By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer

January 12, 2015--A year-old pilot program that imposed fees on private fitness instructors who hold their classes at Santa Monica’s public parks has reduced the number of such classes while cutting down on complaints from regular park users, a City staff report released this week said.

As a result of the program, called the Commercial Fitness or Athletic Instruction, Classes or Camps Permit Program Pilot, the City has issued 26 business permits to private fitness instructors, while requiring them to also carry insurance, Community and Cultural Services Director Karen Ginsberg wrote in her report for the Santa Monica City Council’s January 13 meeting.

Since the City implemented the program in January 2014, impacts on neighborhoods and park users has been reduced and the City now is receiving financial compensation from private instructors for the use of City property, the report said.

Even so, Ginsberg and her staff are recommending some tweaks to the program, based on community input from a 13-question survey completed in May and comments received from parks maintenance workers and other city employees, the report said.

Among the major changes, private instructors would be prohibited from reserving or holding spaces at parks, and people who hold for-profit volley ball classes at city parks would no longer be exempt and also would be required to take out business permits, according to the report’s recommendations.

Officials are also suggesting the council limit the number of permits allowed for Palisades Park to 15 for large, medium and small fitness group classes “to better manage and balance the use of Palisades Park by these groups,” according to the staff report.

Medium and large fitness classes would be restricted to using only a portion of the park, according to staff’s recommendations.

Private fitness classes at Palisades should be allowed to start at 7 a.m. instead of the current 6 a.m., the report recommends.  

Also, no large fitness classes should be allowed at Virginia Avenue Park, the staff report said. Officials are recommending permitting only small- and medium-sized groups to use the park Monday through Friday and allowing only small classes there on Saturdays. Currently, small, medium and large groups are allowed to use the park daily, the staff report said.

Officials worry that having large fitness classes at Virginia Avenue Park, where the City sponsors several free family oriented educational and recreational programs, will spoil its “neighborhood park” atmosphere.

“With the addition of the new Pico Branch Library, the park has become even more popular,” the staff report said. “Park staff believes that without some limitations, especially on weekends, use of the open space by the general public would be impacted.”

Ginsberg also is recommending the city keep in place the flat rate “use charge” fitness groups have been paying to hold classes at parks. Small fitness groups of no more than two persons will continue to pay $1,800 a year. Medium-sized groups of no more than 10 participants will pay $3,600 annually, and large groups off 15 participants or less will pay $5,400 a year.

Those permit fees would apply to all parks except Palisades Park, where fees would be 50 percent higher, the staff report recommends.

Fitness groups also would pay an additional 10 percent of their gross revenue to the city if their revenue exceeds certain thresholds--$18,000 a year for small groups, $36,000 a year for medium groups, and $54,000 annually for large groups, the report recommends.

In another proposed change, staff recommends limiting the number of instructors that each permit holder can have. In the past, the City allowed up to 14 instructors per permit-holder. Five of the 26 permit-holders, for example, have four or five instructors “in addition to themselves,” the staff report said.

“In an effort to keep the permit program manageable and (to) balance it with other park uses, it is recommended that permittees be allowed to have a maximum of five instructors in addition to themselves,” the report said.

Complaints from park users about too many unregulated fitness training and boot camp-type programs at Santa Monica’s parks, particularly Palisades Park, prompted City Council members to impose the fees-for-use program.

Since Jan. 1, 2014, police have received 53 complaints about instructors who were violating the new regulations. But a vast majority of the complaints, about 70 percent, were received in the first six months of the program.

In the second half of 2014, police received just 16 complaints from park users about unregulated fitness instructors, the staff report said.

Although 35 of the violations were serious enough to refer to the City Attorney’s Office, only three cases resulted in actual citations being served, the report said.

If City Council members approve the recommendations, fitness instruction permits for this year will be issued April 1, “with permits expiring December 31, 2015,” the staff report said.