An ongoing debate about how much the Highlands Chamber of Commerce pays the Town of Highlands in rent for the Chamber’s current office on Main Street hit another snag during the Feb. 16 commissioners meeting.
Over the past 10-year lease, the Chamber has paid $1 per year for use of the town-owned building. A town proposal to raise the rent to more than $2,000 per month as a way to recoup some of the town’s costs related to tourism, such as cleaning public restrooms, was met with hesitation earlier this year.
Highlands Chamber Executive Director Kaye McHan presented a counter proposal during the commissioners meeting and noted that the net amount being paid to the town would be the same as the town requested, but the format would be different.
The Chamber would continue paying $1 for use of the building, and would take over all maintenance associated with the building and grounds. However, a new user fee would generate revenue paid to the town.
“The Highlands Chamber of Commerce and Visit Highlands NC are two separate businesses with separate budgets, and the Chamber side of the business simply can not afford to pay such a high rent amount,” McHan said. “What we are proposing, is Visit Highlands NC paying a $500 user fee each time we have a public event. Last year we hosted 51 total events, between the Friday and Saturday concerts, the litter pickups, etc. So the net amount would be the same as if we were paying the requested rent.”
McHan explained that the Chamber’s revenue is generated exclusively through member dues. Visit Highlands NC is the tourism development arm of the business, which is funded by occupancy tax revenue, meaning that side of the business has the funds to pay the proposed user fees.
Commissioners Buz Dotson and Amy Patterson questioned the logistics of implementing a user fee for public events.
“I just feel like rent would be a much cleaner way to account for this, and that way we don’t have to worry about who is hosting events, or how many events there are going to be in a given year,” Patterson said. “Who’s to say if we agree to this plan that next year the Chamber doesn’t drastically cut the number of events it hosts? Then we would be scrambling again.”
McHan noted that the Friday night concerts at Wright Square, and the Saturday night concerts at Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park, are not going anywhere due to their popularity and those concerts account for 42 of the Chamber’s 51 public events.
“I can’t see us having a significant decrease in events, when you look at what our events are, the concerts, two litter pickups, the Christmas tree lighting, SnowFest, those are events that aren’t going away,” McHan said.
Dotson added that a user fee would impact other events held in the park each year, from the Highlands Motoring Festival to the weekly farmer’s market.
“I don’t think we want to get into charging different amounts for different community groups, so we would have to charge any group that used the park,” Dotson said. “Visit Highlands NC paying $500 per event may be fine for them, but is that doable for all of our other organizations that use the park?”
Commissioner Brian Stiehler advocated for the proposed user fee plan as a way to compromise on the rent issue. Stiehler noted that the Chamber’s rent has been held at $1 due to the amount of work that had to be put into the building and grounds to make it a functional visitors center and office space.
“In the past 10 years they’ve put almost $300,000 into improvements at that location, and now they are willing to take on the maintenance and upkeep of the property from the town,” Stiehler said. “The Chamber side of the business can’t afford a high rent based on how its funded, so a user fee makes sense and the town still gets the amount of money it would get by raising the rent.”
Ultimately the board could not come to a consensus on the proposal and directed town manager Josh Ward to look at the potential impacts of instituting a user fee for any group using public facilities and report back at a future meeting. In the meantime, the Chamber will continue to operate at the current location with a month-to-month lease extension agreement in place.