At the May 20 City Council Work Session, the council approved a temporary fence around Rio Vista Park with managed access points. This decision was made in response to the increased summer tourism, which is leading to increased litter and parking issues at river front parks such as Rio Vista. The city presented an access fee system for out of town visitors, but after much debate between city officials there was a 5 to 2 vote to discuss the fee system at a later meeting. The city also presented a request to modify the city ordinance to allow parking enforcement technicians the authority to initiate the towing of an illegally parked vehicle. The council did not approve this change to the ordinance with only three members voting in favor.
The city is rolling out a managed access test plan, which includes installing the temporary fences along the border of Rio Vista Park and staffing entrance points during the weekends with Park Ambassadors who will educate tourists and citizens about the park rules, including the can ban. There will be signage installed on the fences informing the public of the rules and restrictions for the park.
The city has been working on a riverfront parks summer season action plan since last year saw historic highs in nonresidents visiting the river on weekends and summer holidays. The can ban was adopted into the city ordinance in February 2024 and officially began enforcement on May 1 of this year. The ordinance states that, “It is unlawful for any person to possess any glass or single-use beverage container in or on the public waterway or in any designated areas where signs prohibit them on city park property.” The first year of the ban focused on education only with the city implementing permanent park signage, dispersing printed materials, distributing city branded Reuse at the River containers, billboard messaging, social media campaigns, direct messaging, and they leveraged community partnerships to provide education to local business patrons.
