South Mountain Park has two popular busy entrances: Central Ave that takes you to the viewpoints and Pima Canyon that is on the Tempe/Phoenix boundary.

The majority of users for Pima Canyon are Tempe residents. Thousands of tourists visit South Mountain through the Central Ave entrance. Both entrances have a guard shack where fees can be collected.

Several open space type parks throughout the country give free admission to it's local residents or citizens. South Mountain could easily begin a fee program since it already has the infrastructure for it and the sheer volume of non local people visiting. This would aide in offsetting cost for decaying park infrastructure and roadways.

Like National Park and Maricopa County Park, you pay a person at a pay booth and are given as needed directions and a map. Currently, there is not a designated information booth for South Mountain and a fee booth would be able to provide this service as well.

Ideas where I could use some help are options for identifying Phoenicians so entrance is free. Utility bill? Driver's ID? A frequent user pass?

Piestewa and Camelback may be another solution, but South Mountain has far more visitation, infrastructure, historic artifacts and buildings, and trails to maintain.