Heard on NRPAnet: park shelters - Tip-Off

Parks & Recreation, Feb, 2004

"Does your organization place a limit on the number of times a person, business, or non-profit organization can rent a park shelter in any one season, year, or other time frame?"--Appleton, WS

That was a recent question on NRPA's listserv, NRPAnet. For information on how to join the discussion, select "NRPAnet" from the right hand side of NRPA's Web site (www.nrpa.org). Here are some of the responses to the park shelter query:

"We do not have any limits at this time. However, we do reserve the right to charge any group, private or non-profit."--Milford, CT

"Our policy states that non-profit groups shall be permitted a maximum of one (1) facility rental per month, during normal operation hours at half price. More than one facilities reservation per month, during normal operating hours, will be charged full price (note facilities include community centers, recreation centers, or similar that parks and recreation operate) Non-profit groups shall be permitted to utilize shelter a maximum of one (1) reservation per week, Monday through Friday, excluding Holidays, at no charge. More than one (1) shelter reservation per week, Monday-Friday, excluding holidays, will be charged full price. (This includes all the shelter in the parks). This seems to be working well. We have a large number of church groups reserving our shelters."--Columbia, TN

"We had the same issue and said they could rent it once a month. We found that some of these smaller churches that do not have their own building so they rent space want to hold services in the park so it's cheaper. So we came up with the one rental per month. We have never really had any other groups or families rent more than that anyways."--Shrewsbury, MA

"Our only requirement is that reservations can only be made 8 weeks in advance."--Port St. Lucie, FL

We have no limits. Each reservation is income!"--Siloam Springs, AR

"There is an interesting article in the most recent volume of Parks & Recreation magazine about a home school group that wanted to use a public facility for classes. It's in the Law Review section. It might have some helpful information for your situation. I know I would be looking for a way to prevent a single group using one of our facilities that frequently if it happened to us."--Alexandria, MN

"We haven't come up against this with shelter rentals yet but we do have that type of situation at our campground. In order to keep one group/individual from monopolizing a campsite we set a limit as to the number of reservations you can have on the book at one time. We limit it to two. When they come in to use a reservation we allow them to make another if they wish. This wouldn't prevent your group from using a shelter eight or nine times during the summer, but it would slow them down to two at a time, allowing others the opportunity to make reservations."--Prince Frederick, MD

"No limit during the year [on] how many times they book, but we only allow one booking on the books at a time for the same organization, individual, etc. Then, once their first date is held, they can request the next date. That way they aren't booking up lots of dates so no one else can get them. On a case-by-case basis we may allow a group to have more than one date. As an example, we would allow a wedding at the gazebo and the dress rehearsal the night before."--Duncanville, TX

"That's a new one for us, and it could get sticky. We don't have a restriction of this type--and we will issue over 900 reservations for our 17 picnic pavilions during the 6-month 2004 picnic season. Our pavilion regulations are available at our Web site, crpr.Centre Connect.org."--State College, PA

"No, we do not place a limit as to the number of times we allow a party to rent a shelter each year. We may choose not to rent again if the party rented, then cancelled the rental just before the rental date so as to gain access to the shelter for free. We are in the process of amending our pricing policy to reflect this possibility by charging a 50 percent cancellation fee for any cancellations within 72 hours, or giving them the option of another date at no extra cost if circumstances warranted."--Roanoke, VA

"We rent out about 10 shelters in two different parks. If they are willing to pay for the dates it is first-come first-serve. We do not have any policies limiting the number of times."--Lapeer County Parks, MI

"This is tricky business since it is a religious organization wishing to rent the same park shelter. Any type of limitation may be viewed and discrimination due to it being religious. At one point, parks and recreation tried to impose a policy stating religious organizations could use facilities once a month in an attempt to avoid making any particular shelter or area a place of congregation. The tricky part is that if you impose it on one organization you impose it on everyone in order to avoid the risk of discrimination. To date, we have not found an equitable answer to this problem. As long as the organization is abiding by all rules, regulations and policies, leaving the place neat and clean, paying for everything, we found there was not much we could do. The only way you can deter use is if someone else already books the facility. We also have the very same problem with homeless feedings in a handful of parks. Neighbors and council people don't like to think of any park automatically associated as a homeless feeding area every Sunday morning at 9 a.m. We tried different approaches to this problem, but the fact is, if someone wants to use a park and it is not previously reserved for anything else, we can't discriminate."--Tucson, AZ