*** Fees For Park Use Always A Bad Idea ***

Yakima-Union Gap, Washington -- 04/18/2006
Budget shortfalls in the past resulted in pressure to
find new revenues for state parks by adopting a day
use fee. The day use fee has resulted in reduced attendance,
high collection costs, AND negative impacts to tourism.

Attendance has decreased by 20 percent. Citizens,
particularly the poor and elderly, have been negatively
impacted by the fees...

— Excerpts from a legislative report
on Substitute House Bill 2416.

The state Legislature went on to approve SHB 2416,
abruptly ending a short-lived, highly controversial and
counterproductive experiment with day-use parking
fees at state parks as of April 9.

In light of that action, the Union Gap City Council should
reconsider plans to implement a parking fee for Ahtanum
Youth Park as of July 1. It was a bad idea when Yakima
County considered it before turning over ownership of the
park to Union Gap. It's still a bad idea.

We remain fully supportive of Union Gap's stewardship of
the park, but do think other ways of raising money to operate
the financially strapped but popular park should be explored.
Increased rental fees for organizations regularly using the facility
for soccer, BMX activities and other group events that require
reservations would be one approach.

But fees for casual day-use by individuals is,
as the state found out, a good way to drive
those users away.

As we noted editorially before, a Seattle Times study of
the impact of parking fees found that the heaviest percentage
declines in daytime visits were in Eastern Washington parks
from 2001 to 2004:

* Sacajawea, Benton County, minus 85.8 percent;

* Curlew Lake, Ferry County, minus 79.6 percent;

* Peshastin Pinnacles, Chelan County, minus 76.3 percent;

* Lake Chelan, Chelan County, minus 68.7 percent and

* Yakima Sportsman, minus 68.5 percent.

The $5 parking fee took effect in January 2003.
State Parks and Recreation Commission officials told
the Times that decreases also stem from other factors,
including alcohol bans (Sacajawea) and forest fires
(Peshastin Pinnacles, Lake Chelan). Attendance in state
parks overall reportedly declined by about 20 percent
since the park fees were introduced.

We can appreciate Union Gap's desire to have the park be
self-supporting as much as possible. But the city's own
numbers raise serious questions about the net effectiveness
of parking fees — that with a $3 fee, visits could decline as
much as 50 percent. That's a significant drop that reminds us
again of the state's experience and seems a soft revenue
source for maintenance and operation and long-term capital
projects.

The city collects nothing from people who stop using the parks.

The fees controversy again raises an interesting public policy
issue for local officials: To what extent should government
provide parks free, and how much should those who use
them help in paying expenses to maintain and operate them?

As a rule, user fees are sound public policy. Taxpayers
underwrite the parks, and those who actually use them
— especially on a regular, scheduled basis — are asked
to kick in a little extra. That's in keeping with the premise
that while all taxpayers chip in to provide the facilities, not
all taxpayers use them.

But there's a gray area in the proposed parking fees for the
Ahtanum park. User fees are fine for large-scale users or
those who regularly use the facilities on a reserved time and
space basis. They're not practical for nonscheduled, occasional
day use by the public because they don't differentiate between
the two types of use.

We appreciate the fact that Union Gap's willingness to take
over the popular park buys it some breathing room for now.
But we continue to believe that the long-range solution to area
parks still has to be some larger operational authority, such as
a regional park district, with a regular source of tax levy income.

Until, or if, that happens, Union Gap officials would be wise
to reconsider day-use fees because rather than a savior, they
could be the downfall of the park.

Let's learn from the state's experiment.

You can find more news clips about the Ahtanum park at:
http://www.genesbmx.com/YakimaBMX.html

Geneb...Wenatchee,Washington-USA
All Things Northwest in BMX!
***** Gene`s BMX *****
http://www.genesbmx.com