UCSD Starts Charging $1 to $2 for Parking on Nights, Weekends

Visitors to UC San Diego at night and on weekends must now pay for parking, UCSD officials have announced.

The rates will be $1 per evening, $2 Saturday or Sunday, $10 a month, $15 a quarter or $40 a year. Metered parking will still be available for short-term parking, and existing daytime rates of $4 a day or $2 for four hours will remain unchanged. The rates will not apply at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and UCSD Medical Center.

Evening and weekend permits can be purchased at any of UCSD’s nine entrances until 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and until 5 p.m. Sunday.

UCSD is among the last of the 12 UC campuses to charge for parking on a 24-hour basis, officials said. Because of its rapid growth, the campus now needs the additional fees to pay for planned parking lots and garages to accommodate the growing number of cars.

State law mandates that UC campuses provide sufficient parking, but the same law prohibits the use of state funds, meaning that money must come from parking fees.

Officials said resurfacing a lot costs $46,000, and the campus has spent $400,000 in two years on lighting and other improvements. The first multistory parking garage on the campus is planned near the campus entrance on Gilman Drive at the site of the former bookstore.