Fee changes are coming for marina users in Comox.
At the April 7 council meeting, council approved a change in fees for using the Comox Municipal Marina, extending the collection of fees from March 1 to Oct. 31 each year. Previously, fees were only collected from May 1 to Sept. 30.
In a report to council, the Jordan Wall, the town’s CAO explained heavy use of the marina starts prior to the timeframe in the previous bylaw, as the weekend of March 27/28 saw the boat trailer parking section of lot full.
An updated bylaw will allow fees to be collected for boat launch usage for a longer period of time in addition to an increase of the annual boat launch pass from $159 (personal) and $318 (commercial) to $185 (personal) and $350 (commercial) to reflect the increased benefit of the passes, he added.
Wall noted the estimated increase in revenue from the updated bylaw would be between $5,000 to $10,000.
Coun. Maureen Swift inquired why the fees aren’t collected year-round.
Wall said the town is looking to capture the higher-use season, and a third-party contractor is used to collect the fees.
“We’ve been discussing this internally and there does appear to be an ability for us to possibly move away from a third-party contractor and to an automated system where we can collect the fees ourselves and not give up a percentage of it and move to year-round (collection).”
While examining the fees, Coun. Pat McKenna asked if Comox’s fees are in line with other municipal marinas.
While the town didn’t do a review for the bylaw report, Wall said when the fees were originally created there was an analysis done and the fees were in line.
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