Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Parks plan includes changes in fees
BENTONVILLE — Nonresidents may have to pay more than residents to participate in Parks and Recreation programs in the coming years.
The department will consider changes to its programs’ fee structure or registration process as part of a new plan. The changes will help the department ensure it will keep residents’ needs as its top priority as the parks system grows over the next decade, officials said.
The plan implementation likely will cost between $50 million and $60 million over 10 years, Fred Bonci told the City Council last week.
Bonci is with LaQuatra Bonci, a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm creating the Parks and Recreation plan. A $200,000 grant from the Walton Family Foundation paid for the plan.
The draft recommends investigating the pay structure for community centers and programs The Community Center would have higher nonresidential fees, but members would still get discounts on programs at the center. However, programs — such as youth sports — not offered at the center might have a higher fee for nonresidents, according to the plan.
Community Center fees are $1 to $50 higher for nonresidents than residents depending on the type of pass. Melvin Ford Aquatic Center admission and ice skating fees at Lawrence Plaza are the same for residents and nonresidents. Membership to the Community Center includes entry into the aquatic center.
A supplemental report will detail specific recommendations on program fee changes. The report should be ready in about two weeks, said David Wright, parks and recreation director.
The need to change the fee structure isn’t immediate and likely wouldn’t happen for several years, but it’s addressed in the 10-year plan, he said.
“This plan is built for Bentonville residents. It’s built for the people who live in our city limits,” Wright told the City Council on Tuesday.
“It doesn’t exclude the youth who may live in Centerton, Bella Vista, Rogers, Cave Springs, who are part of the Bentonville School District, but this is a plan that is built for the resources we have in our community.”
About half the participants in the department’s youth sport programs are city residents.
Wright explained the registration process also may be reviewed. One scenario would open registration to Bentonville residents for a certain period before
allowing nonresidents to fill the program.
If the fee structure remained as it is, the department would need to build another 50-acre, $15 million to $20 million sports field complex to accommodate the city’s population growth as well as the growth in the surrounding communities, Wright said Thursday. That facility would also add to the operations and maintenance cost of the department.
“Our priority should be serving the residents of our community, number one,” he said, adding the needs of nonresidents come second.
Bonci said Tuesday his team looked at the plan from a Bentonville perspective as well as a regional system.
“There’s a point where a $50 [million] to $60 million plan becomes a $90 [million] to $100 million plan,” he said, referring to building facilities and programs for a larger demographic than city residents.
Bonci added the plan will serve Bentonville beyond its projected population of 65,000 in 2025 “very comfortably,” but it will require assistance from other municipalities if a certain nonresident threshold is crossed. He didn’t mention what that threshold was.
Bentonville’s population is around 44,000.
That assistance might mean other cities develop more parks and programming or some kind of partnership between cities is formed, Bonci said.
Ward 3 Alderman Bill Burckart said Thursday he believes the plan is well thought out, optimistic and
wonderful but the financial aspect needs to be clarified.
“We just have to do the homework first financially,” he said, adding every option should be taken into consideration. Those include use fees, impact fees and potential reissuance of bonds that were paid off early, he said.
The last Parks and Recreation plan was adopted in 2007, and it’s an industry standard to have one done every 10 years.
The 2007 plan outlined $3.5 million improvements for the parks system. The bond issue of 2007, which gave the Parks Department $15 million, and community partnerships allowed the city to spend closer to $40 million on amenities over the past decade.
All the bond money for parks has been used or is committed. The last of the bonds
for street improvements and the Police Department were issued in January. No official discussion has taken place on whether the city will seek additional bonds.
The proposed plan includes developing a citywide trail loop system connecting neighborhoods to parks, improving parks and building new parks and integrating neighborhood park components in all parks with flexible field space that could be used for a variety of activities.
One of the goals is to “get as many residents as we can within a half-mile walking distance to a park safely,” Bonci said.
The plan divides the city into four quadrants using Walton Boulevard and Eighth Street and calls for the park system to become more balanced. The plan includes specific recommendations
for each quadrant.
“The bottom line that we heard from everybody is that we want to be America’s next great park city, and when people think of parks, people think of Bentonville,” Bonci said. “How can you recruit and retain people here? You can do it with your parks as well as other amenities.”
The new plan will go before City Council for approval in July. Implementation could begin as soon as next year, Wright said.