Upper Arlington provides update on projected community center fees
Amid cautions that financial details will change before the expected opening of the Upper Arlington Community Center in 2025, city officials recently caught a glimpse of projected operations revenues and costs.
According to a study presented to City Council on Nov. 14, it will cost approximately $3.5 million to operate the community center its first year.
At that cost, according to the study by Ballard*King & Associates, which is based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, the city can spend less money annually on parks and recreation programming than it currently does, and with membership and program fees, recover 86% of the facility’s first-year costs.
“The current (parks and rec) budget is an investment of about $573,000,” said Scott Caron, a Ballard*King associate. “When we took a look at, with our projections of revenues and expenses, it looks like it’s about 86% on the cost recovery and a $483,000 investment.”
The Ballard*King study was conducted for $10,000, according to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. The firm is a subcontractor for MSA Sport, a Cincinnati-based firm with offices in Columbus, that is designing Upper Arlington’s community center as part of an approximately $5.6 million contract.
To reach those conclusions, among the budget items Ballard*King factored in were membership fees for residents.
The fees were based on current market conditions and were updated from the city’s last financial feasibility study in 2020.
Under the 2020 study, fees for youths and adults, who were identified together as “individuals,” were projected at $27 per month.
Under the updated numbers, Ballard*King projected youth fees would need to be $22 per month and adults $33. Senior citizens would pay $22 per month, compared to the $20 a month projected in 2020.
The study compared projected rates for Upper Arlington and Dublin, which currently charges $22 per month to both youths and adults and $12 for seniors. The study also noted Westerville charges $20 for youths, $26 for adults and $24 for seniors.
Under the Ballard*King model, Upper Arlington would consider a “household” any family of three or more with a cost of $80 per month. The 2020 study projected the cost at $70. Dublin charges of $56 per month and Westerville charges $70.
Non-Upper Arlington residents would pay 50% more per fee.
Despite the increases from 2020 and the higher projections than two similar communities, City Manager Steve Schoeny cautioned council members and the public not to overreact.
“We will go back through all of this in the summer of ’24 and really set the rates,” Schoeny said. “This is just, for lack of a better term, illustrative of where we can be.
“The question that we’ll go through when we get to setting these rates is, ‘When we’re looking at this in the summer of ’24, how does all this play out?’ Yes, we’ll need to be careful of how we are comparative, but $5 one way or the other, I don’t know … we’re probably getting into more level of detail than is appropriate at this level of certainty for the entirety of the model.”
Council member Ukeme Awakessien Jeter said she’s concerned about how increases to community center costs for access could add up to other annual expenses and rising costs residents are facing.
“These incremental fees on the household is kind of what I want us to think about holistically as to what is a household, what are the fees that we’re transferring to households in Upper Arlington, and not specifically kind of looking at it in this vacuum,” Jeter said. “You’re right, $5 here or there. But $5 here or there cumulatively can add up in a household.”
In addition to noting more fee analysis will be done in the summer of 2024, parks and rec Director Debbie McLaughlin said her department will continue to offer financial assistance to families and individuals who qualify via a program that charges a $1 fee for transactions with the department.
She said the fees are set aside and used for a scholarship fund that typically provides up to 50% discounts for parks and rec programming. In this, its first year, McLaughlin said, the program has awarded 34 scholarships.
“I believe 10 families are new customers to us … because of this assistance program,” McLaughlin said.
The Ballard*King model projected 12% of households in the community will join the community center, and Caron said that estimate is conservative. He said in other central Ohio communities, household membership is as high as 18%.
Additionally, the model called for 11 full-time community center staff, and for the bulk of the employees to be made up from 10 different position classifications that will work an average of 2,200 hours per week.
The study also suggested operating hours to be 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays.
City officials’ latest projection is ground will be broken for the community project at Kingsdale Shopping Center in April 2025. The building is expected to feature a 105,000-square-foot community center and 39,000 square feet of leasable space.
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