Facility Reservation FAQs

An athletic facility includes all reservable venues that are permitted for any type of athletic purpose.

Athletic facilities includes natural grass ball fields or multipurpose fields, the synthetic turf fields, the recreation center gyms or rec rooms, or use of park grounds for cross country meets, practices, and bike events or rest stops.

All athletic facility reservations begin at our Athletic Venues webpage.

All reservations begin with an application whether it is on a natural grass field or a synthetic turf field.  No reservation is considered without an application completed in its entirety, which includes all required documents and signature.

All reservations must also have a valid Certificate of Liability Insurance (COI).  Please have a look at our policy and guidelines for all COI requirements and examples.

All reservations must be paid a minimum of 30 days prior to the first use.  If the first use is less than 30 days away, the balance is due immediately.

Due to the change in priority for in season sports, year-long permits are not allowed.  Applications must be submitted on a seasonal basis.  This applies to all field types.

The Certificate of Liability Insurance (COI) must include the following:

1. The Certificate Holder must read: 
    Frederick County, Maryland c/o Risk Management 
    12 East Church Street, 
    Frederick, Maryland 21701
2. General Liability coverage with minimum limits of: $1,000,000 per Occurrence; $2,000,000 General Aggregate 
3. FREDERICK COUNTY, MARYLAND must be added as an Additional Insured for the specific event, date(s), groups, or season. 
   IMPORTANT NOTE: For rentals of Recreation Centers or Recreation Center Fields only, the “FREDERICK COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION” must also be added as an additional insured.
4. Address of applicant on the Certificate of Insurance must correspond with the address of the applicant*.
5. If policy requires additional insured status, the endorsement must be provided upon request.
6. Required insurance must be maintained for the duration of the rental or business relationship.
7. Required insurance is primary and non-contributory.

*For your COI to be valid in covering your permitted reservations, the address on the COI must match the principal address listed on the SDAT.   For organizations who receive their insurance through a state or national governing body (i.e. MSYSA or US Lacrosse), your name and registered address with that governing body must be the same as the principal address listed on SDAT, and on your application.

If you are a returning user group, you may lose your priority to your prior field or rec center reservation locations or times.  Reservations received after the deadline are scheduled according to remaining availability on a first come first serve basis.

This will also include applications where additional information is needed or there are other issues that need to be resolved.  The application will not be fully accepted until all information is received or all issues are resolved.  If this is after the deadline, the application will be considered late.

Residency of your organization is determined through 2 steps.  First, we look at the legal principal address for your organization as registered on the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation.  Your organization must have a Frederick County address listed as the principal address to meet the first criteria for residency.

Second, all organizations using Frederick County fields must submit rosters listing all participants and their home addresses at the beginning of the season.  The participants living in Frederick County must make up a minimum of 67% of the total organization.  Anything less than 67% will not meet residency minimums and your organization will only qualify for non-resident rates and priority.

Rosters must include participants' full name and home address to confirm residency status.

Applications will not be processed without the submission of the prior season's roster.  Rosters must be submitted before future applications will be considered.

The Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) serves as the central repository of all required business filings that must be submitted to the State of Maryland. These filings include Articles of Incorporation to create a tax-exempt nonstock corporation, Articles of Organization to form an LLC, and the required Annual Report that every entity registered with SDAT must submit each year by April 15 to remain in good standing in Maryland. 

We have compiled various legal references in a document for the purposes the SDAT was implemented for all athletic facility reservations.  The applications and permitting process creates a contract with the organizations that use Frederick County athletic facilities.  Frederick County Division of Parks and Recreation earnestly seeks to maintain contractual relationships with organizations that are following division, county, state, and federal policies, codes, and laws.  Please see the attached for more information.

Purposes for implementing the SDAT for field reservations

Yes, your organization’s principal address as listed on the SDAT website must be located within Frederick County to meet the residency requirements.  If it is not in Frederick County, you may be able still reserve an athletic facility, but will qualify for non-resident rates and priority.

Organizations located outside of the State of Maryland must also be registered with the state as a Foreign Business Entity to reserved an athletic facility seasonally.

Yes, all nonprofit organizations must be listed with the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT).  The same documents that must be completed for the IRS regarding the formation of your organization, must be submitted to the State of Maryland.  (i.e., articles of incorporation approved and dated by appropriate state official, constitution or articles of association, or signed and dated trust instrument) For more information, please visit the State of Maryland's webpage for Nonprofit Organizations.

“Not in Good Standing” means the business entity is not in compliance with one or more Maryland laws that apply to businesses and their responsibilities in this State. Only business entities that are active can have a good standing status, so a business that has been voluntarily terminated will also show “not in good standing” because it is no longer active.

“Forfeited” means the right of the entity to conduct business in the State of Maryland has been relinquished and it has no right to use its name. For domestic corporations, this also means that the business has no existence under the laws of the State of Maryland. In most circumstances, a business is forfeited only after it has been “not in good standing” for a period of time, so the most common reasons for forfeiture are the same as the reasons businesses fall out of good standing.

Please see the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation's website for more information.

If your organization is not in good standing, you must begin the process of returning to good standing status with the State of Maryland. You can find out more information regarding what has caused the not good standing and how to correct it on the SDAT website.  

Yes, we have an "Open Field" policy for general use of the synthetic turf fields as well as grass fields, available for general public use any time there is not a reservation scheduled.  You can visit our Synthetic Turf Fields webpage to find the availability calendars for our synthetic fields.  However, the fields are not reservable by individuals due to Liability Insurance requirements and the legal business entity requirements.

While the fields might be available for Open Field public use, the lights are only scheduled for reservations.  All Open Field use is limited to sunset only.

Open Field Play is for community pick up play only.  There is to be no formal instruction, organized team practices, or clinics.  This open field access will provide for informal play at the synthetic turf fields on a first come, first served basis.

Recreation Centers are not reservable by individuals of the community.   All reservations require nonprofit status due to FCPS state grant requirements and also a Certificate of Liability Insurance.

Our gyms are made available across the county through our drop-in programs.  For more information on our drop-in programs, please visit our drop-in webpage.

Our rec rooms are a part of an athletic venue and are not suitable in size or function for non athletic events.  A few of our facilities do participate in the birthday party program.  You can visit our webpage for more information regarding birthday parties in a rec center.

We strive to provide all groups with some field time or gym time.  Unfortunately, in the growing demand this is not always possible.   Submitting your seasonal request application earlier rather than later will increase your chances.

We begin scheduling the first business day after the deadline.  It typically takes about 2-3 weeks to get through all of the requests and be able to send the permits out.

Recreation centers take about a week to get through all of the requests and be able to send permits back out.

We have pushed back the field opening in the last few years for several reasons.

The primary reason is that state laws prohibit our crews from doing most of the spring maintenance until March 15^th each year.

The earlier openings previously lead to situations where our crews were trying to aerate, reseed, fertilize, and prepare the fields at the same time that cleats were hitting the fields.  

Additionally, March is when it begins to get warm, and the grass is coming back to life and getting started in the growing process.  Cleats on the fields early in the growing process have had adverse effects on the field integrity.

All of this has been adjustments to our maintenance plans and field use plans coordinating together to provide better and safer playing surfaces.

Questions regarding all field reservations, rec center reservations, or any athletic events in Frederick County Parks can be directed to AthleticFacilities@FrederickCountyMD.gov.  You may also call the field scheduling office at 301-600-2151 or the main office at 301-600-2936

If you are having an immediate field issue after hours, please call our Park Ranger Duty line.  240-285-9170.  In case of emergency, please call 911.