New money to fund new parks moves a step closer

Minneapolis on Friday took a step toward joining St. Paul and many suburbs in charging new housing for the costs of creating parks.

The City Council voted 11-2 to set conditions under which it will agree to impose a fee on behalf of the Park Board.

Even after the council trimmed the proposal to $2,000 per unit and excluded affordable housing, the fee still is expected to generate $60 million by 2030.

Park Commissioner Tracy Nordstrom said the board feels a sense of urgency to get the fee in place before housing booms again. "Now the next piece for us is to do the dance with the City Council and see if we can come up with anything," she said.

The issue languished after hitting City Hall last spring, until Council Members Paul Ostrow and Barbara Johnson revived discussions with park commissioners.

The issue is complicated, because most park dedication ordinances, which typically require land or a cash equivalent, are designed for developing suburbs. But Minneapolis expects much of its housing development in coming decades to happen along its upper riverfront and Hiawatha Avenue, where industrial land is being converted to apartments, condos and houses.

Moreover, Minneapolis has split responsibility where most cities have unified government: The Park Board runs parks, but the city collects fees when building permits are issued.

Council Member Lisa Goodman led a successful effort to drop the Park Board's proposed fee by $1,000 per unit and to forbid its imposition on affordable housing to all but privately developed units. But she lost an effort to limit use of the fee to new or expanded parks when the council voted 9-4 to also allow park improvements to be financed by the fee.

Ultimately, she and Scott Benson cast the lone votes against the fee resolution. Benson said fees undercut the council's duty to make tough choices within the property tax limits it sets.

The fee can't be used for maintenance or repairs, but Nordstrom said the increased property taxes from development would finance park operating costs. The fee would be confined to capital projects.

St. Paul imposed a park dedication fee last March. Almost 70 metro-area cities impose such a fee, either at a flat unit rate or as a percentage of property value. The median fee among them is of $10,725.

The Park Board estimates that it could use $10 million more annually for capital projects. It estimates the cost of buying and developing upper riverfront parks at $153 million.