Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 02/19/2004

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CASE #~,~ REVIEW COMMERCIAL TRAIL AND PARK DEDICATION By: Leonard Linton, Civil Engineer I1 Backgrotind: The City Council reviewed all fees at their December 9, 2003 meeting. Staff was directed tO review the commercial trail and park dedication fees and forward a recommendation to the Parks Commission. Information on commercial park dedication fees was Presented to the Parks Commission at the regular January meeting. The case was tabled with a request for more detailed information. Observation: Staff gathered information from cities that have recently performed similar analyses and looked uP data for cities that are in the northwest portion of the metro area. Most cities do not have a specific fee for trails; it is covered in the commercial and residential gar. k dedication fees. The results of this research are summarized below. The full text offthe searches i~ not included in the packet but is available for Commissioner review. The City 9f Plymouth revised their development code relating to park dedication fees in the fall of 2001. The Plymouth study indicates that commercial and industrial employees use the park and trail system for recreation during breaks, company picnics and outings and employers may sponsor teams in league team sports played on the fields, thereby negating ~e argument that C/I development does not impact the park and trail system. The Plymputh review was conducted as part of the revision of the city code related to development. Their review included information from the City of Bloomington that indicated }hat 90% of demand for parks comes from residents and 10% from Commercial/Industrial employees. The City Of Champlin prepared a listing of 2003 park dedication rates. A condensed copy of the Champlin survey is included in the packet. Shading has been added to de- emphasize communities that are not comparable in size or general location to Ramsey. The charge from the Ramsey City Council was to review commercial trail dedication fees and indireCtly the commercial park dedication fees. The current C/I trail fee is $100.00 /acre. The current park dedication fee is 5% o. fFair Market Value (FMV), using $2.00/ sq fi as the minimum for FMV. The current Industrial fee is also 5% FMV, using $1.00/ sq fi as the minimum. Fair Market Value can be an elusive term as anyone who has bought or~ sold real estate or vehicles can attest. The buyer always wants the value to be low and the seller is looking for maximum value.