EDITORIAL
Setting fees for park use a delicate task
Honolulu city officials will face a delicate balancing act over the next several months as they try to develop a rational system of fees and charges for use of what are, after all, public parks.
The focus right now is on the new $24 million Waipi'o Soccer Complex, which this week is hosting a regional tournament of the U.S. Youth Soccer Association.
By any measure, that's a big deal, with 4,000 players, plus families, friends and fans, pouring into Honolulu for the event.
The tournament was drawn by the national-class soccer facilities at Waipi'o, which include numerous practice fields and a lighted stadium. No doubt tournament officials would have been willing to pay a small fee for use of the facility, but they won't since there was no legal authority to set fees at the time the deal was made.
Since then the City Council has authorized the Harris administration to set fees. It won't be an easy task.
The first principle of a fee structure, once it is developed, is that the price must be reasonable enough so that it does not drive users away.
For small, community tournaments and the like, the fee might be negligible; something closer to a reservation fee than anything else.
For major commercial events, the fee could be substantial.
While most attention is focused right now on Waipi'o and the nearby Central O'ahu tennis complex, the entire range of city parks is up for fee discussion.
Examples include the Hans L'Orange baseball park in Waipahu, Kapi'olani Park, which often hosts major tournaments and sporting events, and even Ala Wai field, which recently hosted Korean baseball teams in Hawai'i for training.
The guiding principle as the city moves forward on this is that these facilities were built and maintained by the taxpayers and thus should be reasonably available for use without extra charge. We should never get to the day when there is an admission price for every form of outdoor recreation.
But with that principle in mind, a reasonable, flexible fee structure that focuses on seeking cost-sharing from major events seems to make sense.
