Agenda - Parks and Recreation Commission - 02/08/2018

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In order to comply with Minn. Stat. 16A.695 requirements on the expenditure of state bonds, to minimize the total costs of acquisition and to be consistent with reimbursements made on other projects, these costs are not grant -eligible: • Acquisition costs incurred to acquire a local park, which is later designated a regional park • Interest incurred by the acquiring regional park implementing agency or entity under contract with the agency on bonds it issued to buy the land, or interest incurred on a contract for deed payment • Projected investment revenue lost by the acquiring regional park implementing agency or entity under contract with the agency, based on what it might have earned on funds it spent to acquire the land or to buy an option to purchase the land • Interest on inter -agency or intra-agency loans used to finance the acquisition payment(s) or option to purchase Reimbursement for development projects undertaken before they can be financed through the Capital Improvement Plan Reimbursement will be considered for development projects provided that: • the project is consistent in timing, scale, type, and cost with a Council -approved master plan • all information required for the development grant is submitted to the Council prior to the regional park implementing agency undertaking the project, and • the Council approves the project. 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.