{"id":61760,"date":"2025-11-20T08:19:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/61760\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T08:19:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:19:16","slug":"paid-parking-is-coming-to-balboa-park-heres-what-it-could-cost-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/61760\/","title":{"rendered":"Paid parking is coming to Balboa Park \u2014 here\u2019s what it could cost you"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"December<\/a>Botanical Building in Balboa Park in 2024. (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

San Diegans have known since September<\/a> that the days of free parking at Balboa Park are numbered. Well that day is here, and in the next month, you could be paying for a parking fee you hadn\u2019t previously.<\/p>\n

City officials just back-tracked<\/a> on the original parking pass prices<\/a> for residents versus non-residents, cutting the proposed yearly residential rate in half. Officials also brought down the yearly rates for non-residents, but increased the quarterly rate\u2019s cost.<\/p>\n

Those new, lower rates also means the city will collect much less revenue than it was counting on \u2014 about $9.6 million less than what they budgeted.<\/p>\n

Now that the council has solidified the new plan, here\u2019s how much it will cost for a spot in the park or at new meters around the park.<\/p>\n

New meters are going up on Park Boulevard and Sixth Avenue starting today and will begin collecting your coins as soon as they are installed.<\/p>\n

Those meters, adjacent to the park, will have a four-hour maximum with a rate of $2.50 an hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Metered parking within Balboa Park will have the same rate and time limit, but paid parking inside the park \u2014 whether on the road or in a lot \u2014 won\u2019t begin until Jan. 5.<\/p>\n

Balboa Park visitors after Jan. 5\u00a0 will need to decide whether to buy daily, monthly, quarterly or yearly parking passes.<\/p>\n

City residents get discounted rates on everything but the daily rate, after registering their vehicle\u2019s license plate through an online portal that the city is currently building.<\/p>\n

Here are the final parking pass rates for city residents: monthly, $30; quarterly, $60; annual, $150.<\/p>\n

For non-residents (yes, that means anyone who lives in San Diego County but outside the city) those costs are: monthly, $40; quarterly, $120; annual, $300.<\/p>\n

Daily and hourly parking rates will vary depending on how far from the center of the park each lot is, and will be enforced from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

Level 1 lots, are those closest to central attractions \u2014 Space Theater, Casa de Balboa, Alcazar, Organ Pavilion, Bea Evanson, Palisades and the South Carousel.<\/p>\n

\"Balboa<\/a>Balboa Part lots (Photo courtesy of the City of San Diego)<\/p>\n

They cost residents of $8 for a full day, or $5 for a maximum of four hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And non-residents will pay $16 per day or $10 for up to four hours.<\/p>\n

Level 2 lots will cost residents $5 per day and non-residents $10 per day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These lots are Pepper Grove, Federal, Inspiration Point and Marston Point<\/p>\n

Lower Inspiration Point is designated at the level 3 lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Residents and non-residents can park here for free for up to three hours, after that residents pay $5 per day and non-residents pay $10 per day.<\/p>\n

If you have a disability and an ADA placard for your vehicle, you can park for free anywhere on park roads and in designated spaces in parking lots.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s senior public information officer, Leslie Branscomb, said that while the resident portal is in-development and should be ready to go on Jan. 5, if it is not ready, that could delay when paid parking is actually implemented.<\/p>\n

Residents will need to verify their status to receive a reduced rate when the portal is open. Branscomb said that San Diegans can use either a drivers license, vehicle registration or utility bill. To do so, there will also be a $5 processing fee.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Botanical Building in Balboa Park in 2024. (File photo by Chris Stone\/Times of San Diego) San Diegans have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4549,5196,8416,2426,20680,37333,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-61760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-balboa-park","tag-downtown-san-diego","tag-fees","tag-parking","tag-parking-fees","tag-parking-meters","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}