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The owner of Adventure Park USA in New Market hopes to build a 5.5-acre water park on the property by next spring, but he isn't asking a bank for the money.

Instead, Larry Stottlemyer hopes to persuade 12,000 customers or 3,500 families of four — or some combination of the two — to buy a seven-year season pass to the water park.

He hopes to raise most of the money for the water park, $3.5 million, by selling individual passes for $300 each and family passes at $250 each for a family of four.

"That's $35 per year [per family member], and you can use the water park as much as you want," he said.

He said he would hold the money in an escrow account to pay for most of the estimated $4.5 million construction cost. He wants to build the water park without debt, and would use revenue from other park operations to make that happen.

He said he turned to the unorthodox funding method because of the economy. "Banks aren't lending," Stottlemyer said.

Stottlemyer would not disclose specific revenue numbers, but said this year's revenue has been "status quo."

Stottlemyer said he believes people would buy the passes, in part because of the price would be lower than some possible competitors. For example, Six Flags America in Upper Marlboro charges $49.99 for an individual 2009 season pass, according to its Web site. A family membership to the Frederick County YMCA costs $864 per year, according to its Web site.

Stottlemyer said the water park will be constructed in two phases. The first phase will include a 20,000-square-foot wave pool, play structure with four water slides, and changing and bath facilities, he said.

He said he is waiting on site plans and approval from the town to proceed.

Stottlemyer was busy June 1. Three schools, including the Maryland School for the Deaf, took field trips to the park that day, and it was unusually crowded for early in the work week, he said.

He said the park hosts groups from schools frequently in the summer, and it also hosted the Safe and Sane post-graduation parties for Frederick and Brunswick high schools this year, in addition to post-graduation parties for two schools in Virginia.

Though the park is busiest in the summer, Stottlemyer said that this was because many people don't realize that the park is open year-round.

The park opened in June 2005, and the Town of New Market annexed it in March 2008, bringing in $102,334 in fiscal 2009 alone.

The Town of New Market created a special "amusement park" zone while redoing its zoning ordinance, which allows for the park's attractions, including the roller coaster.

New Market's Mayor Winslow Burhans III wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette that the new water park will not need to be approved by any Frederick County agency, but that the town will ask Frederick County to administer permitting and inspections because it does not have the personnel to do so.

"However, all zoning issues are the town's," he wrote. "Some rides, such as roller coasters, must be inspected by the state."

E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.