Iron Rangers : Beach Fee-Collection Devices Also Gather Plenty of Criticism

Michael Ross and Michelle Symeonides sat on the cobblestone shore of South Carlsbad State Beach, admiring the pink and purple pastels of a North County sunset as they might a gallery masterpiece.

As usual, they had parked their car along the dirt shoulder of Old Highway 101, carried their blanket down to the beach and silently marveled at one of the last free sky shows around.

But there are storm clouds brewing for the Encinitas roommates, as well as countless others who have enjoyed a morning or evening stroll along the scenic coastline--trouble housed in a 3-foot-high kiosk that may change the way local residents view a walk on the beach.

They’re known as “iron rangers”--institutional-blue machines that collect a $4 charge for parking at numerous day-use beach lots located countywide and operated by the state of California.

In an aggressive effort to raise revenue, the financially strapped state Parks and Recreation Department is installing the machines at several beachside parking lots to collect fees whenever the areas are open--even when there is no uniformed ranger on duty.

For many beach-goers, however, the iron rangers might as well be some malevolent lone ranger, armed highway robbers without arms--extorting indignant motorists for yet another unethical charge they feel they should not have to pay.

The emergence of the iron rangers illustrates a trend all along the California coastline as state officials--as well as numerous cities--have sought ways to charge motorists for the convenience of parking their vehicles near the beach.

In San Diego County, in addition to the state’s newest money-making venture in Carlsbad, Oceanside just voted to install 325 new beach-area parking meters to induce motorists to use a city-run pay lot. Other cities, such as Imperial Beach, are considering similar ways to raise funds.

One day last week, Michael Ross looked across South Carlsbad State Beach at a new state parking lot under construction and winced at the thought of sunset watching as a pay-per-view event.

“It’s a conspiracy,” he said. “These people are up to no good. I mean, why charge for parking at a beach that doesn’t even have sand, only rocks? The principle is just bad. Pretty soon they’ll be telling us when to go the bathroom and when to breathe.”

Ross isn’t the only one who feels he’s about to be burned at the beach.

Up and down the Golden State, activists are beginning to speak out about their access to the sand and surf, a right they say is as protected in California as catching a few rays. But now they’re doing more than waving their fists, banging on their surfboards.

They’re going to court.

The Surfrider Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the state Parks and Recreation Department and the California Coastal Commission, claiming the parking machines violate beach access guaranteed by the California Constitution and the state Coastal Act of 1970.

“More and more, private development is walling off the California coastline for a lot of people--and now the state seems to be getting into the act,” said David Saltman, a former Los Angeles executive director of the coastal activist and environmentalist group.

“We feel very strongly that the waves and the beach are a public resource held in the public trust for surfers and walkers and swimmers and boogie boarders--people from the coast and inland as well,” he said. “First you lose one free beach, then another, then another. There’s no end in sight.”

If the trend continues, critics say, there will be no free beaches in California by the next century.

Soon, Surfrider officials will begin soliciting 350,000 signatures to put the issue on the ballot for the next election. And they have another plan to develop and operate--free of charge--scores of beach access areas all along the coast they say the parks department has overlooked.

“The state parks agency is in chaos. They have a lame-duck director and the wrong-headed idea that they want to charge us for the right to go to the ocean,” said Mark Massara, chief legal counsel for the group. “Just remember, these are our beaches. The parks people are their keepers, not their owners. What they’re doing is a damned shame.”

Parks and recreation officials claim the idea to charge for parking at state-run facilities is really nothing new. The new machines have been installed to collect fees during the extreme hours when beach-goers--the early-morning surfer or late-night beach-walker--have been using the lots for free, they say.

“Our policy is to charge for parking only where we provide some kind of service to the public--we still operate some showerless facilities with dirt parking where there is no charge,” said Robert Foster, the department’s manager of visitor services for Southern California.

“A lot of people are misinterpreting our parking fees as some immoral charge to use the beach, swim in the ocean--and that’s not right at all,” he said. “The reality is that if someone walks in, they are not charged.

“But if you want to park your car in the lot, have it patrolled so it won’t get broken into, use the showers after a swim, then you’re going to pay a fee,” Foster said. “Because you can’t empty trash cans, patrol beaches and provide lifeguards for free. It costs money.”

The real problem, say state officials, is that the department is under siege from budget cuts of up to $22 million--as well as a state law directing it to collect 60% of its operating budget through such fees.

Furthermore, as a consolation to individual users, parking costs at state-run facilities in North County and Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado were even reduced Nov. 15, from $6 to $4 as a way to entice more people to use the pay lots. And $75 year-round permits allow the daily beach-goer to use the lot “for pennies a day,” officials say.

Looking like an automatic teller machine, the new electronic fee collectors offer change and cough out receipts--which are good for the day at any beach parking lot or state park.

Statewide, dozens of iron rangers have been installed since last year--some at inland sites and others along the beach, inspiring controversy in numerous coastal locations, activists say.

In San Diego County, an iron ranger was installed at the north end of Cardiff State Beach in October. A month later, two of the machines were erected at Torrey Pines State Beach. Soon, officials plan to start collecting daily $4 parking fees at the south end of Cardiff and at two locations at Carlsbad, including the Tamarack parking lot.

The rangers--along with fee collection by uniformed guards--should help the parks department raise an additional $1 million annually in San Diego County alone, state officials say.

For their part, Coastal Commission officials--who have approved the fee charges at many sites--say they are caught in the middle of an unpopular trend.

“State legislators are talking out of both sides of their mouths,” said Ralph Faust, chief legal counsel for the commission. “They pass the coastal act, guaranteeing beach access, then they direct the parks people to start collecting fees.

“What it comes down to, I think, is the question of whether it is a constitutional right to be able to drive to the beach. And that will probably have to be settled in the courts.”

State officials aren’t the only ones looking to make a few extra dollars at the beach.

Oceanside city officials say their new meters, to be installed on streets near the municipal pier, are an extension of a long-standing fiscal policy. Since 1989, the city has operated pay parking lots charging between $3 and $5.

Their new meters, they say, are a tactic to persuade daylong beach-goers not to clog suburban streets in search of a free park and to frequent the city lots designed for their use.

“Hopefully, a few dollars a day to park a car isn’t going to break anyone,” said Eli Sanchez, Oceanside assistant redevelopment director. “We want people to come to Oceanside and use our beach--which we see as one of the attractions of our city.

“We don’t want to drive them away. And it’s certainly not our intention to abridge anyone’s rights,” he said.

But not all North County coastal cities are jumping aboard the pay-parking bandwagon.

Last week, the Carlsbad City Council voted to pay the parks department $36,000 for the coming year to keep an iron ranger from being installed at the Tamarack lot at Carlsbad State Beach.

Park officials say their plans for a new iron ranger at the site still stand--and that their application with the Coastal Commission to install the machine will remain alive--until they see the money.

Some Carlsbad council members have called the payment akin to a ransom.

“I voted for that payment through clenched teeth,” said Councilwoman Ann Kulchin. “I mean, it’s nice for now. But what’s it going to be next year?

“Sure the state is having its own money problems. But I’m afraid they’re going to discover that Carlsbad is a good place to make some money. And then we’ll never see the end of those charges.”

The pay lot, she said, would only drive families, surfers and elderly residents who use the beach daily to seek free parking on suburban streets east of Carlsbad Boulevard--forcing a dangerous crossing of the busy highway.

But the council drew the line at South Carlsbad State Beach, also known as Ponto, when state officials asked that the city erect “NO PARKING” parking signs along Old Highway 101 as soon as its new 240-space pay lot is completed next year.

“This is our property and we weren’t going to close down 72 free spaces just because they wanted to put in some iron ranger,” Kulchin said. “Their threat was that they might not be able to keep the beach clean otherwise.

“We told them, fine. We’ll bring in receptacles and clean up our own beaches. The story is that the state can’t balance its own budget and then comes looking to the cities, the lowest rung on the ladder, to strong-arm. It’s just not fair.”

John Conover, president of the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, says the charges have even divided state parks employees. He told of a lifeguard captain and avid surfer who himself has received two $31 tickets for failing to feed the iron ranger while off duty.

“He’s as caught in the middle as anyone,” Conover said. “The funds are in effect being collected to pay his salary. But he thinks there’s got to be a better way to do it.”

Sandy Jones, a park ranger stationed at San Elijo State Park, agreed that many rangers have questioned the state money being spent to build new lots when ranger salaries are being cut.

But she defended the iron rangers.

“Hey, they’re not that bad,” she said. “Maybe one thing they lack is the human touch. When the iron rangers are on duty, there’s no friendly person in uniform to say, ‘Have a nice day!’ or to remind park visitors to keep their dogs on a leash. But in this age of technology, maybe they’ll be able to do that someday.”

Meanwhile, Jones and other uniformed rangers continue the battle to get people to pay. Or even notice the signs directing visitors to see the iron ranger.

“I rolled into the lot at South Cardiff to watch the sunset the other night and didn’t even see the sign--to me, it looked like a free park,” said Jim Lorenz, a civilian engineer for the Navy who lives in El Cajon.

“As I’m enjoying a little toddy, watching the sunset, this patrol gal pulls up and tells me I owe her four bucks. So I paid it, I’m not here to cause waves.

“It’s cheaper than flying to Hawaii to catch the view. But if this is Pete Wilson’s solution to the failing economy, I think he should go back to the drawing board.”

Gazing off into the disappearing sun, Michael Ross said he felt like some of his individual rights were being lost as well.

“You know, this country used to be an island of government in a sea of rights,” he said. “But that’s changing. Now we’re standing on a tiny island of rights, lost in a sea of government.”