Visalia City Council707 W. AcequiaVisalia, CA 93291Visalia City CouncilLegislation Details (With Text)File #: Version:124-0590Status:Type:Public Hearing Item Agenda ReadyFile created: In control:1/14/2025 Visalia City CouncilOn agenda: Final action:6/16/2025Title:Fiscal Year 2025-26 Rates and Fees - Public Hearing and Adoption of Resolution 2025-08 toauthorize proposed new fees, increases, and adjustments to the City's Rates and Fees Schedule forFiscal Year 2025-26.Sponsors:Indexes:Code sections:Attachments:1. Attachment A - Fiscal Year 2025-26 Rates and Fees Document, 2. Attachment B - Resolution 2025-08Action ByDate Action ResultVer.AdoptedVisalia City Council6/16/2025 1 PassAgenda Item Wording:Fiscal Year 2025-26 Rates and Fees- Public Hearing and Adoption of Resolution 2025-08 toauthorize proposed new fees, increases, and adjustments to the City's Rates and Fees Schedule forFiscal Year 2025-26.Prepared by: Jana Ferguson, Financial Analyst, 559-713-4429, [email protected]; ReneeNagel, Finance Director 559-713-4375, [email protected] RecommendationStaff recommends that City Council takes the following action tonight:1. Conduct a Public Hearing to receive testimony on additions, changes, and deletions to theCity's Rates & Fees Schedule2. Adopt Resolution 2025-08 to amend the City's fee document for the FY 2025-26; and3. If desired, take action on specific fees, such as:a. Fee increases exceeding CPIb. Adjusted feesc. All feesSummary:Annually, fees are recommended for cost-of-living adjustments for the upcoming fiscal year. Cityordinances limit annual Impact Fees and Business Tax adjustments to specific CPI indices. Theseannual inflationary adjustments help departments cover their costs and reduce the burden on theGeneral Fund, allowing the fund to support operations, including public safety.Background Discussion:Proposed new fees, increases, and adjustments for FY 2025-26 Rates & Fees include, but are notlimited to, animal services, parks and recreation, transit, fire, police, and finance.Visalia City CouncilPrinted on 11/19/2025Page 1 of 6powered by Legistar™ File #:24-0590,Version:1The California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CCPI-U) is the basis for most feeadjustments for the City. City ordinances require Impact Fees to use the building industry standardindex, the Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index (ENRCCI). Similarly, City ordinancedictates that the Business Tax be adjusted by the US City Average for All Items (USVPI-U), using theaverage of the most recent three years. Table 1: Index Period Changes lists the indices and effectivedates.Proposed Index Period ChangesCPI Time Period Rate Effective Date FY 25-26 Rate FeeC.C.P.I. - U.Jan. - Dec. 2024Jul 1, 20253.06%All Other FeesE.N.R.C.C.I.May 2024 - Apr. 2025Aug 16, 20251.68%Impact FeesU.S.C.P.I. - U.Jan. - Dec. 20242.95%Jan. - Dec. 20234.12%Jan. - Dec. 20228.00%Three Year AverageJul 1, 20255.02%Business Tax FeesDuring the June 2, 2025, City Council meeting, several questions were raised by Council regardingspecific fees, which are addressed below.Tennis and Pickleball Court Rentals -Council requested that staff review whether the proposedincrease would provide sufficient funding to maintain the courts.Staff researched neighboring cities to compare rental rates and found that most of these citieseither do not have dedicated pickleball or tennis courts or do not reserve courts for private use;the courts are available to the public on a first-come, first-served basis only. The City of Tularedoes have a rental rate of $10 per hour per court for tennis, with a two-hour minimum, and theCity of Fresno has a rental rate of $5 per hour per court for both pickleball and tennis. At theClovis Recreation Center, the City of Clovis offers four indoor basketball courts striped forpickleball, available for rent for $40 per hour. Renters do need to supply nets for pickleball.Additional cities are listed in the table below:Visalia City CouncilPrinted on 11/19/2025Page 2 of 6powered by Legistar™ File #:24-0590,Version:1CityPickleball CourtsTennis CourtsTulareNone in park inventoryRental $10/hr/court – 2hr min.Hanford None dedicated in park inventory Some basketball courts are painted with pickleball lines. User must bring nets. No rental option. First-come, first-serve basis only None in park inventory Dinuba 2 courts in inventory No rental option. First-come, first-serve basis only. None in park inventory Porterville None dedicated in park inventory Tennis courts have pickleball lines. Users must bring nets No rental option. First-come, first-serve basis only. No rental option. First-come, first-serve basis only Clovis None in park inventory 4 indoor multi-use courts with pickleball lines. Court rental $40/hr User must bring nets None in park inventory Fresno None dedicated in park inventory Tennis courts have pickleball lines. Users must bring nets Rental will be $5/hr/court when opened Rental $5/hr/court Visalia's park system includes six tennis courts at Plaza Park, eight pickleball courts at PlazaPark, and two pickleball courts at Recreation Park, and there has been a notable increase inthe rental use of the courts. Between 2023 and 2024, the pickleball courts at Plaza Park had a47% increase in reserved hours, and the Recreation Park courts had an increase of 253% inhours reserved. The tennis courts at Plaza Park are projected to have a 62% increase inreserved hours from 2024 to 2025.Rental Hours2022202320242025 (1/1-6/3)Plaza Park - Tennis - 6 courts1,0791,048888763Plaza Park - Pickleball - 8 courts1,2771,6092,373869Recreation Park - Pickleball - 2 courts111123435124Annually, as part of the Rates and Fees process, the Parks and Recreation Department's FeePolicy (pg 3-7) is adopted, which establishes a pricing model for activities supported by thedepartment. Tennis and Pickleball are considered part of the Community Benefit category,which is designed for facilities that benefit the community as a whole. It has not been the City'sintent to recuperate maintenance costs through rental fees for amenities within this category.The programs, facilities, and services in this category are items that can increase propertyvalues, provide safety, address social needs, and enhance the quality of life for residents. TheVisalia City CouncilPrinted on 11/19/2025Page 3 of 6powered by Legistar™ File #:24-0590,Version:1community pays for these items through taxes and may utilize them free of charge. Parks &Recreation data shows that Visalia residents make 85% of all court rentals. The increase incourt use has driven the increased need for maintenance, as seen by the rental hours forpickleball courts at Plaza Park from 2023 to 2024. As the courts are an amenity open to thepublic and available on a first-come, first-served basis, recuperating all maintenance expensesthrough reservation fees is not feasible for the reservation customer. The ability to reservethese courts is desired by community members, as it allows individuals to secure the use ofthese public courts at specific times for their private use. This desire to secure a location forprivate use is seen in the rental of other park amenities, such as picnic arbors, soccer fields,softball fields, and open space for special events.In evaluating the Recreation Department Fee Policy and researching neighboring cities, staffrecommends increasing the tennis and pickleball court hourly rental rate to $8 per hour percourt for the fiscal year 2025-26.Athletic & Miscellaneous Facility FeesFY 24-25FY 25-26Park Athletic CourtsTennis Courts - Per Hour 6.00$ 8.00$ Pickleball Courts - Per Hour6.00$ 8.00$ Trolley/Bus Hourly Rental -Council requested that staff round the Trolley rental rate for clarity forcustomers.Staff performs this calculation every two years, utilizing the contracted costs and hours of useto ensure that the fee accurately reflects actual costs. These vehicles are funded with FTAfunding, which will allow for a small profit from their usage as long as the funds remain in theTransit Division. Since there are two tiers to this rate, staff recommends no change to the CityRate but does recommend rounding the Non-City Rate to the nearest whole dollar, which is$162.00. This rounding would create a "clean" number for customers to refer to while maintaininga rate that is closely consistent with the cost. By performing this calculation every two years, staffwould also be able to control any excessive increase caused by rounding and propose adecrease during the Rates & Fees presentation.Trolley/Bus FY 24-25FY 25-26City Rate - Per Hour 118.03$ 147.58$ Non City Rate - Per Hour134.61$ 162.00$ Sequoia Shuttle Fare Discounts- Council asked staff to consider offering discounts to veterans,seniors, and children on the Sequoia Shuttle.Transit offers discounts for Fixed Routes, VLine, Dial-A-Ride, and the 31-Day T-Pass and hasproposed a 25% decrease in the round-trip fare for the Sequoia Shuttle for this year. Theproposed fare decrease for the Shuttle is designed to compensate for changes in schedule,pickup and drop-off locations, and delays in the Federal Government's activation of thereservation system, with the goal of providing a discount to all those who wish to enjoy thisservice. The Sequoia Shuttle program is currently subsidized by Local Transit Funds (LTF), soany additional discounts within this program would require a higher subsidy. Using more LTFfunding for the Sequoia Shuttle would ultimately reduce the funds available for the City's localVisalia City CouncilPrinted on 11/19/2025Page 4 of 6powered by Legistar™ File #:24-0590,Version:1programs. Calculations for this decrease were done within the budget, and further discounts couldchange the financial balance of this program.Even more applicable at this point, the season is well underway, and trying to change the feestructure and reservation system now would be difficult and disruptive to the service. Staff willbring back a rate structure at the end of the year, before the beginning of the 2026 reservationseason. Therefore, staff does not recommend any additional discounts at this time.Sequoia ShuttleFY 24-25FY 25-26General (Round Trip)20.00$ 15.00$ Rounding All Fees - Council requested a review of all fees to possibly round up to the nearest dollarfor a cleaner look and to ease calculations.Staff recommends deferring this request to next year's (FY 26/27) rates and fees due to theneed for additional time to review each fee and its basis to determine if it can be rounded up.Several of the fees are tied to government ordinances, city contracts, Proposition 218 regulations,grants, and federal funding, which may impose restrictions on the calculation of these fees. Inaddition, rounding up may create a cumulative effect over time, causing us to inflate our ratesexcessively above the actual rate.Fiscal Impact: Increasing City rates and fees will help departments and capital projects cover costs.Prior Council Action: The Council reviewed and discussed new fees and adjustments to the Rates& Fees for Fiscal Year 2025-26 on June 2, 2025.Other: The following committees and commissions have reviewed the proposed rates and feeadjustments and recommend to the City Council the adoption of the adjustments to the City's Rates &Fees for Fiscal Year 2025-26.
Alternatives: Partially amend or do not amend the proposed fees.Recommended Motion (and Alternative Motions if expected):I move to adopt Resolution 2025-08 to amend the City's Rates & Fees document for Fiscal Year 2025-26 as presented.OrI move to adopt Resolution 2025-08 to amend the City's Rates & Fees document for Fiscal Year 2025Visalia City CouncilPrinted on 11/19/2025Page 5 of 6powered by Legistar™ File #:24-0590,Version:1-26, with changes as approved by Council.Environmental Assessment Status: N/ACEQA Review: N/ADeadline for Action: 6/16/2025Attachments: Attachment A - Fiscal Year 2025-26 Rates & Fees Document; Attachment B -Resolution No. 2025-08 Visalia City CouncilPrinted on 11/19/2025Page 6 of 6powered by Legistar™