Park Service says it has no request to convert El Escambrón land for San Juan's planned parking garage
The National Park Service has received no formal notification or request for review of a change of use at El Escambrón, the San Juan beach park where the city plans a multi-story parking garage, wapa.tv reported on September 29, 2026. San Juan's mayor signed the ordinance that would allow the garage on September 13.
The federal agency cited the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965: no property acquired or developed with the fund's assistance may be turned to uses other than public outdoor recreation without authorization. Its letter, an answer to a San Juan municipal legislator, says the Park Service will review any change of use with the State Liaison Officer and decide whether it meets federal law, according to the outlet. Related wapa.tv coverage says the garage would rise on the lot that already works as a parking lot.
What the permit record shows
RED Atlas permit records hold no filing for a parking garage at El Escambrón either. Six filings have named El Escambrón since the ordinance was signed, and none is for a garage. The parking filings there are for the lots as they are. In the Parque del Tercer Milenio beside the beach, a single permit approved on September 4, 2025 covers running a 400-space public parking lot on a 3.1-hectare property, and a construction permit request filed on September 3, 2026 to remodel the lot's toll booth and entrance is marked incomplete. At the parking lot beside the Hotel Normandie, which its 2023 and 2024 permits list at 160 spaces, a security-booth remodel was filed for a construction permit in August 2026.
The other recent filings on the park are for recreation. A request filed on September 16, 2026 seeks infrastructure clearance to rework about 164,000 square feet of already-disturbed ground in the Parque del Tercer Milenio, with a 30,000-square-foot skatepark, two restrooms and children's play areas. Improvements to the public restrooms at Escambrón beach received an environmental categorical exclusion on September 30, 2026, and their construction permit is at the inspection stage. A plan filed as the revitalization of Parque Escambrón and the restoration of the Hotel Normandie received an approved siting consultation on October 18, 2024 and an approved legal pre-consultation on February 4, 2025. A filing does not establish that work started or finished.