Subject: RE: Economic benefits of Parks on Downtowns From: "Rapundalo, Stephen" <SRapundalo@a2gov.org> Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 09:18:00 -0500 To: "EricLipson, "Hieftje, John" <JHieftje@a2gov.org>, "Smith, Sandi" <SSmith@a2gov.org>, "Briere, Sabra" <SBriere@a2gov.org>, "Derezinski, Tony" <TDerezinski@a2gov.org>, "Taylor, Christopher \(Council\)" <CTaylor@a2gov.org>, "Kunselman, Stephen" <SKunselman@a2gov.org>, "Higgins, Marcia" <MHiggins@a2gov.org>, "Teall, Margie" <MTeall@a2gov.org>, "Hohnke, Carsten" <CHohnke@a2gov.org>, "Anglin, Mike" <MAnglin@a2gov.org>, "Miller, Jayne" <JMiller@a2gov.org>, "Fraser, Roger" <RFraser@a2gov.org>, "Pollay, Susan" <SPollay@a2dda.org> CC: "Peter Nagourney", "Rita Mitchell", "Lou Glorie", "Eppie Potts", "Karen Sidney", "Kathy Boris", "Nystuen, Gwen , "Barbara Kritt", "Jack Eaton", "Tom Whitaker", "Alan Haber", "Vivienne Armentrout" , "Nancy Kaplan", "Leslie Morris" Eric, The bottom line is that the two public options did not provide any $ descriptions for costs of building and operations, and how everything would be funded - e.g., land sale, lease payments, user fees, etc. Any successful project has to pay for itself without the use of City funds. Furthermore, the project should be able to describe in some basic fashion how it will do that as a minimum to meeting the RFP requirements. The four remaining proposals did so. Granted, there is more information we need to glean from them to fill in the gaps, but at least they provided some basis for costs and funding in $ and cents (though some Committee members questioned at least one other proposal in this regard). The two public options did not, except for indicating a $2.5 million donation towards project/operational costs (indeterminate for both projects) in the case of the A2 Town Square. The fact is that there has to be some sort of payment to taxpayers either through land sale and property tax revenue, long-term lease payments, or some guaranteed revenue streams. Taxpayers must be left intact at the time of build and for the future (we should not take away from existing Parks & Rec funds and facilities in order to support an open space project at the Library Lot, and certainly not from elsewhere in the General Fund). The public options are being treated no differently than any other proposal in that regard. Any economic benefits generated by a project must be disclosed and articulated in a balance sheet. That's what we're asking for when we say that a financial benefit must be demonstrated. It's simple math. Of course, that does not exclude all the other elements that must be addressed, i.e., experience with actually building such a major infill project, a viable development team, physical concept and design, etc. Bottom line - I'm happy to review and compare any project with any design concept so long as they can provide me with a full accounting, profit-loss, balance sheet and description of all other requested features. Stephen Stephen Rapundalo City Council - 2nd Ward City of Ann Arbor Email: srapundalo@a2g Tel: (734) 476-0648 |
Past Issues > Conference Center >