SANDPOINT — The public will have a chance to weigh in on new and significantly increasing fees at an upcoming public hearing Aug. 20. 

The hearing was set at Wednesday’s Sandpoint City Council meeting after a discussion on updating the city's fee schedule. None of the fees presented at the meeting were adopted; after the public hearing, the council will be able to adjust the fees at a later time. 

Among the topics discussed Wednesday were new or revised fees for the James E. Russell Sports Center, War Memorial Field and the Sports Complex, the shooting range and parking passes. Planning fees would see the most significant increases, to account for staff time used, according to Jason Welker, Sandpoint’s Community Planning and Development director.  

James E. Russell Sports Center  

Reshaping the JER Center’s fees was one of the first directives from Welker to Ryan Wells, the center’s new supervisor. Wells is proposing eliminating the daily play fee and moving to a monthly or annual membership focus.  

“That was the number one friction point at the sports center, people really don’t like having to take out cash or swipe their card,” Welker said of the daily play fees. “This is the fee structure that Ryan determined was very competitive for the region ... we do expect this to lead to a relatively large uptick in membership.” 

The annual memberships will be billed monthly and be priced at $79 for general membership, $49 for Bonner and Boundary County residents and $39 for Sandpoint residents.  

“The expectation is that if you sign up for annual membership, you are committing to paying for a year,” Welker said. “For a lot of people that $400 annual commitment was too much put into something before they’ve had the experience.” 

The monthly option increases the price each month by $20 to $99, $69 and $59 per month, respectfully.  

Outdoor courts 

The city will also be increasing fees for private groups who wish to reserve the outdoor sports courts at Travers, Lakeview and City Beach parks. It will now cost around $10-$15 an hour to rent these courts, an act that the city said will provide incentive for the private groups to opt for using the JER Center instead of the outdoor courts. 

"Courts, of course, outdoors will remain free for public use, this is for a private program,” Welker said.  

War Memorial Field and the Sports Complex 

The city will be replacing the “out of area team fee” with a new “game” field use fee. This new game fee will simplify the pricing, making the cost per hour double what the practice fee is.  

“The main difference here is that we are simplifying the way we charge fees,” Welker said. “The reporting required what fees were being paid for field use took a lot of time on both the user and the city, so we are keeping it simple.”  

The practice fee is determined by which group is renting the field, with the lowest costs for city-run programs and lower costs for LPOSD and local non-profit teams and leagues. 

The overall fees for the facilities are increasing between 2% and 15%, according to the city’s staff report. Welker said that these increases are to account for the increasing cost of field maintenance and to ensure it has enough reserves to replace the turf field in 2035. 

Shooting range 

The shooting range will be moving forward with an increase in its per visit and season pass fees. The per visit will jump from $7 to $10 and the season pass will go from $50 to $75, although members of the Bonner County Sportsmen’s Association can get a season pass for $25. 

Welker said these fees will allow them to increase the rangemaster’s hourly wage to from $12 to $17, much more in line with market rate. 

Parking passes 

Earlier this year, the city council voted to adopt a new Downtown Parking Management Plan that included the need for paid parking passes downtown.  

The prices for those passes will be up to $15 per year for a city resident to park for up to six hours a day, $30 a year for a county resident to park up to three hours a day, $40 a month for a downtown employee, $80 a month for a downtown resident and $150 per year for a marina slip holder. 

This fee schedule does not currently include the hourly rates that the city will charge, because those will be determined on a case-by-case basis at a later date, Welker said. 

Planning fees 

The city is adding a $475 charge for additional pre-application meetings after the first, which Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm said is typical for other cities. It will also be changing the way notification fees function, now being determined by the number of rounds needed for the project. 

Other planning fees like the price of a planned unit development permit and general conditional use permit are increasing by over 100%. Welker said that these prices now more accurately reflect the staff time needed to process the applications. 

Other fees discussed include the development impact fees, the simplification of fees for community hall and increases to mooring fees. 

The public can give their feedback on the fees to the City Council during its Aug. 20 meeting at City Hall at 5:30 p.m.