photo by: Bremen Keasey

Sports Pavilion Lawrence is one of the city's four recreation centers.

The Lawrence Parks, Recreation and Culture department plans to present its proposal to add fees and membership options to the city’s recreation centers on Monday night, and it hasn’t yet shared information about the pricing of the plans.

On Monday evening, PRC will present its Parks and Recreation Advisory Board with a budget update for 2026 and include an outline of a department fee and membership plan. The department has been exploring adding entry fees to the city’s four recreation centers — Sports Pavilion Lawrence, Holcom Park Recreation Center, the East Lawrence Recreation Center and the Lawrence Community Building — since January based on direction from the City Commission in the face of a $6.5 million shortfall, as the Journal-World reported.

According to the presentation, the fee structure is needed to protect essential services and create a sustainable funding model for the department. During the City Commission meeting on Tuesday, PRC Director Luis Ruiz told commissioners that without the fee proposal, the impact to the department could be even greater. The department already needed to cut $1.8 million from its budget, which is about 10%.

“(Our budget) will include reductions; the question is how deeply it will be felt,” Ruiz said.

As part of the proposal, the city would offer flexible membership options, including day passes, “punch cards” that allow for multi-visit flexibility and monthly or annual memberships. Additionally, the options would allow residents to access all four facilities or allow them to have “lower-cost neighborhood rec center access.”

Agenda materials for the meeting did not provide specific prices, but the department has previously said there would be pricing for City of Lawrence residents and nonresidents, with the nonresident fee being about 20% higher. Additionally, there would be tiered pricing for youth, adults and seniors, and there would be an option to get a household pass that could cover up to five people.

Adding fees to rec centers had been discussed during the budget process in both 2019 and 2023, but public pushback led to both proposals stalling, as the Journal-World reported. While looking for public feedback on the proposal this year, city staffers said some of the concerns they heard from residents were about if there would be reduced-price options for residents in need or access for children.

The presentation said fees in Lawrence would be “strategically priced to be lower than peer communities.” The department will offer qualified rates for residents in need and plans to have a “low-barrier application process” for those rates. The fee plan will also include a scholarship program.

The city also plans to address some of the concerns about youth access by providing free entry after school for youth ages 5 to 17. As proposed, the rec centers would be free for use by that age group from 3 to 5 p.m. every weekday except Wednesday, when they would be open from 1 to 5 p.m. because of the school district’s early release schedule.

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is scheduled to meet Monday July 14 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.