Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 10/09/2014

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State funds are not eligible to be used for reimbursement grants when the regional park implementing agency uses the reimbursement to pay off its bonds or an account that was used to initially finance the project. In those cases, only Council bonds may be used. In cases where the regional park implementing agency uses the proceeds from the reimbursement grant to finance new capital projects, state funds as well as Council bonds may be used to finance the grant. The Council will consider reimbursing the implementing agency based on whether the development or rehabilitation project meets the criteria - not on how the regional park implementing agency plans to spend the reimbursement grant. However, regional park implementing agencies should state how they would spend the reimbursement grant so that state funds as well as Council bonds can be used when possible. This would eliminate any need for amendments to the Council's Unified Capital Budget, since the Regional Parks Capital Improvement Program (CIP) would accurately reflect, and inform the public and elected officials, how the funds will be spent. Because Council bonds are limited to financing only 40% of the total biennial Regional Parks CIP, the following steps will be taken when considering reimbursement requests in a biennial Regional Parks CIP: • Regional park implementing agencies should submit their CIP funding requests with the understanding that reimbursement grants should not exceed 40% of a regional park implementing agency's biennial CIP allocation. • If the total requests for reimbursement grants exceeds 40% of the total biennial CIP, regional park implementing agencies should submit plans to the Council as to how they intend to spend the reimbursement grant. This information is necessary to ascertain whether or not state bonds can also be used to finance the reimbursement grant in addition to Council bonds. If the total dollar amount of requests for reimbursement requiring Council bond funding exceeds the amount of Council bonds available for that biennial CIP, regional park implementing agencies will be asked to modify their CIP requests for reimbursements for that biennium so that the amount requested for reimbursement does not exceed the amount available. The Council will use best efforts to implement this reimbursement policy as described above. However, the Council does not, under any circumstances, represent or guarantee that reimbursement will be granted, and expenditure of local funds never entitles a regional park implementing agency to reimbursement. Finance - Strategy 7: Regional trail corridors that may be used for transit in the future are eligible for Regional Parks System funding if it is clear the corridor will be used as a trail for at least 10 years. Regional Parks System funds should only be used to acquire or develop a corridor identified for future transit use in a Council- approved transit implementation plan when there is a guarantee that the trail facility will be operational for its useful design life, as negotiated by the transit provider and the regional park implementing agency. As defined by the Federal Highway Administration, the useful design life of a trail is 10 years or more. In cases where trail recreation is to be a permanent partner with transitways,