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San Marcos council reviews City Park paid-parking pilot and directs permit expansion to school-district boundary
Summary
City staff told the council the City Park paid-parking pilot (live since July 1, 2025) generated substantial usage and early revenue; council directed staff to expand resident-permit eligibility to match the San Marcos Consolidated ISD boundary (including 78666) and asked for clearer revenue/expenditure accounting and software fixes before further changes.
San Marcos City Council heard a staff update Jan. 6 on the City Park paid-parking pilot and gave direction to expand permit eligibility beyond municipal boundaries.
Jamie Lee Case, director of parks and recreation, told the council the pilot began July 1, 2025, after planning that traced to the city’s 2019 parks, recreation and open-space master plan. Case summarized how the system works — a 30-minute free grace period, enforcement by license-plate readers (kept 30 days for adjudication), pay-by-phone and Flowbird kiosks, and permit validation for residents and community-hall renters. She said the city’s rate structure is $5 up to one hour, $10 up to two hours and $15 all day; special-event days are higher.
The presentation included early program metrics: staff reported 3,637 active resident parking permits and revenue recorded through Dec. 23, 2025 (staff later clarified that the number shown represented gross revenue through that date). Staff also said 1,502 citations had been issued and that about 32% of issued tickets were paid by Dec. 23. Jessica Ramos, assistant director, outlined the IPS enforcement portal and the city’s 17‑day window to contest citations; she said staff will adjudicate alleged violations if a motorist later provides proof of payment.
Council members focused questions on the user experience and administrative burden. Charles Campbell, multimodal parking initiatives manager, said the pay‑by‑phone system can issue alerts and allow users to extend a session before it expires; staff acknowledged there is no kiosk-based retroactive payment that prevents an already-triggered violation, but there is an adjudication process that can void or reduce citations when customers can show subsequent payment.
After discussion of verification and software limits, council members gave staff direction to expand permit eligibility consistent with the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District boundary — an approach that includes the 78666 ZIP code and Martindale in staff’s maps — and asked staff to prepare ordinance language, implementation logistics and clearer revenue/expense accounting. Case said staff will return with options and that revenues from the pilot are deposited into a special revenue account intended to cover the program’s technology and administration costs.
The council did not adopt ordinance language at the workshop; staff said any fee or permit changes would come back to council as an ordinance and that staff will present follow-up material on software capabilities and a plan to reduce administrative friction for residents who need help completing permit applications.
