Community center debate hits Coon Rapids

In the coming weeks, the Coon Rapids City Council will wrestle with what at least one member says has been the most difficult issue of his political career:

A community center.

The proposed $38 million project touches off a cascade of questions: Is the payoff worth the divisiveness of a tax increase? What's the difference between what's needed and what's wanted for the center? What intangibles can it offer? Should it pay for itself?

Coon Rapids is waging a campaign that has been fought in communities around the Twin Cities area, as developing suburbs seek to carve out their identities. The cost of such centers almost always engenders some resistance, which cities such as Maple Grove, Shoreview and Plymouth have sought to overcome.

In Coon Rapids, a 2007 survey found a majority of residents favored a center. City officials have called it an essential opportunity to spark investment on a major thoroughfare, Coon Rapids Boulevard, which has languished since the city's retail hub and city offices moved elsewhere.

City Manager Matt Fulton has said a center will attract new families, who will use local businesses and lift a hemorrhaging school district. The $125 yearly tax increase for the average homeowner won't come due until 2012, when the economy presumably will have recovered.

But in a troubled economy, the big picture might seem more like a pipe dream to some.

An opposition group is more organized and vocal than supporters have been. Increased taxes will drive people from their homes, they say, and hurt people on fixed incomes.

The seven-member council is divided on the project, which comes with an additional $8.5 million price tag for land acquisition and other expenses. Three members have been in favor of the project, and three have opposed it. The seventh member, Joe Sidoti, has supported it in the past but has said he may change his vote.

Sometimes cities need to be the catalyst for redevelopment, said John Crompton, a distinguished professor of recreation, park and tourism sciences at Texas A&M University. "The public sector has to invest first," he said. "The private sector is not going to do it until it sees some evidence the regeneration is for real."

Maple Grove

Maple Grove's experience might be a model for backers of the Coon Rapids project.

Despite positive survey results there, a proposal to build a center failed in a 1990 referendum. A few years later, the city used an existing long-term development fund to build a complex including an ice arena, aquatic center, indoor playground and meeting space. A partnership with Northwest Athletic Club added a fitness center to the mix.

The building was the first in the area around Interstate 94 and Weaver Lake Road. Now the area also includes City Hall, an in-progress public library and the nearby Arbor Lakes retail development. The center alone had nearly a million visitors in 2008, said City Manager Al Madsen.

"The community center draws people into the area, and brings business into the area, and lots of folks from outside the community," he said. "It has a great ripple effect."

Maple Grove resident Becki Winegarden worked to defeat the community center during the referendum campaign. "Is it worth the cost to the community? I'm not really sure what my answer is," she said. "The city could have done a better job in relaying [information] to people."

Plymouth

In 1989, the Plymouth City Council was planning a community center. But that fall, voters ousted two council members and the mayor before the plan came to fruition.

The opposition objected because there wasn't going to be a referendum, said Parks and Recreation Director Eric Blank. "That was the only issue. Once it went out for public vote, everybody was happy. They had their say."

In 1995, the city put the question to the voters, 72 percent of whom approved a plan to build a $9 million facility that would pair a city-owned ice facility with a privately run Lifetime Fitness center. And in 1998, 52 percent of voters approved a plan for Plymouth Creek Center, "a true community center," that cost $7.5 million, Blank said.

Now the ice arena is the busiest park in the city, Blank said.

Eden Prarie

In Eden Prairie, an existing community center got a $17.5 million expansion and facelift that was completed in 2008.

"We looked at it as an amenity we needed for our residents, and to keep pace with the quality of life and the amenities we saw in other communities," said City Manager Scott Neal.

A successful bond referendum in 2005 covered $6.65 million of the cost. And the rest? "It really required the city and the advocates for the project to work together closely with the business community," Neal said.

Local corporations such as CH Robinson Worldwide, Supervalu, Emerson Rosemount and Cambria, among others, made donations in exchange for naming rights to meeting rooms and sports facilities. Special interests, such as the baseball and hockey associations, raised money to help build those facilities.

The city is on track to recover 70 percent of its operating costs this year, Neal said. But bringing in enough revenue to cover the total costs, he said, would keep the city from accomplishing another goal: accessibility.

The number of memberships to the center has risen from 600 before the expansion to 1,700, despite steep fee increases.

Shoreview

Back in 1989, Tom Lemke worked to defeat the bond request to build a community center in Shoreview. "I thought it was the most ridiculous thing; I didn't want my taxes to go up. It was the typical story," he said.

But the request passed with 68 percent support. In March of this year, a $186,000 indoor play structure was added.

Over the years, Lemke said, he has joined neighbor families at the pool on winter days. His community band now has a permanent home. He and his wife use the fitness center regularly.

"Now that we have that community center, it's the best thing that has happened in our community," he said.

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409