By Brian Trompeter
The cost of golfing, RECenter admissions, pool usage, commercial photography at one park, and riding trains and carousels will increase Jan. 1 following the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) Board’s Dec. 13 approval of a slate of fee adjustments.
Park Authority officials examine the agency’s fees annually and make adjustments based on costs, market conditions and other factors. They estimate the following fee adjustments will generate nearly $1.04 million in additional revenue:
• Golf fees will increase at most of the agency’s facilities. Costs for nine- and 18-hole rounds will go up by $2 at Burke Lake and Twin Lakes golf courses. Nine hole rounds will increase by $2 at Jefferson District Golf Course and $4 at Pinecrest Golf Course, but stay flat at Oakmont (formerly Oak Marr) Golf Course.
Eighteen-hole rounds will cost $6 more on weekdays and $10 more on weekends at Laurel Hill Golf Course and $2 more at Greendale Golf Course, although nine-hole fees will stay the same at the latter course.
• Annual memberships at Laurel Hill Golf Course will increase by 4 percent. Full memberships now will cost $6,250, whereas ones for weekday-only play will rise to $4,750.
• Golf driving ranges will begin charging $1 more for 120-ball buckets and $2 more for 160-ball buckets. There will be no fee changes for 40- and 80-ball buckets, but the Park Authority will scrap its jumbo 200-ball buckets.
The agency will eliminate its previous fees for driving-range passes and instead offer a “Driving Range Card” that will allow patrons to load value on the card and receive 35-percent discounts off ball-bucket prices with purchases of $100 or more.
• RECenter and leisure-pool admission fees and discount fast passes (25 admissions) will increase at least 10 percent in all categories (children 4 and younger still will be admitted for free if accompanied by a paying adult or senior).
FCPA officials said the higher fees were necessary to offset “significantly” higher costs for staffing and operations. The Park Authority last raised RECenter admission prices for youths/seniors in 2012, adults in 2017 and families in 2019.
• Base rates for swimming at indoor pools will increase nominally, as will fees at the Water Mine in Reston.
• Train and carousel admission fees will rise by 50 cents.
• Amphitheater-rental fees will rise 25 percent to $50 during prime hours at Mason District and Franconia parks.
• Commercial-photography-reservation fees at Green Spring Gardens in the Alexandria area will increase by 20 percent for groups ranging from 12 to 74 people and FCPA now will start charging a $15-per hour fee (minimum two hours) for photo shoots involving up to 11 people. The rate increases are necessary to meet demand at the site, officials said.
Existing commercial-photography fees at other FCPA sites that charge them will remain unchanged.
Owing to the current inflationary environment, Park Authority officials also have prepared a schedule of conditional fee changes that can be implemented July 1, at the start of fiscal year 2025, if external factors cause expenses to increase significantly.
If expenses rise $1 million overall, the agency would raise fees 3.3 percent. Fees will increase 6.7 percent if additional expenses reach $2 million and 10 percent if up by $3 million.
Unlike many county agencies, which are financed solely from the general fund, the Park Authority derives about 60 percent of its operating funds from user fees charged at parks and other facilities.
The agency in fiscal 2024 must absorb about $2.7 million in higher personnel costs, courtesy of pay increases approved by the Board of Supervisors. In addition, employees’ overall benefit costs have risen 7.4 percent to nearly $7 million.
Park Authority officials prefer to tweak the fee structure each year rather than make more jarring changes after longer time periods.
In past years, the Park Authority Board has held public meetings on the proposed fee changes in the first part of the year and approved the adjustments in March, with implementation starting April 1. But during this fiscal year, the agency started the process months earlier and will begin charging the new fees Jan. 1.
“The Park Authority has shifted to a calendar-year cycle rather than a mid-year implementation,” said agency spokesman Benjamin Boxer. “The adjustment was made to better align the review of any potential fee adjustments with the annual budget review and discussions.”
Park Authority Awards Grants for Improvements at 3 Parks: The Fairfax County Park Authority Board has approved Mastenbrook grants that will provide matching funds totaling $55,325 for improvements at three local facilities: Lake Fairfax Park, McLean Central Park and Frying Pan Farm Park. The Park Authority will manage construction of all three projects, which officials expect will be completed by the spring 2024.
• A $15,325 grant will support upgrades at Lake Fairfax Park. In 1997, Field 8 at the park was developed into the first cricket field in Fairfax County, in partnership with the Cricket Association of Fairfax County (CAFC), which agreed to maintain the pitch. Field 8 is among the few fields in Northern Virginia that are large enough to meet international cricket standards.
Having been heavily used over the years, the pitch needs to be replaced. CAFC has requested $15,325 in matching-grant funding to install a new pitch with a concrete base and artificial turf. The group is providing the other half of the $30,650 project’s budget.
• A $20,000 grant will be put toward basketball-court improvements at McLean Central Park. Friends and neighbors of Thomas A. Mulquin wish to honor his memory and the impact he had on the community. They founded the Friends of Thomas A. Mulquin and raised funds within the community to renovate McLean Central Park’s basketball court.
The project includes refurbishing the existing court’s surface, color coating and line painting; replacing both goals; and adding a 10-foot, vinyl-coated chain-link fence to prevent basketballs from going into heavy overgrowth near the court. The total project budget is $65,176.50 and the group is raising the remaining $45,176.50 via community contributions.
• A $20,000 grant will support electrical upgrades at Frying Pan Farm Park. Through an agreement with the Park Authority, Spirit Open Equestrian (SOE) leases an area within the park and provides therapeutic riding programs for the public. The leased space now has no electrical service, so the group has requested $20,000 in grant funding so it can have Dominion Energy extend power to the leased operations area from a nearby cell tower and hire an electrician to outfit the buildings with wiring, conduit, outlets and related electrical components. SOE will contribute the remaining $52,458 of the project’s total budget of $72,458.
The Mastenbrook Volunteer Matching Fund Grant Program supports public-private ventures that improve Fairfax County parks and park facilities. The program aims to fill a gap between limited bond funding and the community’s desire for new or improved park facilities.
Since 1999, the program has awarded about $2.2 million in grants for projects valued at more than $16.5 million. Grants ranging from a few hundred dollars to up to $20,000 have funded projects such as trail improvements, construction of gazebos and shelters, and athletic-field improvements.
The grant program currently is not accepting additional applications, as the Park Authority is reviewing the 25-year-old program. The review will examine the process through an “equity lens” and determine how to improve the program’s accessibility and benefits in all areas of the county – particularly in “communities of opportunity.” Park Authority staff expect to return to the agency’s board with recommendations in early 2024.
For more information about the grant program, visit www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/mastenbrook-grants.
