It’s going to cost more to golf, swim, or rent facilities in Coronado starting next year. The Coronado City Council will decide just how much more later this month.
By increasing rates, the city will recapture more of the costs associated with recreation and account for rising expenses.
Coronado currently subsidizes 65% of its recreation programs, which include everything from summer camps to tennis court rentals. The rest is covered by user fees.
Next Practice Partners, a consultant contracted by the city, recommends that Coronado aim to recover 40% of its costs associated with recreation programs, a 5% increase.
The increases are long overdue, said Neelay Bhatt, Next Practice Partners’ founder and CEO, during a presentation at the Sept. 3 meeting of the Coronado City Council. It has been more than 25 years since the city has updated its parks and recreation fees and policies.
Doing so would generate an estimated $305,000 in additional revenue for the city. Bhatt recommends that the fees be adjusted annually to reflect the Consumer Price Index, rather than waiting years and shocking residents with huge increases.
City Council will consider the rate increases and updated policies at a public hearing at 4 p.m. on Sept. 17. If the council approves the proposed changes, the updated facilities use policies will go into effect on Oct. 1. New fees will be implemented Jan. 1.
Bhatt said he has seldom seen cities with as robust recreation programs as Coronado’s, nor with as much community participation. In a survey his firm conducted, 57% of Coronado residents said their household had participated in recreation programs or events in the last year.
“Nationally, program participation is about one in three,” Bhatt said. “For the best of the best agencies, I recommend they get to between 40 to 45% (participation). I have known two agencies in my entire life that touched 50%. Nobody’s gone to 57% in 20 years of doing this, so this is absolutely outstanding.”
Bhatt suggested a tiered cost recovery system for individual programs, in which programs that offer the greatest public good to the greatest number of people receive the greatest subsidy from the city, while programs that offer the most private benefit require more input from the beneficiary.
Exclusive-use rentals, for example, benefit only the renters and their guests, and would qualify for less subsidy.
Under this model, tier one programs carrying the greatest public good would require between 0-30% cost recovery. Tier two would require 31-60% cost recovery, while tier three programs would require 61% or higher.
Aggregately, the entire parks and recreation department would recover 40% of its associated costs from fees.
The changes also include more distinction between resident and nonresident rental costs and discounts for seniors. Many facilities, such as the city’s golf course, already engage in this type of dynamic pricing. But, for example, the current cost of renting a kayak is $20/hour regardless of residency. In the proposed rate schedule, nonresidents will pay $25/hour.
The steeper increases for nonresidents mark an effort to curb increases for residents. Currently, drop-in swim at the city’s aquatic center costs a resident adult $7. A nonresident pays $13.
The proposed schedule will change resident drop-in swim to $8, about a 14% change, while nonresidents would pay $16, a 23% change.
Bhatt said survey respondents supported variable pricing for residents, and council members seemed amenable to it as well. Tuesday’s presentation was for information and discussion, and the council will take action at its next meeting.
“I’m elected to support Coronado residents and their tax money, not San Diego residents,” said City Council Member Casey Tanaka.
Surrounding cities are quick to charge non-residents more for their facilities as well, Tanaka noted.
“If you’re going to go play golf at Torrey Pines (Golf Course), take out a loan,” he chuckled.
San Diego residents pay $85 for 18 holes at that municipal course on weekends. Nonresidents pay $292. (In Coronado, residents currently pay $49 for a round of prime time golf; nonresidents pay $59).
It’s normal for cities to recover some of the costs of their recreation programming, but that number can vary wildly, Bhatt said. Coronado’s current 35% is on the lower end. Escondido requires a staggering 100% cost recovery for its programming, so only self-sustaining recreation options operate.
Bhatt said his recommended 40% was a mixture between trying to balance the Coronado’s recreation-heavy identity with financial realities. The council agreed: Recreation is important, but money is finite, and the city has other capital projects, such as the Winn Room expansion and the Orange Avenue beautification efforts.
It’s hardly newsworthy that when the government attempts to raise fees, citizens balk, and they showed up in droves at Tuesday’s council meeting to protest the changes.
What is noteworthy, though, is that citizens were largely amenable to most of the rate increases – except when it came to tennis court rentals. Read that story here.
“None of us ran for office to raise fees for the sake of raising fees,” said Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey, gesturing to his colleagues on the council. “I don’t remember that being a part of any of our platforms. But we as a council have an obligation to balance multiple competing interests.”
The proposed fee updates and facilities use updates follow.
Facility Use Policy Recommended Updates
- Streamlining the facility user classifications from the current seven to three: resident, nonresident, and commercial.
- Eliminating the current $25 application fee
- Allowing verified resident nonprofit organizations to rent certain rooms for free for public meetings, subject to availability.
- Removing age-based limitations on rental options.
- Creating an outdoor instruction permit, which would allow commercial instruction (for example, beach yoga) for up to 10 participants at specified park and beach locations.
- Making the city’s volleyball courts and athletic fields rentable facilities.
- Updating the language around recurring use policies.
Proposed Fee Schedule
Below are the proposed changes to the recreation department’s fee schedule. The current policies are here.
