4. Lake Ann Park Fee Schedule 1
I
r
CITY OF
'
I
' \ 1
�~
� ;'` 690 COULTER DRIVE • P.O. BOX 147 • CHANHASSEN, MINNESOTA 55317
I (612) 937-1900
Action by City Arlrn n;tr or
IMEMORANDUM
TO: Don Ashworth, City Manager
FROM: Lori Sietsema, Park and Recreation Coordinator C?,t,-__S?`Le-,/e8_.
Gets :,.,a,;. . . , :r.r:
DATE: April 1 , 1988
ISUBJ: Lake Ann Park Parking Fees - //4F
IThe City Council, at the March 28 , 1988 meeting, tabled this
item pending Park and Recreation Commission minutes (attached) .
Staff was directed to measure the impact of these fees on the
I
budget.
In 1987, the parking fee generated roughly $17,000 . This revenue
I was collected in daily entrance fees and season passes . Attached
please find a history of the amount charged and the total amount
collected since 1984 . Upon review you will notice that the
I daily fee was decreased and the season pass raised by $1 in 1985 .
The amount of revenue generated has increased each year since
that time.
I it is safe to say that the parking fee does not cover the cost of
general maintenance at Lake Ann Park, i .e. mowing the grass ,
clean up, painting, etc. , nor does the fee cover line item expen-
Ises such as the following that were incurred in 1987 :
Total Beach Program $12,000
I Satellites 3 ,000
Gate Attendants 4 , 000
Lake Ann Stickers 500
Balifield Lights 450
ITOTAL $19 , 950 tk-
IIt is a reasonable statement that the parking fee helps to offset
• the cost of the beach program, the ballfield lighting and the gate
I attendant. The fee was originally established so that park users
helped to pay for the services available at the park.
I
r
Don Ashworth
April 1 , 1988
Page 2
It is difficult to measure what the impact on the budget would be
if fees were eliminated, as we do not consistently collect the
same amount from year to year. It is the recommendation of this
office to gradually phase out the Lake Ann Park parking fee by
lowering it each year until it is eliminated. This will give us
the opportunity to more thoroughly measure the impact of the
reduction. To reduce budgetary problems , staff should be
directed to include a staged reduction in the 1989 budgetary pro-
cess . (We will start this process within the next two months. )
I
r
I
I
1
11
II
I
Lake Ann Parking Fee Schedule History
' 1984 1985 1986 1987
' Daily Fee 4 . 00 3 . 00 3 . 00 3 . 00
Season Sticker 4 . 00 5 . 00 5 . 00 5 . 00
(Resident)
' Season Sticker
( Non-resident) 25. 00 10 . 00 10 . 00 10 . 00
' Total Collected $10, 350 $10,847 $13 , 628 $17,239
1
1
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
March 22, 1988 - Page 19
morning and we' re not going to be back until 2: 00. '
Sietsema : 2: 30?
Hasek: That would probably be alright . ,
Sietsema: Then for the next meeting.
Boyt : How about the 17th? 1: 00?
Sietsema : 1: 00. This is a four hour session so we' re commiting to 1: 00 II
until 5: 00. Okay, we have the 17th from 1: 00 until 5: 00 with Bill Boyt
then. That ' s a Sunday also. I will send you notes . Please let me know
if you can' t be there as soon as you know.
SET CITY COUNCIL MEETING SCHEDULE.
Sietsema : The Council is now meeting on the 2nd and 4th Mondays . I
listed the next about 6 or 7 meetings .
Mady: I haven ' t said a word and I ' ve been to a lot of them. '
Lynch: I ' ll take March 28th.
Boyt : I ' ll take April 11th .
Robinson: I ' ll take the 25th.
Hasek: I ' ll take one in June sometime .
Sietsema : Which one do you want Ed?
Hasek: June 27th .
Boyt: May 9th is open.
Schroers : I ' ll go with that . ,
Mady: I ' ll take May 23rd. Carol gets June 13th.
LAKE ANN PARK PARKING FEE SCHEDULE.
Mady: Two weeks ago we talked about it and I asked each commissioner to II
give their feelings on parking fees at Lake Ann and staff went over what
the fee has been in the past and what kind of money is generated .
Schroers: In my opinion I think we' re in good shape. I think $3. 00 '
daily is fine . A resident seasonal $5.00 is very good . Non-resident
seasonal $10. 00 is acceptable. The access only is for a season?
Sietsema : Yes . Under the LAWCON regulations we can not charge, for
Park and Rec Commission Meeting 22, 1988 - Page 20 g
I
' someone who just wants to come in and use the access only we can ' t charge
a non-resident fee that ' s more than a resident fee. So if someone from
Chaska wants to come in and they say all I want to do is use the access,
' we couldn' t charge them $10 , we have to charge them $5. 00 but then all
they can use is the access and they have to have a boat with them every
time they come in. Nobody' s ever asked for it. It ' s just something for
LAWCON more than anything .
Schroers : And I definitely believe that Senior Citizens should be free
so as it stands, I would vote to keep it the same as it is.
' Lynch: I don ' t mind $3. 00, $5.00. I think the non-resident is too low.
Sietsema : We can ' t charge more than double the resident under LAWCON.
' Lynch : I still think it' s too low. The access only as with the
facilities and I may have missed this but where do the buses get
introduced here?
Sietsema : They've always had a fee for buses way back because we
sometimes do have like a field trip out there. Maybe a bunch of girl
scouts will go out there.
Hasek : We' ve also had softball teams show up by the busfull .
' Sietsema: Or company picnics or like an elementary school field trip.
We usually let them in free. P
Lynch : That ' s what I was going to ask. You don ' t charge the schools to
go in for field trips?
' Sietsema : Well , they' re not in session , they don ' t do that when we
charge out there anyway. We don ' t have a lot of buses.
' Hoffman : Some company picnics are probably going to get smart and get
around that. They have 200 cars come in, they pay a substantial
amount to have their company picnic there and the company picks up that
' tab. A lot of this money that is generated for a daily fee comes from
some of the bigger company picnics that were held out there last year .
Lynch: Are we ever going to establish a straight line fee for company
' picnics as has been discussed in years past? I know it ' s becoming more
appropriate to discuss it now that we have some companies that have
picnics . In the past we haven ' t had companies that had picnics.
Sietsema: The thing is, the local companies, the majority of them like
United Mailing , Instant Webb, the Press and Victory Envelope and now some
of the other ones have been making donations for the fireworks and in
' exchange, we give them season passes for their employees so it ' s out of
the non-resident businesses that come in and have picnics and we do have
quite a few of those . They get charged the daily fee for every car .
' Lynch: The company grouping you just rattled off there, how about our
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
March 22, 1988 - Page 21
11
friends in the record business and some of the newer businesses? That I
donation to the fireworks , maybe that 's a good thing for Sue. Maybe it' s
one of these things where you want to go to a new business and say, all
the businesses do this and for this they get.
Hoffman: We do that.
Sietsema: We get them at their budget time. We send them a letter ,
budget for the 4th of July.
Lynch : Someday I would think that we would want to look at something a
little more policy.
Sietsema : We do have a policy in that they do have to book a big group
with us and there is a damage deposit that they have to put down. This
is all starting this year , and a form that they have to get a permit. In
our ordinance it' s always stated that you have to have a permit to have a
big group at any of the parks and we now have that form in place and a
damage deposit required so I think we' re working towards that more and
more every year . But they still are charged the $3 .00 per car . Often
they' ll let us know ahead of time that the company wants to pick up the
tab so we' ll send them tickets in advance and we' ll charge them for as
many tickets as we collect. Then we just bill the company.
Hoffman : That park reservation ticket is just waiting to be printed '
after this is all approved. We put down $150. 00 damage deposit for a
group picnic and groups also reserve the picnic kits and we put in there
a deposit for those also so we make sure that all the balls and bats and I
all that gets returned . There is no fee for reserving any of the parks
at this time so that's something that can be looked at. Definitely in
the future. I think all other communities probably have that.
Mady: The softball teams all pay a league fee to use the facility as
well as paying to get into the parking . Kids who get swimming lessons
there pay for their swimming lessons as well as having to pay to get in
the front gate .
Hasek : How about if their parents drop them off?
Sietsema: They show their receipt for their program and they don' t have
to pay for parking . Most of them do because they are residents and they
have the sticker anyway but if they have paid for the program, they
haven ' t been charged for parking .
Mady: Then why do we charge softball teams when we pay a fee to use the I
park?
Sietsema : That' s a good question.
Mady: This all gets back to where my contention all along that I don' t
understand why we charge people to use the park. That particular park
offers nothing that a different park in Chanhassen doesn ' t already offer . 1
It' s got a beach there, we've got a beach at Carver Beach and in
' y Park and Rec Commission Meeting 22, 1988 - Page 22 g
' Greenwood Shores .
Sietsema : Not a guarded beach that costs $12, 000. 00 a year to run.
' Schroers: And this generates $17,239 .00. That' s the reason for charging
the fee right there is just to pay for the guards . Can we back up here
for a second? On this access only, I see a problem with that. I don' t
' think we should have an access only.
Sietsema: We have to.
' Schroers : How are you going to enforce that?
Sietsema: We have to. No one' s ever gotten it. Nobody ever asks about
' it. Nobody really even knows about it but because of LAWCON regulations ,
we have to offer it. So for them, we have to.
' Schroers : That seems like. . .
Sietsema : What we would do is if anybody came in and said I 'm a non-
resident and I want a sticker to use the access only, is we would write
' in big black marker across their sticker "boat only" and when the
attendant sees that, they have to have a boat with them or they' re
charged the daily fee. So they would have the sticker plus a daily fee.
Ito my knowledge I ' ve never sold a boat access only in
the last 3 years .
' Schroers : I wasn ' t aware that it was required . It just seemed like
something that was kind of unnecessary.
Sietsema : It is but it ' s an unnecessary requirement .
' Mady: My contention was and still is, I don ' t understand why we charge for someone to use a park , this y ge a
P park. If we do it here, why don ' t we
' do it to all those community parks. I don ' t feel we ' re being logical or
consistent with the use of our community parks . All I see here is we' re
trying to raise some revenue. That 's all I see it and that ' s basically
what I feel the City is doing is charging me a tax for a park. If they
want to do it there, maybe do it at other places. I don ' t like to see us
restricting our parkland to Chanhassen residents who are already paying
taxes anyway because this $17,000.00 doesn' t even come close to covering
' the upkeep for that park. That ' s where I came from.
Robinson: As I said two weeks ago, I vote to leave it.
' Hasek: I also felt that it was a good idea to leave it in place just
because of the useage of the park. There was a comment made by someone
that Excelsior doesn' t charge. Well in fact they do, they have parking
' meters and the parking meters help pay for the park so yes they do.
Boyt : I 'd like to see no park fee.
Mady: I believe Carol also had that opinion.
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
March 22, 1988 - Page 23
Sietsema : Given that , we have 4 leave it and 2 drop it. I
Hasek moved, Robinson seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission
recommend to adopt the 1987 Lake Ann Park Parking Fee Schedule as
presented by staff for the year 1988. All voted in favor except Mady and II
Boyt who opposed and motion carried with a vote of 4 to 2.Boyt moved, Hasek seconded to direct staff to encourage Council to
establish uniform policy on conference attendance. All voted in favor
and motion carried. I
REVIEW AND PRIORITIZE 1988 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM.
Boyt: Before we start on 10, I ust have a couple of
j p general comments
about the budget. I wondered if it was possible to get the quarterly
printout of how much we' re taking in in park dedication fees and trail
fees in what areas of the City?
Sietsema: Yes .
Boyt : I 'd like to see that . The park fees are turned over to the 410?
What is it?
Sietsema : The 410 budget which is a fund and it' s the last one on item
2. That money goes into that fund and that' s what we do our capital
improvement program with . I
Mady: When you say matching grant , that' s what we use for matching
grants. It' s our development money. That ' s where our capital
improvement program comes out of .
Boyt : Last year we had 335 housing starts . If those had all been in
developments that didn' t donate land, we would have taken in $139,000.00 II
for park development for that year and our budget isn ' t anywhere near
that.
Mady: If you look at the bottom of the reserves for the ' 88 budget, Lake I
Ann Phase 1 grading, we've got $100, 000. 00 in there. It shows
$100,000.00 for the installation. . . We' re setting aside $50,000 . 00 for
Lake Susan. We' re looking to keep $100, 000. 00 there for just anything
that comes up. Then Herman Field has the existing $35,000 . 00 reserve
there.
Sietsema: At the end of 1987 , I asked the Auditors today, it' s real hard I
to get a clear picture of what exactly is in this fund because you are
shifting funds. Money from the 410 fund into like the Lotus Lake Boat
Access. We put the local share into and develop a new fund and wait for
the State and Federal money to come in and we put that in and we pay all
our bills out of that fund . When the projet is closed, then we close
that. Whenever we start a new project , like a major project , let' s say
we' re going to do the Lake Ann Park grading, we will develop a new fund
I