By Kate Kealey, Des Moines Register
Organizers of 515 Run Club have declined a donation to cover thousands of dollars in permit fees that the Des Moines Parks and Recreation is billing for its weekly runs on city trails, saying they hope to win policy changes rather than accept charges they consider unfair and exorbitant.
Meanwhile, city officials are pushing back, contending the sheer size of the group, with up to 190 participants for Monday runs at Gray’s Lake, is creating hazards and burdens on other trail users.
The owner of Fitness Sports, a local running and walking store, offered to pay the roughly $5,000 in trail fees ― $4,300 for runs in 2026 at Gray’s Lake and more anticipated for smaller Friday runs at the Women of Achievement Bridge in downtown Des Moines ― so the free, volunteer-organized run club could continue its group activities.
Anthony Arroyo, 515 Run Club co-founder, said that while the leaders of the group appreciate the offer, they would rather see changes to park-use code than take money from the group’s members or anyone else.
Arroyo told the Des Moines Register on Wednesday, May 6, that while co-founder Nico Robinson paid an initial $120 fee out of his own pocket, “We’d rather play this out before we go on down the route of taking our community’s funds.”
The group on Monday collected trash at the park instead of running in what Robinson said was intended as a message to the city about the group’s good intent.
Fitness Sports owner Jordan Andrews said the offer wasn’t meant to be a sponsorship ― something the group has said it wants to avoid ― but was a sincere effort to help keep the weekly runs going.
“515 has just been awesome at bringing a lot of different people together, no matter what their backgrounds are,” Andrews said Tuesday. “And for us, they have been very beneficial on eliminating barriers for people joining the sports.”
515 Run Club won’t pay fees, saying it wants discussion with City Council
515 Run Club plans to hold off paying any more park fees until the group can go before the Des Moines City Council and advocate for changes, Arroyo said. This means the group will not have a permit for its upcoming runs Friday at the Women of Achievement Bridge and Monday at Gray’s Lake ahead of the next council meeting, set for May 18.
It will be business as usual, Arroyo said, despite park officials previously informing the group that police can get involved with permit and safety compliance, per a December 2025 amendment to park code. No parks staff or police are planning to attend future 515 Run Club gatherings, according to an email from the city of Des Moines to the Register.
Growing from two runners ― Arroyo and Robinson ― in 2022 to 190 on at least one occasion, 515 Run Club was notified by parks officials in March that it needed to pay a $1-per-participant-fee to obtain a permit. Robinson said he assumed the $120 he paid covered all the group’s use of Gray’s Lake trails for the rest of 2026, only to learn fees are applied per run.
The Gray’s Lake runs attract an average of roughly 150 people. Runs at the Women of Achievement Bridge average about 20 participants, the group said.
Previously, Robinson said he would consider paying all the trail fees out of pocket. But now, he said, the group is ready to argue that the city is wrong to seek thousands of dollars for runs on taxpayer-funded trails by an informal group dedicated to being free and open to all.
“I can see the arguments being made of, like, ‘Hey there are too many people,'” Arroyo said. “At the same time it’s like, well, we just get rid of it? That’s the solution?”
But the city isn’t trying to shut the group down, said at-large City Council member Carl Voss, a longtime trails advocate and namesake of one of the trails in the city network. He said city officials suggested 515 Run Club relocate from Gray’s Lake, Des Moines’ busiest park, but the organizers declined.
“Trying to solve this but continuing to have events is not a good picture,” Voss said of the club.
Trails fees support administration, operations, maintenance and other resources for trail event use, city Recreation Supervisor Ian Knutsen said. Across 33 different organizations and 72 trail events, the parks department has collected $11,115 in trail event fees for 2026, the city told the Register.
Voss said that with a new playground and sprayground planned for Gray’s Lake, traffic at the park will only increase, making consistent permit enforcement for events all the more crucial.
“Participants have created this problem and it’s not the city raining down on them,” he said. “In part, it’s because of the size.”
Why does the city of Des Moines say 515 Run Club needs a permit?
Des Moines Parks and Recreation official said they classified 515 Run Club it an organized event, in accordance with city code, because the runs impact the normal use of the park and because the group advertises the runs via social media.
All organizers of events at Des Moines parks must obtain a permit and exempting 515 Run Club would be unfair to the 33 other organizations that already have paid trail fees for 2026, said Knutsen.
“We apply fees uniformly to groups and park/facility patrons as set/adopted,” he said in an email to the Register on April 28. “In the case of the Trail Event Use Fee, we treat all organized groups fairly and equally and are committed to maintaining strong relationships with every organization and event using our facilities. Not requiring a fee for one event or group would be unfair to the others and do a disservice to taxpayers.”
Parks officials said the permits help maintain safety and cited complaints about trail congestion at Gray’s Lake attributed to 515 Run Club’s Monday meetups.
A roller skater in a report taken by a parks employee was said to have suffered “minor injuries” ― a fracture or sprain ― in a fall resulting from the club’s trail congestion, according to parks officials. Robinson said nurses who are runners with 515 Run Club tried to assist the skater.
The city also said there have been complaints about runners parking their cars on grass or in restricted areas during the gatherings. That’s another safety issue that could warrant police involvement, Knutsen said.
In addition, the city alleges 515 Run Club hosted multiple vendors who were “peddling and/or soliciting without a permit.” While 515 Run Club has advertised the presence of vendors at runs on its social media, Robinson said the group is not affiliated any vendors with nor has it accepted any money from them. Any violation should be assessed against the vendors and not the club, he said.
The city initially contacted 515 Run Club about obtaining a permit because of complaints against the group about trail congestion and lack of parking, said Ben Page, director of Des Moines Parks and Recreation.
“Because of the scale of the event and its impact, we are required to apply our permit process consistently as we do to all events to ensure fairness to all park users and groups,” Page said. “We remain open to future coordination, but any path forward must reflect that shared responsibility and the need to equitably manage access to our public spaces.”
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