Some State Park Fees Ended; Others May Be Cut

At many state parks, if you bring your dog along for a romp, it’ll cost an extra buck. Got an inflatable raft or a rowboat on top of the SUV? That’s an additional $1.

But come Jan. 1, such charges--derisively dubbed “nuisance fees” by parks employees--will be abolished. State officials say those fees generate little revenue but draw a surplus of gripes from park visitors who feel gouged.

The change marks the first wave of what some park administrators hope will be a steady rollback of admission charges now in place at California’s scattered collection of 245 state-run parks, campgrounds, beaches and historic sites.

With the economy booming and state coffers flush with tax revenues, some park advocates are talking hopefully of cutting fees altogether at most parks, arguing that the current price of entry is keeping away some potential visitors, particularly the poor.

“If I had my way, the only parks in California that would charge entry would be Chavez Ravine, 3Com Park 1/8San Francisco’s football field 3/8 and Anaheim Stadium,” said Rusty Areias, state parks director.

So far, he has not gotten his wish. A push last spring to shift $10 million from the general fund to help slash park entry fees failed to pass muster in a legislative budget committee. To put it in perspective, that $10 million amounts to 1/6,000 of the state’s $60-billion budget.

Now the state appears on the road to another budget surplus next year, and several lawmakers are talking of raising the fee issue anew.

Out in the real world, that could mean outright elimination of more fees at the museums and historic sites run by the parks department in addition to the nuisance fees that disappear next month. (The extra fees for dogs and small boats bring in $45,000 annually.)

In addition, many sun-loving Southern Californians could see the $6 or $7 daily parking fee at state beaches from Malibu to San Clemente cut by a couple dollars.

Were that to happen, the applause you’d hear at parks from Crescent City to Coronado wouldn’t be just from visitors. Park rangers, too, want to see fees cut. For them, duty at the front gate can be a testy experience, as they deal with unhappy guests irked by the slate of entry charges.

“Our gate staff spends an awful lot of time explaining why we charge these fees,” said Mike Tope, a parks superintendent for state beaches in Orange County. “They’d be happy to avoid having to nickel and dime the public to death.”

Russ Guiney, who oversees 29 parks in Los Angeles County and surrounding areas, agreed. “When I became a ranger, I didn’t expect I’d be running a toll booth,” he said. “It’s not the highlight of the day for most of our people.”

But before state lawmakers allow a wholesale drop in fees, they want a bit more study of the implications for revenue and attendance. So far, park officials have no hard proof that entry fees deter low-income visitors.

Efforts to cut fees run headlong into a formidable argument: By any measure, the parks remain one of the best bargains around. A $6 charge for a daylong family outing at a state park sounds pretty good compared to a trip to the local movie theater, even without the popcorn.

At least a small entry fee may ultimately be deemed appropriate so visitors who use a particular facility help defray operating costs. There is evidence that the public agrees. A parks department poll in 1996 found that most California residents generally support fees.

“People want the user to pay something, even if it’s symbolic,” said Vic Maris, state parks operations chief. “It’s kind of a balancing act. We want to make sure it’s fair, that we’re not excluding anybody.”

Tope, for one, sees circumstances in which fees turn away visitors. “They may want to stop there for lunch or after work, to just sit for a few minutes,” he said. “Why should someone have to pay $6 or $7 to watch the sunset?”

Park officials already have some proof that reducing fees boosts attendance. A few years ago, they cut the entry fee to $2 at Anderson Marsh, a small state park in Lake County. The use jumped immediately.

But there is a flip side to that. Some officials worry that statewide fee reductions could result in such an increase in attendance that bathrooms, roads and other infrastructure at high-volume parks would wear down all the faster. Meanwhile, a run on fragile state reserves, which are devoted to preserving distinct ecosystems, could cause irreparable environmental harm.

“The question you have to ask yourself is: If we reduce quite a few of these fees and more and more people visit, are we going to love the parks to death?” said Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin (D-Duncans Mills), chairwoman of the budget subcommittee that oversees the parks budget.

That issue is particularly important given the current state of decay at the parks. Last summer, state lawmakers earmarked $157 million to give a face lift to facilities that have been ignored for upward of two decades. But parks officials estimate that the bill for infrastructure repairs would total at least $1 billion. Even fee reduction advocates such as Areias don’t want to see entry charges dumped if it means having the parks sag further.

“We’ve been decimated over the last 16 years,” Areias said. “I want to see fees reduced or eliminated, but that can’t happen at the expense of maintaining the parks themselves. We’ve got an awful lot of catching up to do.”

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California Parks by the Numbers

Fees at some state parks:

Parking: $5-$6

Peak season

camping: up to $17

Camper hook ups: $6 (added to base fee)

Premium camp site: $5 (added to base fee)

Motor vessels and sailboats over 8 feet: $3-$5

Overnight mooring: $6-$12

Annual day use parking: $75

Off-highway day use: $4

California park statistics:

* 245 parks, beaches, museums, campgrounds

* 1.3 million acres

* 3,000 miles of trails

* 280 miles of coastline

* 625 miles of lake and river frontage

* 18,000 camp sites

* 1,455 historic buildings

Source: California Department of Parks and Recreation