Council Sets New Youth Sports Facility Use Policy

The Moorpark City Council faced a packed house at its regular Wednesday night meeting. Most audience members were present to hear and take part in discussion of a new fee and use policy for youth sports organizations.

So many young soccer players showed up to the meeting that a whole row of extra chairs had to be set up to accomodate everyone. Still, even their presence couldn't persuade council members to throw out most of the provisions of the new staff-proposed policy with which the athletes, their coaches and other sports organization volunteers disagreed. After listening to organization representatives, however, the council did make a few changes.

Before the policy change, youth sports organizations paid a fee of $1 per year to use the city's outdoor sports facilities and a significanly reduced rate for indoor facilities for games and practices. Under a user agreement, the city also gives these organizations priority to use the facilities.

Because demand for facilities is growing and the parks' conditions are declining due to heavy use (poor turf conditions, etc.), park maintenance costs are rising and because the city is facing funding constraints, the city, having already taken some actions to decrease overall parks costs, was looking at changing its policy to address these issues.

Parks and Recreation Department staff members proposed a tiered, phased-in, per-hour fee for the groups that would differentiate between  "everyone plays" type groups and restricted clubs—with restricted, or competitive clubs, paying more. Inclusives organizations would be charged $3.25 per hour for athletic fields the first year, and the cost would grow to $9.75 per hour by the third year. Restrictive clubs would pay $4.75 the first year and $11.25 by the third year.

Also, a fee of $54.09 would be assesed for every family with a player or players in the organization who are not city residents. This fee is equivalent to the parks tax paid by city residents.

As well, organizations have to be nonprofit, maintain at least 75 players, serve only youth (age 17 and younger) and have a minimum of 80 percent of their players live in Moorpark in order to be eligible for a use agreement.

Under the staff's suggestion, the maximum number of fields assigned to a youth sports organization for use under an agreement would be governed by the city's parks and recreation master plan, and finally, the maximum use allowed under an agreement would be limited to two seasons, not to exceed 24 weeks per fiscal year, and one annual tournament.

Ultimately, the council decided not to differentiate between organizations and apply one fee for all groups. As well, it changed the limit of one annual tournament to two. Otherwise, it went with the staff's reccommendations, citing fairness to non-organization members who pay the city's parks assessment fee but don't have access to the fields for about eight months out of the year (the four months they do have access are in winter and early spring).

To see video from the meeting, visit the City of Moorpark website (click on the bolded "video" to the right of the meeting date. The hyperlink is not differentiated with a different color as on most websites).