Revised Rates and Fees

Background
During the December 12, 2023 Study Session, Mayor and Council discussed the proposed fee adjustments or additions to the TPRD schedule of fees (Attachment A at the link to the right). As result of no modifications of park related fees since 2010, the current fee schedule does not allow for efficient and appropriate management of parks and recreation areas and programs.

Fees to be impacted or added include:

• Elimination of Neighborhood Center Fee: Permitting equitable access to these locations for their available resources. This also potentially reduces the current expense to deposit revenue through a contracted service, which can at times exceed the monthly revenue at the smaller neighborhood centers. (See exhibit 3 to the right)
• Ramada Rental Fees: Right sizing the cost to rent a ramada according to the size and the capacity the amenity offers. It is not currently an equitable approach to pay the same reservation fee regardless of the size of ramada being used.
• New Commercial Use of Parks Fee: Facilitating the opportunity to partner with businesses who offer services that align to recreation, fitness, outdoor activities, and will be charging their participants a fee. Parks will deem appropriateness of proposed use of a park and define areas of use and frequency of use to the appropriate fee proposed for a daily, monthly, or quarterly basis.
• Sports Field Lighting Fee: Adjusting to an hourly rate, rather than a rate requiring a minimum of two hours will allow a rental to right sizes their use and manage the impact of cost to have lights on. Additionally, the aim is to encourage cancelation of light use when not being used. This is aligning to the hourly rate approach that Pima County Natural Resources Parks and Recreation uses.
• Swim Team Utilization of Pools: There are two audiences currently not being served in the aquatic community. One, local private swim teams, and small businesses with an aquatic focus, whom need pools to hold swim training or aqua fitness classes. Two, collegiate swim teams based in northern and mid-western locations that during the winter months are seeking warm outdoor pools for maintaining athlete training programs. With the establishment of fees, Parks and Recreation can advertise and generate additional revenue and potentially attract lifeguards for seasonal employment from the athletes using city pools for swim training.
• Tennis: Three park locations (Reffkin, Himmel, and Fort Lowell) are managed under an agreement with two tennis management companies who charge fees for tennis and pickleball courts. Having no increase since 2003, the request is made to adjust fees to allow support of the operational costs to maintain these courts and program them for user benefit. A proposed increase over the next six years limits the impact to the public. There are currently 24 free public access tennis courts and 18 free public access pickleball courts. The benefit of the managed courts is the increased daily maintenance, the ability to reserve a court in advance of arrival, coordination of tennis classes, leagues, and tournament participation.

With TPRD fees proposed, unless otherwise represented, the non-city resident fee would be charged at a 20% adjusted rate, and this is reflected in the shared Fee Schedule (Attachment A at the link to the right).

Park Tucson is a financially self-sustaining division of the City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility. The last rate increases to Park Tucson fees and rates were in 2013, except for a rate increase in September 2021 for Centro Garage and Toole Avenue Lot.

Park Tucson’s mission is to professionally manage the City of Tucson’s parking assets to provide safe, accessible, and convenient parking to the community. The proposed rate and fee adjustments would bring the Park Tucson rates closer to existing market rates and assist in covering existing maintenance, service, and security costs.

View the proposed Park Tucson rate fee adjustments at Exhibit A Proposed Parking Rate Adjustments Table on the link to the right.