San Marcos city council revises downtown parking restrictions

News Reporter

SAN MARCOS- On July 3, city council members approved a four-hour-parking restriction between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in certain areas in Downtown San Marcos.

Anyone parking in the downtown area will be able to leave their vehicle out for a longer period. The current time limit is two hours.

Downtown San Marcos — San Marcos Downtown | KTSW Multimedia

Opinions have escalated between students from Texas State University, some viewing the council’s decision as a solution and others considering it another problem.

“I think it’s going to benefit people a lot because like whenever I do park downtown if I need to get to class or something like that, there’s really no other option,” TXST student Sydney McGhee said. “Having I feel like that two little extra hours extent it’s just going to give some sweet peace of mind knowing like, ‘okay, I’ve got about two extra hours where I can get back to my car without having to worry that I’m going to be seeing a parking ticket when I get there.”

For TXST sophomore Illiana Perez, extending the parking time would only increase the crucial need for more parking spaces.

“I would say it would make things worse,” Perez said. “If you just want to go down there for the day or something or just for a little bit like I don’t think you would spend over two hours in that area, and there’s not that many parking spots to grab so it’s like, yeah, I feel like it moving to four hours would just be like too much and then a lot of people wouldn’t have a parking spot.”

TXST sophomore Samuel Arungwa feels the solution is not an extension of time, but rather an increase in parking spaces provided for guests.

“I just wish they’d kind of divert their attention to just adding more parking spaces if they can, rather than just lengthening the time that people can stay in,” Arungwa said.

According to the San Marcos website, the following areas downtown will be converted to the four-hour parking restriction.