JUNE 24, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A7
UNLOCK: ‘We don’t have the 86.4
percent to make things happen’
(Continued from page 1)
The larger pot of money
is that collected since April
2009, about $793,000. The
problem is that those fees
can only be used to improve
parks, not for maintenance
or repair. On top of that,
SDC fees can only be used
to cover 13.6 percent of the
costs of any improvement.
For example, say city offi cials
approve the installment of a
new $100,000 play structure
at your neighborhood park.
SDC funds could only pay
for $13,600 of the cost. The
remaining $86,400 would
have to come out of other
parts of the city budget or
through grants or sponsor-
ships, which would also take
staff time to track down and
apply for – at a time when
the budget is still stretched
fairly thin on Keizer’s low
property tax rate.
One of the most recent
uses of new SDC money was
$50,000 to “sweeten the pro-
posal” for a grant application
to upgrade surfaces at Keizer
Rapids Park Big Toy and to
build the fi rst restrooms with
fl ushing toilets in any city
park. The percentage permit-
ted for use on new projects is
set by state law.
Given all that, a dedicated
parks fund is seen as the key
to unlock to door on using
the money that’s already been
collected.
“We have 13.6 available,
but we don’t have the 86.4
percent to make things hap-
pen,” said parks board mem-
ber Donna Bradley.
The board is considering
adding the dedicated parks
fee to utility bills. It would be
collected per Keizer dwell-
ing. No amount has been set,
but a $2 month fee ($4 per
billing cycle) would amount
to an extra $355,200 in an-
nual dedicated parks fund-
ing. At that amount, it would
still take more than 16 years
to unlock all of the existing
$793,000 in new SDC funds.
Parks board members
wrestled with the phrasing
of questions on a survey they
plan to send to residents for
input on the issue.
Citing the last time the
city tried
ied to enact a utility
fee – on cell phones in 2011,
the proposal went down in
fl ames – board member, and
former city councilor, Jim
Taylor opposed using any
funds collected on park im-
provements.
“I am adamant that this
be maintenance only because
people want it to be spe-
cifi c about how it’s going to
help them. We’ve been down
this road before,” Taylor said.
“We need a ‘have to’ list not
a ‘want to’ list. The mainte-
nance is very, very diffi cult to
get funding for and if we can
take care of the maintenance,
then we can go out and look
for other projects.”
Parks board member JT
Hager disagreed with that
stance.
“We are already being frus-
trated with restrictions and
we need the latitude to look
at the funds and what needs
doing,” Hager said. “I don’t
think you’re giving enough
credit to the intelligence on
the (parks) board. I haven’t
seen any indication or sug-
gestion that anything (we’ve
approved) wasn’t needed or
wasn’t an improvement.”
B Y
SDC
T H E
N U M B 3 R S
Keizer collects system development charges (SDCs)
when new homes and apartments are built. SDCs collected since
April 2009 can only be applied to 13.6 percent of any new project.
The Keizer Parks Advisory Board is trying to unlock that money to
improve parks throughout Keizer by creating a dedicated parks fund
with a fee added to utility bills. The fee below is hypothethical, but
shows how long it would take to spend the fees already collected.
$
2
potential fee
added to
water bill
14,800
approximate number
of dw
dwellings in Keizer
355,200
$
42,800
$
parks funds
collected in
one year of
potential fee
amount of SDC funds
freed up with one year
of dedicated parks fee
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
2027 2028 2029 2030 2031
HOW LONG
it would take
to spend
down SDC
funds already
collected
16
YEARS
If you can’t
beat ‘em,
JOIN ‘EM
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