance the city's budget.

S2: So the city had been counting on a little more than $14 million overall in the current fiscal year , coming from parking revenue in Balboa Park. And , you know , these things are hard to predict. I mean , there it's it's there's any number of , you know , algorithms or modeling that you could do to figure out , well , how will people respond to a discount in this location or that , you know , like it's hard to to exactly , precisely predict how much the city will get out of this. But there was a lot of concern that some of these last minute changes will actually result in , in less money coming into the city. And so if that is the case , then what's going to happen is partway through the year , the city will look at , you know , all of the revenue it has , all of the expenses that it has and may have to make some adjustments in the middle of the fiscal year. And that could look like a reduction to library hours or rec center hours. It could be a reduction to the parks budget. Um , but there was an interesting comment from Council member Shani Rivera who said , you know , I would sooner jack up the prices for non-residents even more than we've done so far so that we can squeeze more money out of those visitors from the other cities. And he would rather do that than cut the city services. So , you know , we'll see. We'll have to see where that one goes , too. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. Well , you know , on the finances here , we received this question from Vincent Rivera on the new parking fees. Vincent asks. You know , I'm curious what exactly the revenue from the fees can be spent on. I've read the revenue has to be spent in the neighborhood where they occur , and the hope is to offset money being used from the general fund. But what if there is an excess in revenue from total need ? Yeah.

S2: So. So what I think Vincent is referring to is if you're charging a parking meter , there's some regulation that the the revenue from that meter has to be spent on transportation purposes. So , you know , you install parking meters , you can't take the revenue from that. And , you know , use it to fund police , for example. Um , unless you can come up with some justification that , you know , the polices is related to these transportation issues. So , so yes , it's true that there is a parking meter zone , and the revenue from the meters has to be spent within that zone. There are two. It's a little complicated. There are two types of parking meters going into Balboa Park. Some will be on city streets , and those have more restrictive ways to spend the revenue. They have to be spent on transportation , and then the parking meters that are within the boundaries of Balboa Park. So on the streets that are kind of part of the park land , those are considered park user fees , and they go into the parks and rec department budget. So. So those could be spent on , say , the janitors who clean the buildings in Balboa Park or , you know , there's a little bit more flexibility with that kind of revenue. As to Vincent's question about , well , what happens if there's an excess in revenue ? We have more revenue than we actually need. I can guarantee you that is not going to happen. The revenue needs from the city are so astronomical. I don't think many people truly understand just how poor the city of San Diego is. And so , you know , there is no I can't imagine any scenario. Any you know , you could charge $100 an hour , I feel , and the city would still have have ways to spend every penny of that , of that revenue. They would find ways to spend it. Because , you know , if you go to Balboa Park , those bathrooms are in bad shape. I don't use them. I mean , there are there are buildings in Balboa Park that have , you know , air conditioning that's broken. You know , my husband recently started working at San Diego Civic Youth Ballet and in the ballet studios. And where there these kids are taking classes. The air conditioning is broken and it's , you know , on those hot days , it's miserable and it's sweltering while you're , you know , doing a really physically exerting exercise. So there are many , many needs in Balboa Park that are the Balboa Park is deeply , deeply underfunded. And and , you know , there is. I can't imagine again , any scenario in which the city would have more revenue from the parking than what they actually need. Wow.

S1: Wow. Well , you know , I guess the hope here is still that Balboa Park will see a direct benefit from these fees. Here's what Council President Joe LaCava had to say.

S4: We know that this will be an uncomfortable change , no doubt from the testimony we heard today , but I think there was also a little bit of recognition that the Balboa Park has been chronically under-resourced , with no dedicated source of funding for the majority of the park.

S1: So some of those issues in mind that the park is experiencing , how exactly will the park benefit from these new fees ? Yeah.

S2: So it's it's a bit of a complicated question , because there were people in the meeting who rightfully pointed out that Balboa Park is not seeing a net increase in revenue in this fiscal year. What what previously , the city would pay for the maintenance and operations of Balboa Park from the general fund , which is which comes from sales taxes , property taxes , hotel taxes , basically things that a large number of people pay. What they're trying to do with the parking fees is save the general fund from having to contribute those resources to Balboa Park , and instead have the park be funded more with the direct user fees. So people coming to the park are the ones who are actually paying for the park upkeep. So it's a it's a shift in how the money flows through the city budget , and it may not result in a net increase in Balboa Park funding immediately. However , in lean budget years like this year , the city is always looking for places to cut from the general fund because the general fund is just spread incredibly thin and they're pretty much always. I think the city will always prioritize public safety. So the police department , fire department , those really critical emergency services that the city needs and , you know , things like the things that are nice to have , like , like parks with , you know , well-maintained sidewalks and , you know , nice landscaping. Those are the things that often end up in the chopping block. So while it may be true that there is there is not an immediate increase in funding for Balboa Park , I think in the long term the parking fees will be a more stable revenue source so that in a future year when funding may have been cut from Balboa Park , instead , it will be maintained. And who knows , in the long term we could actually see , you know , if they manage to improve the park experience , improve the amenities , maybe more people will be coming to Balboa Park and more people will be paying those parking fees. And you could create a virtuous cycle where you know , you truly have a world class experience in the heart of San Diego and and not the one that a lot of people today , I think recognize is lacking in , in niceness.

S1: Well , these Balboa parking fees , it's just one of many. Quickly. What are some of the other changes that are happening within the city ? Yeah.

S2: So so this approach to , you know , trying to monetize parking was one that the city employed in many areas of the budget. So they adopted a host of reforms to street parking policies earlier this year. And those include charging on Sundays with some limitations , uh , surge pricing. So people have probably read about , you know , the $10 per hour parking meter rates around Petco Park doing during Padres games. So those are , you know , changes on on the horizon as well. And then one of the big changes that we haven't really seen , explored or implemented at all is the changes to residential parking permits. So , you know , we have a city that's becoming a lot more urban. A lot of people are moving into apartments that don't come with an off street parking space. And so the street spots are really the only place that they have to store their car and what the city wants to do is basically allow those residents to pay for a residential parking permit so that you can kind of set aside some of the parking spaces on the street , just for the people who live there and who need to park there long term. Whereas , you know , meters are really intended to increase turnover. You know , for people visiting a convenience store who just need to pop in for 15 or 30 minutes or , you know , go to a restaurant and stay for an hour or two hours , like those those people need a quick place to find a parking spot , and that's what the meters are for.

S1: Best way to get downtown , then ? All of these parking issues and changes.

S2: Take the bus , take the trolley. All right. Take the bus. You know , ride share , carpool if you can. You know , that's one thing. I think also that the city hopes is that , you know , if you're a cost sensitive and you really want to go to Balboa Park , there are cheaper ways to get there. And , you know , this is really a kind of an effort to , you know , be more sustainable. Have more people taking the bus and , you know , biking to the park. You know , that's something that I think we also might , might need to watch out for is how people get to the park and whether that changes as well.

S1: All right. Well , if you did not have your pen and paper to take notes during this segment , you can find all of Andrew's reporting at KPBS. I've been speaking with KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen. Andrew , as always , thank you.

S2: Thank you. Jade.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.