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Council reviews proposed fee schedule changes including cemetery, shelter and block‑party fees; pump track praised
Summary
Staff previewed updates to a consolidated master fee schedule — including differentiated cemetery fees (casket vs. urn), half‑day park shelter pricing, a small increase to block‑party fees and formalization of abatement charges — and council members praised the new pump track at Roar/Rohrer Park.
City staff on May 19 presented proposed updates to Riverside’s master fee schedule and described a handful of implementation clarifications for existing services and programs, including cemetery interment fees, park shelter reservations, block‑party charges and costs for abatement actions.
Naya Holt said the city consolidated fees into a single master schedule last year to make rates easier to find and administer and is now proposing targeted clarifications to reflect actual labor and materials.
Key proposed changes
- Cemetery fees: staff said the city historically charged $1,000 for a casket burial and $100 for an urn interment; the proposal formalizes a higher fee for casket burials and maintains a lower urn fee to reflect greater labor and equipment needs for casket graves.
- Park shelter reservations: to reduce overlap and improve planning, staff proposed splitting shelter reservations into half‑day blocks (8 a.m.–2 p.m. and 3 p.m.–8 p.m.). Resident half‑day fee would be $15 and full‑day $30; nonresident half‑day would be $25 and full‑day $50.
- Block‑party/parade fee: a modest $10 increase was proposed to better offset staff time and coordination costs.
- Abatement action fee: codifies a fee to recover contractor and processing costs when city contractors remove junk or hazards from a property.
Staff said most proposed changes formalize existing practice or adjust language (for example, using “location” rather than “parcel” to account for properties split across parcels) rather than create new, unanticipated charges. Staff also said police body‑camera fee issues will be discussed later after data analysis is complete.
Parks and community note
Multiple council members and a public commenter praised the recently opened pump track at Roar Park, with Angel Patterson saying “it adds value to the neighborhood” and council members noting high community participation at the grand opening.
Discussion v. decision
Discussion: council members asked that proposed changes be returned with markup and companion tables showing “from/to” language for the packet. Staff agreed to provide marked‑up documents at the next step.
Direction/assignment: staff to return fee schedule changes with clear markups and companion charts, and to bring police body‑cam data to a future meeting for the related fee discussion. No ordinance votes were taken this evening; this was a staff preview and implementation briefing.
