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the use of these lands for those competing applications, in order that 
they can develop parks and recreational facilities. The magnitude 
of their demand is reflected in the price they are willing to pay for the 
recreational activities available to them. 
This paper focuses upon the pricing policy in the establishment and 
Management of parks and recreational areas. What price should be 
charged the users of these areas and how does the price set influence 
that use? Pricing is one of the key issues in the present utilization of 
recreational lands and in the development of facilities for the future. 
Should the price charged refiect in any way the benefit accrued to the 
user? This type of pricing policy treats the recreational experience as a 
private good. The opposite position can also be taken. Charging the 
users very little and collecting taxes from everybody to pay for these 
facilities. In this case, the recreational facility is a public good. This 
paper looks specifically at the public versus private good arguments 
relative to pricing. 
In order to understand the problems in pricing, an overview of the 
trends, past, present, and future, of recreational demand is given. 
Following this, the pricing history of parklands and recreational areas 
is documented to complete the background. The current problems of 
pricing are discussed and conclusions are drawn on the best method to 
price the use of public recreational lands. The discussion and analysis 
continues by formulating several objective functions for parkland 
use, then setting forth the pricing policies required to meet these 
objectives. In conclusion, the future trend in recreation is reiterated 
along with a summary of the key issues of public recreation and the 
pricing policy best for the development and maintenance of recrea- 
tional areas. ry 
Il, DEMAND—PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE 
Open spaces and recreation areas are economic goods which the 
people of this country desire along with all other goods. The benefits 
of these recreational goods are far more intangible than most commodi- 
ties and very difficult to evaluate due to the treatment of these as 
public goods. Accordingly, the demand for lands as recreational areas 
is a most complex problem to appraise. 
In the early years of this country, the demand for land as homesteads 
was great. It was one of the prime motivating forces behind the 
dynamic movement of the economy. This land not only supported the 
family, but also provided the necessary place for outdoor activities. 
The goal for each individual then, was to own his land. Frederick 
Turner noted in his book,! ‘“‘The Frontier in American History’ that 
“the existence of an area of free land, in continuous recession, and the 
advance of American settlement westward, explain the American de- 
velopment.’ Thus, along with economic and social growth of the 
country, the available lands for open spaces were dwindling. The 
“continuous recession” ! of free land is most relevant to our demand 
for recreational areas today. 
The actual demand for recreation in the 1800’s was limited, al- 
though public policy for city recreation areas dates back as far as 
1828 in Philadelphia. It was not a widely demanded good, because of 
1 Turner, F. J., “The Frontier In American History,’ Henry Holt, New York, 1920. 
