City may impose San Marcos River fee for non-residents to help manage massive crowds
SAN MARCOS, Texas (KXAN) – San Marcos is considering implementing fees for nonresidents seeking thrills on the San Marcos River.
This proposal is one of many aiming to address large crowds and preserve the health of the river. At a city work session on Tuesday, San Marcos said the river had its busiest year in 2024 with no signs of slowing down. It reported that as many as 70 percent of people on the river during these peak times are visiting from out of town.
“[Some residents say] riverfront parks are not a safe place to visit because of intoxicated visitors, and fights occur. The weekend crowds are too large to enjoy the swimming pool and tennis areas. There’s too much traffic on residential streets, and it leads to illegal parking,” said Rodney Gonzales, San Marcos’ Assistant City Manager.
If the proposal is implemented, those who live in San Marcos would not have to pay entrance fees, but they would need to register for a “resident river pass,” Gonzales said.
Those visiting the river from out of town would be charged $5 for each person over six years old or $25 for groups of up to ten. The revenue would help offset the costs of cleaning and securing the river and parks.
“Our Parks and Recreation staff is prepared to host multiple in-person resident events to get folks registered for the resident river pass,” Gozales said.
Gonzales told KXAN in late 2024 that San Marcos looked to its southern neighbor, New Braunfels, for inspiration on how to manage crowds during busier times. In 2016, New Braunfels passed an ordinance charging out-of-towners to float along the river during the summer months and on the weekends, according to city documents.
Additionally, people must enter downtown New Braunfels’ rivers through managed access points, which are staffed during summer, said Amy Niles, the river and watershed manager for New Braunfels.
“It’s super important that we’re managing our resources well here. We want them to be here for everyone to enjoy, so they’re at an affordable price point,” Niles told KXAN in October 2024. “We do need to offset our expenses so that we can have good management here. We want to have staff present. We want to have a clean park. We want it to be safe.”
While the new system has not been implemented in San Marcos yet, the city tested managed access points by setting up fences around Rio Vista Park. Gonzales said any decision on the fee policy would happen at a future meeting after receiving public input.
“We know that a lot of the violations that we see – a lot of the activity that we see – is at Rio Vista,” Gonzales said. “We’re going to see if we can get the behavior to improve.”
San Marcos passed an ordinance banning single-use containers on the river in February 2024. While the ordinance went into effect in May, the city said it would focus on compliance through education and outreach for the first year instead of enforcement.
“It is our belief that we will get better compliance through managed access,” Gonzales said.
