Fairfax County will begin charging residents entrance fees at some of its most popular parks for the first time in officials’ memories, in an effort to prevent layoffs in a time of tightly squeezed budgets.
Effective in July, the county will charge a per-vehicle fee on weekends and holidays at Burke Lake, Lake Accotink, Lake Fairfax and Riverbend Park, four waterfront parks that now charge only noncounty residents.
Though the fees are relatively modest — $4 per passenger vehicle and $40 per bus — they could prove problematic for a county that has long kept its extensive network of parkland almost entirely free to its residents. The county also is offering a $26 season pass.
Officials acknowledge the potential for traffic congestion and strained parking in nearby neighborhoods, should park-goers opt to leave their cars outside the grounds and walk in for free.
“I’m sure there will be instances of that sort of thing,” said Park Authority Board Member Harry Glasgow, who voted with most of his board to implement the fees. “We think that those parks are popular enough, and people will understand the budget situation well enough, that they’ll accept” the fees.
The new charges are expected to generate $577,000 and allow the Park Authority to keep approximately 11 of the 33 staff slated to be laid off in County Executive Anthony Griffin’s fiscal 2010 budget proposal, said agency spokeswoman Judy Pederson.
“The people who use these parks are the people who are being asked to pay for the service that they get, so it’s truly a user fee,” she said.
Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, a Republican, objected.
“People have already paid for those parks, we paid for them in taxes,” Herrity said. “We shouldn’t be adding fees on.”
Fairfax County faces a $648 million shortfall for the fiscal year beginning in July, about $4.1 million of which falls upon the Park Authority to close.
Neither Pederson nor Glasgow could remember an earlier instance of the county charging entrance fees at the parks for county residents. The four facilities together account for about 3 million of the system’s 17 million annual visitors, Pederson said.
The county will not charge the fees at Lake Fairfax on the Fourth of July.
