- April 17, 2024
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Does Palm Coast need more ballfields and parks? And should it raise user fees to cover costs at its existing ones? The City Council is preparing to make decisions that will affect how the city pays for its amenities, including a proposed fee schedule revision.
City staff members told the council in a workshop Aug. 10 that there are sometimes conflicts between local teams and the tournaments that rent out facilities like the Indian Trails Sports Complex.
"If we do more tournaments, we need more fields," said Lauren Johnston, the city's chief of staff of citizen engagement and formerly its Parks and Recreation director.
Mayor David Alfin asked if the city has turned away tournaments for lack of space. Staff members said that it has.
Jarrod Maxwell, president of Mad Dogs Flag Football, said some of the city's existing facilities aren't really playable.
"The big issue is field conditions; there’s countless parks in this community that look beautiful until you start playing them," he said.
Some of the parks that are safest for the kids, he said, have limited parking.
Vice Mayor Eddie Branquinho supported adding more playing space.
"Our kids need more fields; let’s get them more fields," Branquinho said.
Although Palm Coast uses impact fee money — money paid by developers to offset the effects of their developments on local government expenses — to create new parks, impact fee money comes with legal restrictions and can't be used to maintain existing facilities.
Those ongoing costs must be funded from other sources, like taxes, grants and user fees.
The city administration proposed a new fee schedule that would raise fees by an average of a few dollars a month at the city's Tennis Center, Palm Harbor Golf Course and Aquatics Center while rental rates for rooms in the city's Community Center or pavilions at Holland Park could see more noticeable increases — in some cases, by about double.
The council will vote on the proposal at a future business meeting.
