San Diego

Seaport Village has begun charging 75 cents an hour for parking to all visitors who park at the waterfront shopping complex on West Harbor Drive.

Visitors will pay the hourly rate with a daily maximum of $12. No validated parking will be offered in the 750 parking spaces. Handicapped parking is free.

The company began charging the fee this month to curb abuse of the center’s parking lots, said company spokeswoman Dana Lazzarevich.

“We could see people parking and leaving the lots,” Lazzarevich said.

Before Aug. 13, the center had not charged any parking fee. Since then, the company tried a validation system to deal with the problem, Lazzarevich said. Free validated parking was offered to customers with a minimum of $25 in purchases. Customers who purchased less than $25 parked free for the first half-hour but were charged $2 for the next two hours and $1 for every half-hour thereafter.

However, the validation system proved confusing, Lazzarevich said. Many customers thought it cost $25 to park at Seaport Village, so the system was discontinued.

She said she did not know if the validation attempt kept away any visitors because sales figures for the period are not yet in. However, she said the decision to restructure the parking fees was based on customer confusion, not sales figures.

Transportation to Seaport Village is also available via the San Diego Trolley’s Bayside Line and the Gaslamp Trolley.