New park rental fees approved for City of Charlottetown

Businesses hoping to host a for-profit event in a Charlottetown city park will now have to pay more for the privilege.

City council passed a new rental fee structure Monday for events held in city parks.

Manager of parks and recreation Frank Quinn said the new fee will only applyto for-profit groups who will make money offthe event. Any other events, such as weddings, will continue to pay the normal $25 permit fee.

"I guess we felt that for for-profit groupsusing public space, it sort of made sense that they should pay some type of a fee," he said.

"They do get the use of the park, a portion of the park, and then also they would have access to different amenitiesas well...and then there might be some cleanup costs associated with it. So it's just a way for the city to recoup a small amount of the cost."

The fees range from $100 to $500 depending on how many guests are attending.

Quinn saidthe department tried to make the fees as reasonable as possible.

"I know there are other places that might charge more or whatever but we just sort of looked at what looked reasonable and this seemed like a reasonable fee."

The rental fee structure takes effect immediately. Quinn said although the city doesn't get that many requests from for-profit groups only one or two a year it's expectedthat may go up someday and city managers wantedto be prepared.