The state Department of Parks and Recreation's plan to charge beach-goers to park at Tamarack Surf Beach may wind up in court.
But Carlsbad and state parks officials said yesterday they are negotiating a way to avoid charging a full $8 daily fee to park at the popular spot at the west end of Tamarack Avenue.
Mayor Bud Lewis announced Tuesday that the City Council voted 4-1 in closed session, with Councilwoman Julie Nygaard dissenting, to possibly sue the state Coastal Commission for allowing the parks department to install a fee machine.
Ronilee Clark, state parks superintendent for the San Diego Coast District, told the commission at the time that the parking fee – $8 a day or $125 per year – would help pay for keeping up the beach.
Most of Carlsbad's seven miles of beach fall into the state parks system, which pays for lifeguards and maintenance.
City Attorney Ron Ball said yesterday that the city is trying to work out a deal with the state parks department so the surfers, swimmers and strollers who use the Tamarack lot won't be charged.
“We want to finish negotiating or at least put our last, best final offer in writing” before the city files a lawsuit, Ball said.
Brian Ketterer, superintendent for the Torrey Pines, San Elijo and Carlsbad state beaches, confirmed that the two sides have discussed how the fee can be avoided.
He said the state estimates it can collect $340,000 to $500,000 at Tamarack. A fee machine hasn't been installed while the two sides negotiate.
“What's the total lump sum? We don't know,” Ketterer said. He said the city has offered to perform services at the beach to offset all or part of the fee, so it can be reduced to $4.
The city and state had such an arrangement from 1994 to 2000, when Carlsbad paid the state about $36,000 a year to cover the fees and maintain the free parking. That deal lapsed along with the parks department's permit to charge the fees.
Tamarack's 122-space lot is popular with visitors who stop for an hour or two to eat lunch, surf or walk along the city's beachfront promenade.
Councilwoman Ann Kulchin said the city might sue the Coastal Commission because it failed to undertake necessary environmental studies before granting the parks department's fee request.
She said beach-goers probably will park on surface streets rather than pay $8 to park at Tamarack's lot for an hour or two.
“Tamarack is an in-and-out lot,” Kulchin said yesterday.
She said the commission should have evaluated the impacts on local streets as well as whether people will avoid the lot and clamber up and down the bluffs overlooking the beach.
Ketterer declined to comment on the city's threat, but he said the parks department agreed to monitor street parking and effects on the bluff as part of its permit.
Michael Burge: (760) 476-8230; michael.burge@uniontrib.com
