Phase 3 Increase for Group Picnic Fees at Rock Creek Park and Fort Dupont Park

Since 1949, the National Park Service (NPS) had an agreement with the District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to manage the group picnic area reservations on NPS property at Rock Creek Park and Fort Dupont Park. DPR asked the NPS to assume the management of the reservation process for these NPS sites. The NPS moved the reservation process to Recreation.gov, a convenient website used by many national parks and thousands of park visitors across the country. The transition to Recreation.gov became effective March 1, 2014. We worked with DPR to ensure that the transition is a smooth one for all park visitors and Washington Area residents.

The reservation fee for a group picnic area had not changed since the early 1990's. In late 2013, the NPS proposed to bring the fee in line with the price for similar group picnic areas in the Washington Metropolitan Area, and provide options for full-day and half-day rentals. The proposal was to phase this increase over the next 3 years starting in the summer of 2014 with an increase to $25/half day and in 2015 the fee increased to $45/half day. In 2016, we planned to implement the third and final phase of the increase to $65/half day. Anticipating increased park visitation resulting from the NPS Centennial in 2016, the NPS decided to delay implementation of the third phase increase to 2017. We are now preparing to implement the third phase of the increase to $65/half day beginning January 1, 2017. The additional revenue will improve the condition of the picnic areas and the level of service provided to visitors.

Document Content:

PUBLIC LTR - Notifying of 2017 Fee Increase - signed by NACE-ROCR Supts - 9-1-16.pdf   (113.7 KB, PDF file) rock_creek_picnic area map.pdf   (1.4 MB, PDF file) Disclaimer: Links within the above document(s) were valid as of the date published. Note: Some of the files may be in PDF format and can be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat Reader software. You may download a free copy of Acrobat Reader from Adobe Systems.