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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDA REPORT 1993 0818 CC REG ITEM 11Fs d 1 f r r i f r d G s a t ITEM HisC. AGENDA REPORT The Honorable City Council Christine Adams, Director of Community Servi August 10, 1993 (Meeting of August 18, 1993) Newt, ' 0ORPAN. CALI- City COLM11 ,fee:.. or 199 3 By school district has recently changed its policy and is now ging youth sports organizations an hourly fee for use of of district owned fields for practices and games. The rict has set the fee at $9.06 per hour. Parks and Recreation Commission at their meeting on May 10, recommended a new fee schedule for use of city parks and lities. At that time, after some discussion, the Commission mmended by consensus to make youth sports groups exempt from charges for use of fields, and that the Commission should sit this item within six months to determine the amount of ct youth sports organizations place on city fields. t the change in policy by the school district, both the youth o ball organization and AYSO are now approaching the city about s 1iscuss rving field space on an on -going basis instead of using school s rict fields. Youth Football has requested use of the field at e wood Park from 4 pm - 7 pm, Monday through Friday during their a on. Staff has delayed reserving these fields until the Parks d Recreation Commission and the City Council has an opportunity this situation. T e e are two issues at hand. The first deals with the right of n n profit groups to reserve city facilities. As this is an e,,:tg.blished policy, staff cannot without justification turn r s rvations away. However, we feel that the change in the school d's rict policy may impact our park fields, and could cause some e t aordinary wear on our turf. The city has the discretion to r f se a reservation if it is determined that the requested use w.l severely damage or impact a city facility. Ir his same regard, it is necessary to establish fees to offset t e cost of maintaining city parks when used for extended, highly v'g rous, athletic activities. It may be appropriate to require o g nizations to provide the city a listing of participants r s ding outside of the city and assess those groups an additional f e equivalent to the park maintenance assessment fee paid by f m lies living in the city. T e e is also the potential to establish a flat fee for a specific p r od of use, which would be a percentage of the usual cost if c 1 ulated on a hourly fee basis. At Ccm v r f a c o a U .heir meeting of August 9, 1993, the Parks and Recreation ission voted to recommend that no fees be charged to the ous youth sports organizations for use of city parks and lities. The Commission felt that since those sports nizations that operate during the fall have already collected stration fees from participants, it would be unfair to go back assess additional fees from the participants to pay for field T e Commission also reiterated their commitment to revisit this i s e in six months (January, 1994), to determine the overall i p ct on city fields by youth sports. T e second issue that staff raised with the Commission has to do wit shared use by not only the sports groups but also by city r s dents. It may not be appropriate to reserve park fields on a 1 n -term basis without some limitations, which will ultimately r s rict use by neighborhood and other city residents. Refusal or a p oval of any park facility for extended periods of time could r s It in appeals by the sports groups or protests by local r s dents if not addressed up front and with mutual agreement r g rding park usage by all concerned. Other communities have had to deal with similar issues. One way of ddressing both issues is to form an informal Youth Sports Comnittee. Staff and representatives from each sports organization would meet as needed to discuss scheduling needs and citv concerns. Time conflicts and shared usage problems can be a d essed at these meetings. The other purpose of these meetings w u d be to insure that all city parks are kept from being over i p cted by any one group. The Parks and Recreation Commission supported the concept of e t blishing a youth sports committee consisting of city staff, tvro Parks and Recreation Commissioners and a representative from eaci of the youth sports organizations in Moorpark. These groups h v been identified as American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), P c ers Football, Moorpark Basketball Association (MBA) , Girls S f ball, Moorpark Little League, and Express Soccer. Staff i t nds to set a meeting date with the youth sports r p esentatives in the next week so that some potential conflicts can be addressed prior to the start of the fall sports season. P Public Works, Facilities, and Solid Waste Committee ( o tgomery and Wozniak) will have reviewed this item at their n e ing on August 17, 1993. D�r�ct staff as deemed appropriate.