Shared from the 3/27/2019 The Providence Journal eEdition

GOVERNMENT

State abandons plan to hike beach parking fees

The DEM is now planning on raising money by increasing campground and park rental fees

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PROVIDENCE — The Raimondo administration has dropped a plan to raise parking fees at state beaches while still moving ahead with a series of increases to camping fees and other user fees at park facilities.

The proposed fee increases and the decision to leave beach parking alone — which came after House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and other state legislators expressed opposition — were announced by the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.

“After discussions with legislative leaders, DEM has decided to take an incremental approach and proceed with just the camping and other park fee increases at this time,” DEM Director Janet Coit said in a statement. “The Governor’s state parks initiative aims to celebrate and support state parks and beaches and the controversy around increasing beach parking fees was detracting from these larger goals.”

The governor proposed increasing staffing levels in the parks system as part of her budget plan for the next fiscal year. The proposal came after a study by a consultant hired by the state concluded that budget cuts had forced staffing down to a level in which parks facilities were no longer adequately maintained.

The report by Indianapolis-based PROs Consulting found that while staff levels had declined by two-thirds in the last 30 years , visits to state parks and beaches were steadily increasing. Since 2010, beach visits have gone up by 37 percent, according to the report.

With the beach parking increases off the table, the agency is planning on raising money by increasing campground fees — for the first time since 2002 — and fees for other park rentals.

The agency says that camping fees in state parks currently lag behind those at private facilities in Rhode Island as well as at private and public sites in neighboring states.

The fees are tiered based on location and service. For tier-three sites without electric, gas or sewer hookups, the daily rate for residents would go up from $14 to $18 and for nonresidents, from $20 to $36. Tier-one or tier-two sites with more services would see larger increases.

Rental fees in parks would also go up for sports fields, picnic shelters, equestrian areas and other facilities. They include the chapel at Colt State Park in Bristol. A three-hour rental would increase from $15 to $50 while a six-hour rental would go from $30 to $100.

A complete list of the new fees can be found online at rules.sos.ri.gov/promulgations/part/250-100-00-3.

A public hearing on the proposed fees will be held April 2 at 2 p.m. in Room 300 at DEM Headquarters, 235 Promenade St. in Providence. Written comments can be submitted through email to terri.bisson@dem.ri.gov and are being accepted until 4 p.m. on April 17.

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