VANCOUVER, Wash. -- The Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation Department will down-size to address a significant loss in customer demand amidst tough economic times. Parks Director Peter Mayer briefed Vancouver City Council at a public workshop Tuesday.

The $10.5 million annual parks and recreation operating budget will be cut by 11 percent. The City of Vancouver’s parks and recreation centers will remain open during existing hours and roughly 80 percent of existing customers will continue to be served. However, certain classes, services and programs will be discontinued by March 31 and there will be staff layoffs.

Two specific economic factors in City park and recreation funding contributed to the $1.2 million projected shortfall in 2012:

• A sustained drop in Firstenburg and Marshall/Luepke Community Center passes, program fees and registrations in the second half of 2011 prompted City staff to re-evaluate the 2012 budget. The decline is forecasted to continue for a loss of approximately $800,000 in 2012. The 2011 budget was based upon some revenue loss from the record-setting recreation revenue of 2010; however the actual loss was higher than expected.

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VANCOUVER, Wash. -- In a workshop Monday night, Vancouver City Council heard recommendations from Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation for revisions to the Vancouver Municipal Code about governing Vancouver city parks.

"The City of Vancouver's Park code has not been updated in 40 years," said Parks and Recreation Director Pete Mayer. "Not only did language need to be clarified, new awareness around health and safety could not be ignored. We also had to assess and respond to some areas in which our code did not fully align with the Washington State Constitution or recent case law. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission (PRAC) and community members have already offered valuable feedback that has refined the recommendations. Today the public comment period opens and we look forward to hearing more feedback before we take this on for PRAC and City Council confirmation."

New sections have been added to the code. They would only affect public parks within the city limits, as opposed to County owned parks outside the City of Vancouver. The code updates include: