Kent City Council adopts Park and Open Space Plan; funding yet to be determined

The Kent City Council approved an extensive Park and Open Space Plan on Tuesday night and now must figure out how to fund the proposal.

Renovations at more than 40 parks throughout the city are included in a thick document. The projects are divided among East Hill, West Hill, downtown and Green River Valley parks.

“This is a very pioneering document,” City Parks Director Jeff Watling said at the council meeting. “This plan really sets a vision for reinvesting in our park system. Our park system is showing its age. Quantity parks is not enough to create the livability we want in this community. It’s quality that is so important.”

A small sampling of the projects include replacing the restrooms, bleachers, parking lot and lights at the Kent Memorial Park athletic complex; improving Morrill Meadows Park on the East Hill and integrating it with a new YMCA; and reopening and renovating closed portions of Lake Fenwick Park.

But pulling off the full plan will take an estimated $120 million over the next 20 years, according to city documents.

“We need sustainable funding,” Watling said. “This document is going to be dust on the shelf if we don’t address how we want to fund this vision.”

The city’s Parks and Recreation Commission, appointed by Mayor Suzette Cooke in late 2014, helped form the Park and Open Space Plan along with city staff, city consultants, resident surveys and the council’s Parks Committee.

Annie Saurwein, chairwoman of the 16-member commission, presented the council with a capital funding recommendation for the 40-plus projects that would require an investment of about $120 million over the next 20 years for a park system with a maintenance backlog of more than $60 million.

The city’s current level of park investment is about $1 million per year. It would take about $3 million per year to maintain the current level of service; and up to $9 million per year for 10 years and $3.1 million for the following 10 years to complete strategic projects and maintain them.

“This plan is not overly ambitious,” Saurwein said. “Rather it presents a critical strategy for maintaining our existing parks so that those assets can better serve Kent’s 124,900 residents, many of whom are currently under-served.”

The commission’s funding recommendations include:

• Real estate excise tax (REET): Continue to dedicate to parks proceeds from a 0.5 percent sales tax on property deals that generates about $1 million per year

• Grants: City staff should continue to find matching state, King County and other grants for up to $1 million per year

• B&O tax: Reallocate funds from the city’s business and occupation tax for capital projects at $2 million per year

• Parks levy: Ask voters to approve a property tax increase for six years to bring in about $3 million per year

• Parks impact fees on developers; use of volunteers; and private and public partnerships: Other ways to raise a yet-to-be-determined amount

Revenue from the B&O tax, about $7 million per year, goes to street projects. The commission argues that the reallocation of some of that money to parks also benefits Kent’s business and residential communities.

The commission recommends seeking voter approval of a property tax increase between fall 2017 and summer 2018. Voters turned down a streets and parks levy in 2012 that would have raised $18 million for parks and $11 million for streets over six years.

Councilman Dennis Higgins said he will use the funding recommendations as the council moves into budget deliberations later this year.

“I love this,” Higgins said. “This is powerful. This is information we can use. You guys took a deep dive into the subject. You looked at all of the alternatives and the staffing of the park system. A lot of people would say, ‘Why don’t you just cut something and get rid of waste?’ You guys know we don’t have stuff to cut in order to enact some of these things. This is very powerful.”