Aurora residents will soon pay more to access the city’s recreation centers and services there.

At Aurora city council’s spring workshop Saturday, councilmembers supported a fee increase for recreation services from the Parks, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) department to help make up for five years of stagnant rates.

At the workshop, PROS Director Brooke Bell recommended a 10% increase in the fees for swim lessons, recreation center memberships and field rentals for the next three years, saying the increases would help the city make up lost money.

The last time PROS raised fees was in 2019, she said, so there is a gap in cost for their services compared to those offered by many other municipalities and programs and in their revenue.

Under the plan, fees would go up 10% per year for the next three years, then PROS would re-evaluate. However, in the meantime, they would annually asses the impact of the fee raises.

The majority of PROS revenue comes from rentals, beginner and intermediate level education and activities and facilities admissions, Bell said.

Currently, the annual adult pass for Southeast and Central Recreation Centers, the two larger of the city’s four recreation centers, is $310 per year and would be increased to $340 per year.

For the two smaller centers, Moorhead and Beck Recreation Centers, the annual adult fee would increase from $178 to $195.

For family passes, which applies to families with two adults and two children, the cost at the two larger recreation centers would increase from $600 to $660 per year and, for the smaller two, from $340 to $375 per year.

The price of swim lessons would also increase from $29 per swim lesson currently to $40 per lesson.

For field rentals, the current price ranges from $35 to $55 per hour and would increase to a range of $38 to $70 per hour. Field rentals include baseball, soccer and other sport fields.

The current tournament rental rate is $300 per day and would increase to $750 per day, Bell said.

PROS would continue to offer scholarships, which give a 50% discount on memberships to those who apply, Bell said.

They also offer a variety of free services under the We Are Aurora’s Youth program, which allows teenagers free access to recreation centers, meals and guided activities during school breaks. Much of the programming is funded by Aurora Public Schools, with the location provided by PROS, Bell said.

While the increase proposed and supported by the council Saturday only affects swim lessons, center membership fees and field rentals, Bell said they will look at increases on other PROS fees during the 2025 budget process.

The increases got majority support by the council, excluding councilmembers Curtis Gardner and Alison Coombs, who both expressed reluctance to make such a dramatic increase so suddenly.

Councilmember Gardner said he doesn’t want to get to another point after that three-year increase period where they go another five to six years without increasing prices then have to increase them by a lot.

City Manager Jason Batchelor said part of the reason for such a long time period between increases was the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the three-year increase period would not be followed by another long period of no increase.

Gardner still said the fee increase is “aggressive,” saying he is concerned that that dramatic of an increase would cause people to stop using the services. 

The 10% increase rate wouldn’t be “on autopilot,” Batchelor said, meaning each year they would re-analyze it to make sure the increase isn’t losing the city money, he said.

Coombs agreed with Gardner, saying she thinks a 10% increase is too much all at once and that she support re-analyzing what they could do instead.

Gardner said the increase is punishing residents for a mistake the city made, trying to make up money lost by the city’s decision to hold out on a smaller increase over the last five years. 

Councilmember Francoise Bergan, however, voiced her support for the increase, saying the city needs to catch up “and then analyze it going forward.”