City of Powell River Council will consider increases to camping fees at Willingdon Beach Campsite.
At the finance committee meeting on Tuesday, October 22, councillors reviewed a proposed bylaw for the campsite, which in part stipulates fees and charges.
Director of parks, recreation and culture Ray Boogaards said in this amendment to the bylaw, most of the changes are to the camping fees and charges, with minor changes to other areas of the bylaw.
When considering fees and charges for the bylaw, parks and recreation staff have usually completed some kind of survey from other similar campsites in other cities, but comparison is very difficult, because campsites are so different, with different services and amenities, according to Boogaards.
“What we basically did was we used the survey that was completed just before the camping season in 2018,” said Boogaards. “What we tried to do was look at last year’s fees and charges campsite bylaw and brought those fees more in line with average. This year we just looked at a general increase.”
The Willingdon Beach campsite is an important tourist destination, said Boogaards. When one visits the campsite in the evening in the summertime, a lot of people are walking back and forth from the campsite to the restaurants and amenities along Marine Avenue, he added.
“It does have a huge economic benefit,” said Boogaards. “That’s why we would rather not be at the upper end of any kind of fees that we can survey because there are more costs to come over to Powell River as a result of the ferries. We are trying to take all of those things into consideration.”
Not only is the campsite well-used by people in Western Canada and the northern United States, but there are also people coming from Germany and Holland.
“We are starting to get more and more people from Europe now,” said Boogaards. “But we’ve also got a huge amount of our population that uses this campsite. For people in the city boundaries, it’s their way of getting out into nature, or just taking it easy with a bunch of people who are also coming from other communities, and enjoying their company.”
Boogaards said fees must be kept sustainable and that’s why when the department started looking at where it needed to go with the fees and charges, there was an examination of how they could go up with the least impact.
The campground, said Boogaards, makes money. Last year it was around $100,000, he added. Of that, 50 per cent goes into a capital reserve for upgrades to the facility and 50 per cent goes into the city’s general revenues.
In looking at increases, Boogaards said staff looked at increases to the fees to actually camp at Willingdon Beach Campsite, rather than the fees for campsite services, such as administration fees, WiFi and specific campsite reservation fees.
He said there is a difference this year in amending the Willingdon Beach Campsite bylaw. He said in the past it has been done on an annual basis, but this year, it will be recommended that the bylaw cover two years.
“It gives us a little bit of time to evaluate and also to promote our fees and charges,” said Boogaards.
Mayor Dave Formosa said he noticed on the campsite fees and charges that the increase is only one dollar more for waterfront campsites. He said people using those sites are buying the view and are basically paying the same price as a full-service hook-up site at the campsite.
“My question is, how much demand is there?” said Formosa. “Is there a lineup for them?”
Boogaards said there is a huge demand for the waterfront sites and that’s why the city limits maximum stay to two weeks.
Formosa said the $1 increase should be at least a $5 increase in the daily rate for waterfront.
“You have a huge demand for waterfront,” said Formosa. “I think there is room there to top that one up, especially if you have a huge lineup.”
Boogaards suggested that because this proposed bylaw spans two years, that it should increase $2.50 the first year and $2.50 the second year.
The finance committee voted to send the matter to council for consideration, with the suggested split in increasing beachfront campsite fees.
