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City staff propose reservation system, wristbands and seasonal hires to manage Old Mill Park crowds
Summary
Parks staff proposed a seasonal, parking-linked reservation system with wristbands and seasonal staffing to curb overcrowding at Old Mill Park; council debated whether the system addresses safety and neighborhood parking and asked staff to separate capacity and transportation solutions and return with recommendations by April 14.
Steven Malone, director of Recreation, Parks, Historic and Cultural Affairs, proposed a seasonal reservation system tied to the park’s 69 city-owned parking spaces to limit on-site visitors at Old Mill Park during May 18–Sept. 20. Malone said reservations would be available online up to 14 days in advance, would be free to users, and would issue wristbands on arrival to let staff verify authorized access and manage capacity.
The nut of Malone’s pitch was crowd control: “We’re seeing an excess of 5,000 visitors over the course of a day,” Malone said, and the park’s limited developed area (about two acres of the park’s 40) and parking supply “create a clear imbalance between demand and capacity.” He outlined a staffing model (one supervisor and three operational staff per shift, running 11 hours per day) and a proposed seasonal budget around $180,000, including startup equipment costs.
Council members pressed on whether a reservation system would reduce safety problems and neighborhood impacts. Council member Sarah Beeson noted that at least one death last summer occurred on the National Park Service side and would not have been prevented by city reservations, and she questioned whether limiting access by parking would exclude nearby residents who walk to the park. “This new system would not have prevented that death,” Beeson said, adding that parking-based limitations could burden neighbors.
Other council members urged staff to treat two separate problems independently: the park’s fragile historic features and visitor behavior (what council members called an overuse/capacity problem) and the neighborhood’s parking and traffic (a transportation/enforcement problem). Council member Christopher Zach asked staff to return with two distinct solution sets, and multiple members said they favored standing up seasonal recreation staff quickly to relieve public-safety burden.
Staff said they began weekend visitor counts in 2025 and have weekend data for the peak season; Malone said staff would correlate visitation counts with incident and first-responder logs to recommend an optimal capacity figure. The mayor and council agreed staff should convene relevant departments and return with recommendations at the next committee meeting on April 14.
Ending: The committee did not take a formal vote on the reservation concept. Council asked staff to separate parking/transportation analysis from park capacity/preservation work, to produce incident/capacity data, and to return with hiring and operational recommendations for the May season by the April 14 meeting.
