Feds drop parking fee proposal for Marin, San Francisco coastal sites

October 14, 2021

The National Park Service is dropping its controversial proposal to charge parking fees for the first time at several popular coastal sites in Marin and San Francisco after strong public opposition.

The agency proposed to charge $3 per hour with a maximum of $10 per day to park at eight Golden Gate National Recreation Area sites starting as soon as next year. The sites included Rodeo Beach-Fort Cronkhite and Stinson Beach in Marin as well as Baker Beach, China Beach, Lands End Lookout, Navy Memorial and Sutro Heights in San Francisco.

The agency gave the public 30 days to provide comments in September. Nearly 1,000 comments were submitted, most of them in opposition, according to the park service. Concerns raised during this time included the potential to congest side streets near parks and creating barriers for lower-income visitors to access the park.

“We’re grateful for the feedback,” said Charles Strickfaden, spokesman for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. “We heard the public and our communities loud and clear. This isn’t the right time to do this.”

However, the park service is still considering charging parking fees at the commuter lot at the northwestern end of the Golden Gate Bridge and for ranger tours at the Point Bonita Lighthouse in Marin. No public opposition was received about those proposals, Strickfaden said. For Point Bonita evening tours, the park service proposes charging $8, $10 or $16, depending on the age of the visitor.

The park service’s decision to drop the proposal came less than two weeks after Bay Area congressional Democrats Jared Huffman and Jackie Speier wrote a joint letter opposing the idea.

“As noted by many of our constituents, access to public lands for people of all income levels is important for social equity and public health,” the Oct. 4 letter states. “While a parking fee may seem nominal to some, it would be a barrier for others. Additionally, emergency responders are concerned that these fees will lead to more congestion on side streets and hinder responders’ access to fires and other emergencies.”

The proposal received opposition from San Francisco resident Amy Meyer, a leader in the movement that convinced Congress to create the now 81,000-acre park in 1972. She said the parks should be free.

“I’m so very glad that they have come to that conclusion,” Meyer said Thursday in response to the park service’s decision. “The feelings about this were intense because it was something that, for the city areas in particular, was going to affect people from the poorer parts of town, from the east side that would be coming out to the ocean. There was no way they could get there except by car. It would impose an economic hardship.”

Opponents such as the Surfrider Foundation praised the park service’s decision.

“We’re heartened and joyful that that is not a condition the visitors would have to encounter, to pay fees daily,” said Scott Tye, vice chairman of the foundation’s Marin County chapter. “We feel good about that decision.”

Tye said it “makes sense” for the park service to still consider charging fees for the bridge commuter lot and Point Bonita Lighthouse tours as they are more tourist destinations similar to Alcatraz Island and Muir Woods National Monument.

Park officials said they proposed the fees as a way to address service demands caused by increased visitation, especially during the pandemic. The fees would have been used to pay for janitorial services, traffic control and repairs to roads, trails, parking lots and structures such as the Stinson Beach lifeguard tower. The pandemic has also resulted in the loss of revenue from the park’s leases with vendors.

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is visited by about 15 million people annually and saw a surge of visitors during the coronavirus pandemic as people flocked to the outdoors.

While Huffman and Speier sympathize with the budget constraints and impacts from the pandemic, they wrote, “we cannot support raising parking fees as a way to address budget shortfalls.”


By:  Will Houston
Source: Marin Independent Journal