Members of the Edmonds City Council will consider at an Aug. 24 work meeting taking money from funds that support city parks and funneling it into transportation improvement projects.
The idea was spurred after City Council members asked city staff to come up with ways to heal the street and sidewalk improvement budget cuts after Initiative 776, city officials said, which stripped the city of revenues from the state motor vehicle excise tax.
The proposal on the table is to take about $200,000 a year from the estimated $1.5 million annual parks and recreation fund to cover costs of new sidewalks and other transportation improvement projects connected with schools and parks.
“The impact of what has happened to (transportation) Fund 112 after Initiative 776, we lost $350,000 or 46 percent in one felt swoop,” said Duane Bowman, city development services director. “The initiative hammered it.”
However, Mayor Gary Haakenson said, “it’s really sacrificing one public amenity for another. We need to find a permanent solution … this would just be a temporary fix.”
Each year, about $1.5 million from the city’s real estate excise tax (REET) goes towards parks and recreation, said Brian McIntosh, acting director for Edmonds Parks and Recreation. From that, he explained, $750,000 goes towards paying debt on property the city already owns, such as City Hall and Marina Beach. The other $750,000 goes towards park and field improvements and matching grant money.
“The REET money is responsible for all the things we’ve done, and its the only reason we’ve been able to put millions of dollars into making the waterfront as beautiful as it is,” McIntosh said
According to McIntosh, some of the projects funded through REET money in the past include the new bulk head in front of the South County Senior Center, Brackett’s Landing south and north of the ferry dock and the purchase of Marina Beach.
“This would have a major effect on our ability to keep all our parks up,” McIntosh said of the proposal.
Because the annual $200,000 would be designated for improvement projects connected to schools and parks, some requests from area residents, including the need for sidewalks in the area of 76th Avenue West and Meadowdale Beach Road, may not be answered, or at least not right away. The cost of putting sidewalks in that area is around $548,000, city officials said.
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