Open Space Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2023 07 12

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Open Space Advisory Board Minutes June 14, 2023 Page 4 of 6 General Board Updates: David said that workers are improving drainage on the paved part of the new 1041n Street Trail, where water had been collecting. He reported that he is happier about the crossing at Empire Rd: the visibility has been improved, but he still thinks people need to use caution crossing the road there. Jessamine commented that when she visited the 104tn Street Trail recently, she found the trail blocked by an open gate to a private property. She said that it wasn't clear what a user was supposed to do when the trail was blocked like that. 8. Update Item: Sales & Use Tax Force Updates. Presented by Jessamine Fitzpatrick and Helen Moshak, Tax Task Force Members Jessamine said that the task force had reviewed, along with Magellan Consulting, the results of the recent citizen survey about the Open Space and Parks Sales and Use Tax, which is coming up for renewal on the ballot in the fall. The key takeaways from the survey were that city citizens are generally positive about renewing the tax, with varying support levels for increasing the tax rate and extending the tax renewal period. There were members of the public at the meeting who were in vocal support of dedicated open space funding and improved open space maintenance. Jessamine thought the citizen support at the meeting was a reassuring indication of high community engagement. The task force members reached consensus to propose the following for the sales tax ballot language: (1) Renewing the existing tax (0.375%) and dividing it 50/50 between Open Space and Parks, creating separate "buckets" of funds so there is accuracy and transparency in the accounting. (2) Increasing the tax (+0.125%) and dedicating these additional funds for the acquisition and maintenance/operations of Open Space. (3) Keeping the term to 10 years. Adam said that he had just received the official proposed ballot language that staff and the city attorneys had prepared. This language will go to Council at the June 20tn meeting. The language will keep the ballot to one, single question. It proposes increasing the tax by 0.125%, which will all be specifically dedicated to Open Space. It would reserve a pool of money for land acquisition. It keeps the term to 10 years. Adam added that the specific ballot language could be found in the City Council meeting packet which will be released Friday, June 16tn Helen asked why the language didn't specify a 50/50 fund division of the existing .375 tax like the task force had recommended. Adam didn't know why. Helen said she was very disappointed about this and would be providing feedback about this topic to Council at the meeting. David mentioned that the language didn't include a mention of trails in its list of how the Open Space money could be spent. Laura added that the term "maintenance" shouldn't be used as a catch-all term that includes resource management; resource management or habitat management should be explicitly listed as its own spending priority. Several board members agreed. Susan mentioned that many more people use open space daily than use parks daily, according to the survey. She thought this indicated how much citizens might value these resources.