Michelle Jaconette
During its Sept. 15 meeting, the San Diego City Council approved a proposal to establish paid parking across Balboa Park. The proposal includes a three-tiered parking plan for off-street lots in Balboa Park and parking meters along Park Boulevard and 6th Avenue. Fees will vary from $2.50 to $16, depending on lot, location, and residency status.
The project comes in response to a request from the City Council, which emphasized the need to generate the revenue to meet its proposed budget. The City Council expects that paid parking in Balboa Park will generate $15.5 million in revenue.
The council voted 6-2 to approve the fee system, with Councilmembers Stephen Whitburn and Vivian Moreno voting against. Councilmember Raul Campillo was not present for the vote.
The decision to approve the plan came after a contested City Council meeting, which lasted over four hours, with more than 120 community members participating during public comment.
While the council initially planned to activate the parking fees by early October, these criticisms led them to push it back.
Prior to this proposal, Balboa Park offered free parking to all and has never charged parking fees in its century-long history visitors, residents, and park staff. Though there have been previous attempts to charge for parking at Balboa Park, they have all failed.
None of the fees will come into effect until a system of residence verification for resident discounts is live, free parking for high school students is established, and annual passes for frequent visitors are on sale. The resident verification program is expected to be implemented by Jan. 1, 2026.
Mayor Todd Gloria’s press release about the meeting offers contradicting information, implying that the lot prices will begin with standard pricing for all later this year, not in January. Rather, the implementation of the resident verification program will signify the second stage of a hiked price for non-residents. However, other parts of his statement are at odds with this prescription, and this was not vocalized during the meeting.
The timeline of the fee activation and implementation is currently unclear, beyond the firm knowledge that activation is delayed past October. The Independent Budget Analysts’ office expects that this delay will cause a shortfall of revenue that might cause mid-year budget cuts to other public services and facilities, including recreation centers.
Baku Patel, a senior fiscal and policy analyst at the IBA, provided comment on behalf of the office during the meeting.
“The impact to those that visit the park is, of course, an important consideration,” Patel said. “But this decision must be balanced against the tradeoff of potentially significant budgetary impacts.”
Council President Joe LaCava formally introduced this proposal as a revision of a project originally created by the Parks and Recreation Department in July.
His revisions describe a three-tiered parking project that allocates different price ranges to existing off-street parking lots within the park. Existing lots that are high-demand are designated “Level 1,” moderate demand lots are “Level 2,” and those in peripheral areas are “Level 3.” The proposal identifies seven Level 1 lots, four Level 2 lots, and one Level 3 lot.
The fees will be activated in two phases: first, by lot level, and second, by residency status. The first phase prices lots regardless of residency. Level 1 lots will be priced at $8 per day and $5 per four hours, and Level 2 and Level 3 will both be priced at $5 per day. Level 3 lots will offer the first three hours of parking for free to “encourage access for short-term visits.”
The second set of fees will introduce different price tiers for San Diego residents versus non-residents. The resident tier will follow the same pricing per lot as the first phase. Non-residents will have to pay a higher fee: Level 1 lots priced at $16 per day or $10 per four hours and Level 2 and Level 3 at $10 per day, with the same first three hours free policy.
The parking meters will be installed along Park Boulevard and 6th Avenue. They will be active seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and will be metered at a rate of $2.50 per hour and a maximum of $10 per day. There will be no tiered pricing for residency status.
Park-based employees, non-profit staff, contractors, and registered volunteers will have free parking in Level 2 and Level 3 lots.
Community members spoke on their concerns regarding the project during the meeting.
Jennifer, a retired nurse and member of the Redwood Bridge Club — a community of over 300 individuals — spoke on the unsustainable nature of parking fees.
“Under the current proposal, [parking] would cost me about $2,000 a year,” Jennifer said. “For seniors like myself, on a fixed income, this would be a financial burden, and it’s not sustainable. Our club and many others in the park provide more than recreation. They provide intellectual stimulation, social connection, and protection against isolation at a time in life when those needs are most critical. If metered parking moves forward without a community-based permits program, many of us will no longer be able to participate. … We are your parents, and we are your grandparents. Please help us to stay connected to our community.”
A San Diego High senior, Nathan Williams, spoke on the importance of access to parking for students.
“I heard the name or the word student zero times during the whole presentation and that seems absurd to me because students, especially in Inspiration Point, use the parking lot so much,” Williams said. “Students need access to free parking at Inspiration because we have so many students that drive to school in order to access their education. [San Diego High School is] a Title I school, and it has been repeated many times, so many of our students, over 80% cannot afford this added expense. I did the calculations for $2.50 an hour, and it was $1,080 … added to a family’s budget that they now have to find a way to scrounge up that money, and that is unacceptable.”
During the meeting, a representative from the Office of the Mayor confirmed that they will continue to collaborate with the school district to ensure students have access to free parking.
LaCava spoke on the role of Balboa Park in producing revenue.
“We know that this will be an uncomfortable change, no doubt, from the testimony we heard today,” LaCava said. “But I think there was also a little bit of recognition that Balboa Park has been chronically under-sourced with no dedicated source of funding for the majority of the park.”