San Diego City Council to consider San Diego Zoo parking fees

The San Diego City Council will discuss a lease amendment allowing the San Diego Zoo to align parking fees with membership needs.

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego City Council is set to consider an item on Monday’s agenda to authorize the first amendment to the lease agreement between the city and the Zoological Society of San Diego for the San Diego Zoo property at Balboa Park. 

According to the adoption agenda, this action would allow the San Diego Wildlife Alliance to better align parking fees for the Zoo parking lot with membership and operational needs. 

Currently, parking at the San Diego Zoo is free. 

The SDZWA provided CBS 8 the following statement: 

Earlier this year, the City of San Diego proposed implementing paid parking at city beaches and parks, including Balboa Park. 

We have been in constant communication and collaboration with City officials to best understand these changes and how they will affect parking at the San Diego Zoo, including timelines, potential exemptions, and other implementation details. 

As part of these discussions, should we need to implement paid parking as part of this change in Balboa Park, we are preemptively exploring a lease amendment with City Council that would allow us different options when offering parking at the Zoo for San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance members, team members, and volunteers. We are dedicated to making the visitor experience at the Zoo as positive as possible and we will continue to ensure all guests are informed about updates and changes through the Zoo’s official communication channels.

According to the City’s staff report, under the current lease, the zoo cannot reduce or remove parking fees for volunteers or staff, and prevents them from charging discounted rates for City of San Diego Residents, members, seniors and military guests. 

The proposed changes would align with plans to charge for parking at Balboa Park, which has faced opposition from some local residents. Meanwhile, the potential implementation of parking fees at the San Diego Zoo has drawn mixed reactions from visitors.

“I am not a huge fan. I mean, the zoo is an awesome attraction for people, for tourists, for people who live in San Diego, and we understand parking is challenging here, especially close to downtown,” Owen Graves, a San Diego Zoo attendee, said.

However, some visitors see the logic behind the potential change. 

“Parking at the zoo kind of makes sense, if they wanted to charge for it only for the fact that we have a lot of events that go on around the park and sometimes makes it hard to park at the zoo because you have a lot of people who use parking lot here to go to events inside the park,” Jason N., another zoo attendee, said.

Meanwhile, the San Diego City Council will vote on the proposed parking fees at Balboa Park on Sept. 15.