OCR Text |
Show be maintained in providing public accommodations, we have observed that the kinds and costs of overnight accommodations and food services in these areas are too costly and too limited in choice for many prospective users. In order that various income levels within the public may be served, greater variety should be available in concession operations. Where it proves impossible to provide an adequate range of facilities and services through private enterprise, the Federal Government should furnish these services directly. The Federal Government should finance and build public accommodations in areas that do not attract private capital and lease them to private concessioners. Federal agencies already contribute substantially to making concession operations attractive to private enterprise. As a general rule, they assume the costs of street preparation and utility services of various kinds. In the typical National Park Service area these represent about half of the capital costs. Nevertheless, there are areas of national importance which are so remote that private enterprise will not assume the business risks of the use facilities without additional assistance.16 Where it can be clearly demonstrated that positive efforts have failed to solicit the participation of private capital, we believe it would be entirely appropriate for Federal agencies to construct the needed facilities and have them operated by qualified concessioners. Increased emphasis and special attention should be directed to the credit requirements of Federal concessioners. Concession enterprises have experienced difficulty in obtaining needed financing because of the high risk and low profit nature of their operations. The Commission believes that the Small Business Administration should make its direct loan programs more readily available to these concessioners. Many concessioners require substantial amounts of long-term credit. In these cases, we believe it would be appropriate for the Federal Government to guarantee loans. This would be a reasonable extension of the Federal responsibility to assure adequate public accommodations in areas of national importance. The security of investment offered under the Concessioners' Act of 1965 should be extended. The 1965 Act recognizes a possessory interest in facilities constructed by concessioners and provides for compensation for their values upon termination of the concession agreement. We believe that this policy is sound and should be uniformly applicable. However, 16 For example, the National Park Service constructed accommodations at Glacier Bay National Monument in Alaska in 1966 and leased them to a concessioner. These were the first overnight accommodations at this relatively remote location. we understand that the National Park Service does not recognize such an interest where the concessioner improves or adds to government-built facilities. Since all such concessioner improvements become the legal property of the United States, we see no reason for any such distinction and believe that the concessioners in such cases should be recognized as having a compensable interest. Concession privileges should be priced so that rates charged the public for concession services can be kept at a reasonable level, and quality service to the public can be sustained. Current practices in setting payment by the concessioner to the agency for the lease or concession privilege appear at times to reflect a primary Federal objective of revenue production. The Commission believes that revenue production should be subordinate to maintaining a high quality of service at reasonable prices for the public. If it is necessary to reduce the Federal return from the concessioner to permit him to maintain a viable operation and still keep service quality high and prices reasonable, that is the course that should be followed. We believe it is necessary, however, to charge a concession fee sufficient to avoid giving public land concessioners undue economic advantage over private commercial interests operating similar facilities in the vicinity. Application of this guideline will tend to preserve a healthy climate for expansion of the services and facilities available in the vicinity, which the Commission believes is a desirable objective. Development in Multiple Use Areas Recommendation 84: Private enterprise should be encouraged to play a greater role in the development and management of intensive recreation use areas on those public lands not designated by statute for concessioner development. Although there should be control over prices charged users to assure that they are reasonable, and construction standards should be set to assure that facilities are adequate, we believe more initiative should be directed to obtaining the development and operation by non-Federal entities of facilities for intensive use in areas designated for recreation as a dominant or secondary use. Such areas would be ones that the Federal Government should not dispose of but which are not made eligible for facility development under the Concessioners' Act of 1965 as discussed above. Elsewhere in this chapter, we recommend that public lands needed for intensive recreation develop- 211 |