San Marcos is considering charging for river access during peak times 

SAN MARCOS, Texas (KXAN) – The city of San Marcos is considering charging non-residents a fee for river access during peak times over the summer months. 

The city said perhaps more people than ever floated along the San Marcos River on some days this past summer. While it wants to continue to welcome visitors, the number of people on the river made it difficult to manage the river’s health and visitor’s safety.

“We've continued to see, year over year, increases in visitors,” said Rodney Gonzales, San Marcos’ Assistant City Manager. “This year, July 4 and Labor Day in particular, we had larger crowds than normal.”

Gonzalez said 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 $2 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.  “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.”

Gonzales presented the idea of bringing a similar fee structure and access points to San Marcos at an October meeting with managed access points throughout the river. 

“Given the size of the crowds that we experience, it makes every sense in the world to have multiple managed access points," he said. "That way we're not funneling everyone through just one gate in particular."

Gonzalez said the city is still developing a plan but that a recommendation to the San Marcos City Council would likely come in early 2025.