By Jonathan Friedman
Associate Editor

January 16, 2014 -- Private fitness instructors operating in certain local parks and Santa Monica State Beach don’t have to worry just yet about paying a higher rate to conduct business.

The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to hold off on staff’s recommendation to increase usage fees. 

Instead, staff will present information at the next budget session in an attempt to justify the need for more revenue to cover maintenance and other costs incurred by the fitness programs.

The fees were created last year as part of a pilot program to reduce the number of fitness groups operating in the parks, which had generated lots of noise and other complaints from residents. 

The pilot program has worked, City staff reported.

Fitness groups pay a flat fee based on size. Staff had recommended they also be required to pay 10 percent of their revenue if they exceeded certain thresholds -- $18,000 a year for groups of two or fewer participants, $36,000 for groups of no more than 10 and $54,000 for groups of more than 10 (but no more than 15 in Palisades Park).

Several council members were concerned these costs were too high, especially after learning the City program had exceeded revenue expectations.

“I don’t see why we need to raise these fees on those folks for a program that we are saying has been successful over the past year," Councilmember Terry O’Day said.

Councilmember Gleam Davis said higher fees would be passed down to the participants, and raise the cost for them to join the groups. She said this would create a disincentive to exercise, when the City should be encouraging people to make healthy choices.

Freshman Councilmember Sue Himmelrich was less sympathetic about the fee increase. 

Although Himmelrich said there could be a method to make the fee increase lower, she said the instructors were getting a good deal using the public property.

“It would clearly cost more to rent a space to run these classes than it would cost to run them in our parks, which are for the public, and not just for them,” she said.

Although the council held off on voting for fee increases, it did approve other staff-recommended changes to the program.

Among the changes, which will go into effect April 1, private instructors cannot reserve or hold specific spaces at parks, classes at Palisades Park cannot start until 7 a.m. rather than the current 6 a.m. and no large-sized groups can use Virginia Avenue Park.

Also, groups and their belongings must stay at least 10 feet away from tree trunks to protect the trees, although staff will work on modifying this rule so that baby strollers can be placed in the shade.