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Shakopee council approves phased community center fee increases for 2026
Summary
The Shakopee City Council on Aug. 6 approved a multi-year plan to raise membership and daily-admission fees at the Shakopee Community Center beginning January 2026, aiming to align local pricing with comparable suburban facilities and reduce reliance on property-tax levies for operations.
The Shakopee City Council on Wednesday voted to approve a phased increase in membership and daily-admission fees at the Shakopee Community Center, with changes to take effect in January 2026.
Parks and recreation Director McNutt presented the proposal, telling the council the city is “pretty significantly behind” comparable municipalities on annual membership pricing and recommended a multi-year approach so current members are not driven away. “We would like to increase the prices for our resident daily admission from $8 to $11,” McNutt said. He added the city’s resident adult monthly membership would remain at $44 so that “four individual daily admissions cost more than a monthly membership,” a pricing goal intended to encourage membership uptake.
The adopted plan sets the resident daily admission at $11 and the nonresident daily admission at $16 (up from $13). City staff recommended a nonresident surcharge of about 40 percent above resident rates and a policy that specialty tiers (seniors, youth, military) be priced about 15 percent below the base rate. McNutt told the council staff would phase annual-member price changes to avoid hitting existing annual members immediately; monthly rates would change at the first billing cycle in 2026.
Council discussion noted the proposal was part of a broader effort to formalize pricing strategy under the city’s CAPRA accreditation work so fees are predictable and defensible. McNutt told the council the revenue model underlying the proposal would reduce the amount the city must levy for community center operations, estimating the change — if membership counts remain constant — would offset roughly $250,000 that otherwise might be levied.
A motion to approve the proposed 2026 membership and daily-admission fee changes passed unanimously. The council directed staff to provide outreach to members and to implement the pricing changes in a phased manner so annual-membership renewals are treated as described.
The council vote: motion approved (vote tally not specified in the minutes).
