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Parks board recommends higher rental and field fees, moves to bar tournament gate charges
Summary
The board voted to forward a package of revised pavilion, field and tournament fees to Town Council and recommended that tournament gate fees be disallowed; staff will present the ordinance changes and supporting benchmarking to Council for final action.
The Prosper Parks and Recreation Board on Jan. 8 approved a set of recommended fee changes and directed staff to present them to Town Council, while asking staff to pursue a policy disallowing tournament gate fees.
After a lengthy staff presentation and benchmarking review, the board coalesced around the following recommendations to send to Council (staff will incorporate the chosen option into an ordinance packet):
- Pavilion rentals (resident tiers): 1–50 people: $50 (staff proposed); 51–100: $75; 100–200: board recommended $125 for the 100–200 band. Nonresident pavilion rates were left unchanged for now. - Synthetic turf fields: resident rate $75 per hour; nonresident $200 per hour. - Grass fields (regular turf): resident rate $40 per hour; nonresident $150 per hour. - Tournament (nonresident/non‑cosponsored) fees: $75 per team for up to two days; $60 per team for each added day; $200 deposit per field; $1,500 minimum fee for multi‑field events. - Gate fees: the board expressed concern about private tournament operators charging admission at public parks and recommended eliminating gate fees (i.e., no town share of gate revenues and, as a policy matter, discouraging gate collections on public property). Staff will pursue the policy option and report to Council. - Parkland dedication/park improvement fees: staff recommended adjusting parkland dedication to 1 acre per 30 dwelling units (previously 1 acre per 35); staff proposed updated per‑unit park improvement fees to better align with peer cities (details to be supplied in the Council packet).
Parks staff told the board that field maintenance and synthetic turf upkeep are significant ongoing costs and that raising nonresident fees helps prioritize facilities for town residents while recouping wear‑and‑tear costs from outside users. Several board members said they did not want to create undue burdens on residents but wanted to discourage excessive nonresident use of prime field resources.
The board voted to forward the recommended fee package to Town Council and to pursue eliminating gate fees; the vote was taken by voice and carried with no recorded opposition.
