Queen Creek may raise recreation fees

Queen Creek residents may begin paying more for town-run recreation programs if officials decide to raise fees to better recover the costs of providing the programs.

Queen Creek seeks recreation feedback

Town Manager John Kross said Queen Creek recovers on average about 12 percent of the cost of its recreation programs. That compares with a recovery rate of nearly 40 percent of costs by other cities of a similar size with similar offerings, he said.

Queen Creek's neighbor, Gilbert, is recovering recreation program costs at nearly 68 percent, Kross said.

The Queen Creek Town Council is expected to make a decision Wednesday night about whether to have town staff review the town's cost recovery on recreation programs. Kross said that process could take about 30 days. "It's been quite some time since we've reviewed fees in this area," Kross said. "When you compare the fees we offer, we just want to make sure we're in line with other communities."

The town is looking at the fee structure with a closer eye this fiscal year because of declining revenues from a slow housing market, Kross said. With significantly fewer new home starts, the town is receiving less revenue from sales tax and development fees.

"The reality of our situation is that we want to try and do as much as we possibly can within the available resources that we have," Kross said. "We're kind of remote within the metropolitan area and to a lot of residents we're a convenient opportunity for recreation programs - but we have to recover the costs for doing those programs at a level the community will support."

The staff report for Wednesday's meeting said that "there have been significant negative impacts on the organization from the downturn in the economy that have required all facets of both costs and revenues to be explored."

The first step is an evaluation of the town's cost recovery. If the council approves an evaluation, any recommendations for changes would follow. Any changes would then need the approval of the Town Council.

Parks and Recreation Director Debbie Gomez said recreation fees are the "core" of the revenue stream for the parks and recreation department. "Most of our programs have fees attached to them," she said, listing off youth sports and clinics, among other programs.

The town's fee philosophy is to be consistent, affordable and ultimately recover some of the town's costs, but there is a strong emphasis on subsidizing youth programs. The town offers scholarships to help families with costs too, Gomez said.

"We do anticipate that this type of analysis will increase fees all across the board to keep up," she said. "But we could never recover all the costs. The fees would be way too high. There will always be some subsidizing."