Divided San Diego council reluctantly OKs plan for paid parking passes in Balboa Park

A sharply divided San Diego City Council voted 6-3 Tuesday to approve annual parking passes for Balboa Park that are intended to allow frequent park users to avoid daily and hourly parking fees coming in January.

The council’s approval of the permits, which will cost $100 a year for city residents and $300 a year for nonresidents, comes after city officials retreated last week from much higher prices proposed initially.

Council members who voted in favor called the lower rates a good compromise and stressed that Mayor Todd Gloria and his staff had made many concessions this year to the council and frequent park users.

Council members who voted against the permit fees — Stephen Whitburn, Raul Campillo and Vivian Moreno — criticized the entire idea of parking fees in Balboa Park.

Their comments echoed complaints from three dozen clubs and other organizations in the park focused on dance, gardening, beekeeping, model railroading, playing bridge and other activities.

Those groups expressed particular frustration with the price of permits for nonresidents, noting that nearly half the members of some Balboa Park organizations live outside the city.

Whitburn said he couldn’t vote for something so unpopular, especially at a time when local residents are facing so many other fee and cost increases.

“San Diegans are deeply unhappy about paying for parking in Balboa Park,” he said. “This feels like an admission charge to Balboa Park, and that really rubs people the wrong way.”

Moreno said the park is a place of low-cost enlightenment and adventure for many of the residents in her South Bay district.

“It’s a place where everybody is able to enjoy the beautiful scenery of San Diego,” she said. “The park is incredibly accessible to residents who are economically challenged. You can go there for an entire day and have a different experience without having to pay much — if any — money.”

Campillo’s critiques were more focused on city finances.

He said the new fees could drive nonprofit organizations out of the park, depress admissions revenue at museums and hurt the park’s restaurants, depriving the city of sales tax revenue.

“We could actually lose money on this and therefore need to reduce services and maintenance in the park,” Campillo said.

He also criticized Gloria’s staff for not conducting a market survey to determine what price points for parking would deter large numbers of visitors and what price points would have less significant effects.

“It seems to me that a market survey would have been an incredibly important component,” Campillo said. “We don’t have any idea how much money we’ll actually collect. We have no idea whether we could lower the cost while increasing the revenue.”

Campillo said the fees are an example of city officials passing the buck to residents by forcing them to pay more so the city doesn’t have to make budget cuts.

“Instead of tightening our own belt, the city is tightening the belts of the very people it’s supposed to serve,” Campillo said.

Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera agreed that the context for the new parking fees should be potential city budget cuts. But he focused on the unpopular cuts the council avoided having to make last spring by adding this new revenue stream.

“This council attempted to do what we could to find resources to avoid those cuts,” Elo-Rivera said. “We never have folks show up here and say they want fewer firefighters, fewer lifeguards, fewer librarians — and I certainly don’t hear ‘we want fewer potholes filled.’”

Councilmember Marni von Wilpert was less enthusiastic about her yes vote, suggesting the parking fees should be repealed if city voters approve a local sales tax increase in 2026.

Some critics of the new parking fees suggested they were an attempt by the city to punish city voters for narrowly rejecting a one-cent sales tax increase in November 2024 that could have eased the city’s budget crisis.

“I don’t love this — I don’t think anybody loves this — and this is the kind of fee I’d like to see go away if we are able to pass a sales tax (increase) next year,” von Wilpert said.

Council President Joe LaCava stressed that the final proposal approved Tuesday includes several compromises requested by the council in September and several more compromises requested by frequent users of the park.

To appease the council, the proposal includes some free parking at Inspiration Point, more frequent tram service from there to the center of the park and the permits approved Tuesday.

All park users will be allowed to park for free for three hours at Inspiration Point, an overflow lot at the park’s southern edge, from which trams will take people to the park’s more popular destinations.

After three hours, residents will have to pay $5 a day to park at Inspiration Point, and nonresidents will have to pay $10 a day.

When the parking fees kick in Jan. 5, tram service will run with expanded hours, operating from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for park visitors.

In addition, staff and volunteers will be able to access on-demand trams from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Staff and volunteers can also park for free in lots closer to the center of the park than Inspiration Point.

To appease frequent users, the annual parking pass fee for city residents was dropped from $300 to $150, and the fee for nonresidents was dropped from $375 to $300.

On quarterly passes, the proposed fee for residents was dropped from $80 to $60 — but the proposed fee for nonresidents rose from $100 to $120.

The council also approved monthly passes for $30 to residents and $40 to nonresidents. Plans for those prices didn’t change.

City officials estimate that users making three weekly visits to the park will save $1,248 if they park in the most convenient — and most expensive — lots, and that they will save $780 if they park in lots a bit farther out.

The annual, quarterly and monthly permits will allow unlimited parking in all Balboa Park lots, regardless of location, as well as along designated on-park roadways.

Passes will not be valid in the San Diego Zoo parking lot or on streets located outside of Balboa Park boundaries where meters will be added, such as Park Boulevard and Sixth Avenue.

The total amount of revenue the city expects to generate from parking fees and permits in Balboa Park continues to dwindle with each change the city makes.

Critics said the projected revenue in the ongoing fiscal year of $2.9 million to $4 million will have a minuscule impact on the city’s $2.2 billion annual budget. Parking revenue from the park was initially estimated at $12.5 million.