State to Charge for Old Town Parking in Move That Sparks Vendor Anger

Faced with mounting costs and the need to slash its annual budget, the state Department of Parks and Recreation took the controversial step Tuesday of instituting fees at public parking lots in Old Town.

The fees, which take effect March 1, are expected to generate as much as $1 million a year, park Superintendent Ed Navarro said.

But the move outraged many Old Town merchants, some of whom have fought such a plan for years.

“It’s the beginning of the end of Old Town,” said Karen Spring of the Old Town Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a very sad thing.”

“I wonder if the state isn’t cutting off its nose to spite its face,” said Dawn Dominicak, manager of the Old Town Mexican Cafe, one of the largest restaurants in the park. “I think a lot of the smaller businesses will just die.”

Navarro said state officials knew the fees were unpopular but deemed them necessary because of the recession and the effect that both it and the state’s budget crunch have had on parks and recreation.

“We were given the charge from the Legislature of generating a certain amount of revenue in conjunction with taking a few budget cuts, so, parking (fees) at Old Town was a primary result,” Navarro said.

Fees will be $1 per hour with a maximum of $5 per day. The fees will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, from April 15 through Oct. 15, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. the rest of the year, Navarro said. He said the longer hours would be imposed during the summer to generate more revenue.

Navarro said the parks district is able to charge for parking on Sunday--unlike the city of San Diego, which assesses no fees on Sunday--because Old Town is under state jurisdiction.

Navarro said change machines that can accept $1, $5, $10 and $20 bills will be installed in each parking lot in the park. He said a reduced-fee lot will be available at Taylor Street and Pacific Highway, less than two blocks from Old Town Plaza.

Fees in that lot will be 50 cents an hour and $5 for the full day.

Navarro said Old Town attracts about 5.5 million visitors a year, and out of those, he predicted the biggest impact would be among county residents who come to the park primarily for lunch or dinner.

“Initially, it may be a shock for them,” he said, “but it’s something we had to do. We’re hoping their reasons for coming to Old Town will still be there.”

Spring charged that state officials had kept secret a $25,000 feasibility study, “which they kept secret because it favors us. I didn’t get my hands on it until two years ago, but it clearly favors us.”

She said local politicians had done “nothing” to protect the park from parking fees.

The fees will have a “devastating” effect on mom-and-pop businesses, Spring said, “which are 75% of the businesses in the park. A lot of ‘em just won’t be able to survive it. I can’t believe they did this.”