Proposed amendments limit construction to one added level on the existing lot, yet the developer says final designs and impact studies would follow authorization of the public-land deal.
A proposed private parking project at Balneario El Escambrón has been narrowed after months of public opposition, but the central question before San Juan’s Municipal Legislature hasn’t changed: how much detail should the city require before granting a decades-long property right over public land?
Project of Ordinance 55, filed June 24, would authorize the municipality to grant Smart Parking System LLC a surface right over the existing parking lot at Parque del Tercer Milenio Dr. José Celso Barbosa. The legal structure would let the company develop and operate the site while the municipality keeps title to the land.
Amendments under consideration would cap the term at 60 years, remove a renewal path that could have extended it further, define a project area of 10,094.4085 square meters — about 2.57 cuerdas — and limit construction to one added level within the current parking footprint. The measure describes a private investment of roughly $22 million and capacity for up to 950 vehicles.
The city’s case for the project
San Juan officials present the project as a mobility investment on land already used for parking, not a privatization of the beach. The municipality told NewsPR the proposal wouldn’t change the site’s use or extend construction onto the beach, green areas or pedestrian paths. Officials have also described the garage as one piece of a wider system that includes a municipal trolley, public transit, and bike and walking routes — including the PR-25 Paseo Lineal reconstruction already underway a few blocks away in Puerta de Tierra.
The city points to heavy demand around Escambrón, Sixto Escobar Stadium and other planned activity in the Isleta de San Juan. WIPR reported that a municipal license-plate camera near Muñoz Rivera Avenue recorded roughly 1.5 million readings during the first six months of 2026 — a traffic-volume figure, not a count of unique visitors, since the same vehicle can be recorded repeatedly.
During a July 29 public hearing, municipal planning officials said the current lot is already an impacted area and that building up, rather than out, could add capacity without consuming more land. The municipality has linked the need for parking to the reopening of nearby facilities and future plans for food kiosks, a restaurant and a skate park.
Authorization sought before final design
San Juan’s permitting office told the Municipal Legislature that no permit application has been filed, because the developer first needs a proprietary interest in the site. Smart Parking System, which did not appear at the July 29 hearing but submitted a written memorandum on August 14, made a similar case to El Nuevo Día: that it wouldn’t be prudent to pay for final design, geotechnical, environmental and structural work before receiving authorization.
That sequence means legislators would be asked to approve a decades-long surface right before a final plan or supporting studies exist. The proposed amendments set an outside footprint and height, but leave the ramps, drainage, tree retention, traffic circulation, lighting and exact number of spaces undetermined.
San Juan’s environmental office has recommended stormwater and runoff controls, sustainable construction practices, electric-vehicle infrastructure, ongoing monitoring and permanent public beach access. Those recommendations outline what a later design would need to address — they aren’t project-specific findings.
Community objections, and a separate operator
Community group Escambrón Unido, in testimony reported by Desde el Hemiciclo, argues the numbers don’t yet add up: the existing lot holds about 300 vehicles, and the group questions how one additional level within the same footprint could produce a total of 900 to 950 spaces. It also says more than 50 trees in parking islands could be affected and warns that added runoff could reach the coast and nearby coral habitat. Without a final design or environmental study, those impacts can’t be confirmed or dismissed.
Opposition legislators Daisy Sánchez of the Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana and Ingrid Colberg of the Popular Democratic Party have called for the measure to be withdrawn, with objections that reach beyond garage design to the length and terms of the public-land concession. San Juan’s Municipal Legislature’s digital library lists 43 memorials, testimony records and supporting documents under a search for Smart Parking — an unusually large public record for a single proposal.
The surface-right applicant shouldn’t be confused with the lot’s current operator. A 2021 municipal ordinance authorized a no-bid lease to American Parking System Inc. while the city prepared a competitive process, and a 2022 ordinance authorized an additional five-year extension. Project 55 names Smart Parking System LLC, a separate legal entity; public records reviewed for this article don’t establish that the two companies are connected.
Colberg has separately referred the American Parking agreement to Puerto Rico’s Comptroller, El Nuevo Día reported, alleging possible irregularities in the competitive process. Mayor Miguel Romero has responded that the 2021 ordinance was approved unanimously and that the arrangement was lawful. The referral is a request for review, not a finding of wrongdoing.
Where the ordinance stands
As of August 25, San Juan’s digital library listed Project of Ordinance 55 and its related public submissions. Searches of the enacted-ordinance archive for both the 2025–2026 and 2026–2027 series didn’t turn up a Smart Parking ordinance, and no public vote date had been listed in the records reviewed.
The amendments address two of the loudest objections by shortening the possible term and limiting the structure to one added level. Left open: the ramps, drainage, tree retention, traffic circulation and lighting plan that would only arrive after the municipality commits the site — for as long as 60 years.
Related coverage: $40 Million Puerta de Tierra Reconstruction Project Advances as Officials Confront Coastal Erosion Concerns
Sources: Legislatura Municipal de San Juan, WIPR, El Nuevo Día, NewsPR, Desde el Hemiciclo, Municipio de San Juan
