The guests enter the Rio Vista Park through one of the new access points on May 24, 2025.
The city of San Marcos installed temporary summer fences in Rio Vista on May 22nd.
The city council approved the installation of the fences during its work session on May 20 to guide the parking access and to better impose the use of container ban in summer.
The fence is part of the “Managed Access Test Plan” (MATP) of the city, in which the areas regarded as the most important access points are occupied on weekends, but not from Monday to Thursday, except for holiday weekends.
“I emphasize that this is a test. The fencing infrastructure is not permanent,” said Rodney Gonzales, deputy city administrator of San Marcos, during the working session. “Some of our long weekends also contain a Monday or Thursday.”
According to Gonzales, the access points are only used at the weekend, as large quantities of people visit the river outside the city.
Gonzales said the reason why the test in Rio Vista and not in a different river park or all parks is on the river bank, that in Rio Vista there is a large amount of violations of the use of container ban and other regulations.
“We believe that we get better conformity through managed access,” said Gonzales. “Because it is a test plan, we will see if we need it all year round. It may be that we only need the fence during the summer season.”
During the public statement in the working session, Kileigh Reed, the owner of Wild Rice Studio and board member for the eyes of the San Marcos River, spoke in favor of the managed access at Rio Vista.
“I was present yesterday during cleaning up on Monday morning, and it was astonishing to see how much garbage was left,” said Reed. “I ask you to take a look at what is going on at Rio Vista and creates a managed access program so that we can have all the river parks we enjoy.”
During the presentation of the MATP proposal, Gonzales said that the fences would make more signs possible to clarify park visitors about the rules of the parks and the river, such as:
In the working session, the city's employees also proposed to calculate access to the river and create an approval system for the residents and give the park influences the authority, to carry a car instead of waiting for a police officer to call this tow. The Council decided to visit both topics again at a later date.