Annapolis adopts county permitting rules, outlines options for closed Wiens Whelan field and Collison upgrades

Annapolis recreation officials told the City Council work session on May 27 that the Department of Recreation and Parks has adopted Anne Arundel County Recreation and Parkspermitting procedures to reduce duplicate paperwork, described how permit priorities are set, and outlined redevelopment options for several city fields including the long-closed Wiens Whelan.

For the record, Rosalind Johnson, director of Recreation and Parks for the city of Annapolis, opened the departmentpresentation and summarized the departmentapproach to youth sports and field management. Johnson said, "So the total number of hours that we've permitted for this spring, it's 1506 hours of play." She added that the March 3 to June 12 permit window represented about 62.75 days of continuous playtime across city fields.

The department said it adopted Anne Arundel CountyRecreation and Parkspermitting rules after a series of community meetings the department called a sports symposium.Under the adopted approach, permit hours are determined by the number of active players on a roster submitted to Anne Arundel County; the citygives priority to teams comprised of at least 75% city residents. Johnson described the change as intended to prevent duplicate paperwork and to align scheduling calculations between jurisdictions.

Why it matters: Permitting rules determine which teams get guaranteed, exclusive time on limited fields; the department said adoption of the county process and an online permit request…