Recreation User Fees Raised

Agreeing with a recommendation by the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission, the Torrance City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to increase recreational user fees by an average of 10% over the next two years.

The council rejected a recommendation by the city Finance Department and the city manager to increase the fees by 30% over the same period. The Parks and Recreation Commission told the council in a report that it feared a 30% increase might make city recreational services too expensive for many senior citizens, children and low-income residents.

The parks and recreation director will decide how much each fee will be increased. The higher fees will be assessed for 22 recreational programs, including adult arts and crafts classes, youth swim lessons and dance classes for senior citizens.

The additional fees will add $60,000 to the city’s annual revenues. An increase of 30% would have generated $180,000, according to a city report.

The new fees are part of a city effort to make residents pay more of the cost of providing a wide range of city services. The City Council has already approved new or increased fees for the Planning, Building and Engineering departments as well as the Police Department. More new fees for Police and Fire Department services and two construction fees are still to be considered.