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San Mateo City proposes sponsorship, vendor and modest fee increases in 2026'27 park schedule
Summary
The Park and Recreation Department presented a 2026'27 fee schedule that follows CPI adjustments, expands sponsorship and vendor fees for events, raises some golf fees modestly and maintains permit and replacement fees for heritage trees to fund capital and replacement programs.
San Mateo City's Park and Recreation Department on March 25 presented a proposed 2026'27 fee schedule that would formalize sponsorships and add community booth and food vendor fees for the department's events while otherwise following consumer price index adjustments.
Business manager Susette Silverman told the Park and Recreation Commission the department generally follows the Consumer Price Index for annual adjustments and rounds fees to whole dollars. She said park impact fees, set by municipal code and used for capital park improvements, were indexed this year to residential property value (stated as 4.7%). The proposal adds a sponsorship/community booth and food vendor category so the city can expand sponsorships beyond the Central Park Music Series and offer a tiered booth structure for nonprofits and for'profit vendors.
"We really want to expand that and broaden that to all the event[s]," Silverman said, explaining staff hope the fee will help sustain popular community programs. She added that sponsorship benefits and booth details are posted on the special events pages of the city website and staff will begin outreach to past interested parties and local businesses.
Golf fees were adjusted after a market analysis by golf services manager Kevin Kobayashi. Most golf rates were increased by the CPI and some resident fees were raised by $1 above CPI to keep the municipal course competitive with similar local courses, staff said.
The proposal also retains a permit fee for heritage tree removals and a replacement fee. The managing arborist, Tim Arquist, said the permit fee covers application processing and site inspection and that the replacement fee (stated as $845) is used to buy and install replacement trees when a resident elects not to replant. "We put that money back into putting another tree back," he said, describing the city's goal of at least one-to-one replacement.
Commissioners pressed staff on transparency and effective dates. Staff said some fees become effective July 1 (fiscal year) and others on January 1 (calendar-year items) and that the department's activity guide and the fee schedule document include the effective dates and the fiscal sustainability policy (cost'recovery ranges). "We will never collect more than the event costs," Silverman said, referring to the sponsorship fee language that limits collections to event-related expenses.
What happens next: the commission closed discussion on the item at the meeting and will forward its recommendation according to the city's calendar for the 2026 budget cycle and final adoption by city council later this spring or at the June budget hearing.
