Parks and Recreation System Master Plan Update (2016) parks_and_recreation_system_master_plan_update_oct | Page 182

Facility User Fee Revenues
Communities throughout the country use a variety of user fees for recreational services
and facilities within park systems. Such fees are nearly always charged for special facilities such
as golf or horseback-riding. In many communities, fees are also charged for a wide variety of less
specialized facilities such as courts, ball fields, group picnic shelters, and even trails. As
traditional funding sources for maintenance have proved increasingly inadequate over recent
years, more communities have set higher targets of operating cost recovery through user fees,
with some even setting complete cost recovery for operations and maintenance expenditures as
the threshold for certain types of recreational service.
It was suggested that the LMPRD consider developing a hierarchy of user fee targets for
four categories of recreation services to more economically disadvantaged groups in the
community. The suggested four categories are as follows:
Free facilities: A large number of facilities would continue to be provided free of charge
as part of the general public benefit. General use areas of neighborhood and community
parks, playgrounds, courts and fields for pick-up sports, greenways and trails, and
passive recreation areas would probably fall in this category.
Partial cost recovery: A second tier of facilities might target between 50 to 75 percent
cost recovery. As examples, courts and fields (especially if lighted) which are used on a
reservation basis, group picnic shelters, boat launches, sue of special equipment (e.g.,
bleachers), and fishing lakes might be operated on a partial cost recovery basis.
Full cost recovery: A third tier of special recreational facilities would aim for 100
percent cost coverage, through fees and/or delegating maintenance responsibilities
directly to individual groups. Activities covered by this category might include horse-
riding stables (as opposed to public bridle paths), adult softball, tennis centers, pitch-
and-putt or miniature golf, boat rentals, and youth-group or simple family camping.
Revenue generation: As recommended in the 1990 Metro Parks Management Study²,
the full range of potential revenue generators needed to be investigated, whether
operated by the LMPRD or under concession arrangements. Existing programs such as
the corporate retreat courses offered in the Memorial Forest could be expanded. The
LMPRD might consider developing a campground operation in Louisville including
facilities for recreational vehicles as a revenue center. Overnight accommodations in
addition to those in operation at Otter Creek Park at the time were to be considered
also.
In many communities golf courses are a profitable operation, and the LMPRD should
continually monitor its greens fees and concession terms to ensure optimum revenue
generation. A recommendation of the Metro Parks Management Study that the better quality
courses (e.g., Vettiner and Seneca) in particular be operated as profit centers is currently being
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