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Parks & Recreation CIP Each year, the City updates its 20-Year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The CIP identifies the scheduled replacement of assets based on current prices. The replacement schedule is based on the age of each asset and its estimated useful life. For planning purposes, it is assumed that each asset will be replaced by a similar one in the future. A major component of the CIP is the City’s parks and recreation-related assets.The Parks & Recreation CIP includes all buildings, recreational amenities, and playground equipment that lie within City parks as well as the Skating Center, Nature Center, community gymnasiums, and the Golf Course. For purposes of this discussion it does notinclude pathways and trails The 2014-2033 Parks & Recreation CIP calls for an investment of $51.2 million over the next 20 years. Of this amount, approximately $15million is scheduled to be financed with the recently issued Park Renewal Bonds. The remainder will need to come from other sources including tax levy and participant fees. Park Improvement Program The Park Improvement Program(PIP)was created over 20 years ago to systematically finance the replacement of existing park system assets. Originally, it received a tax levy appropriation of $250,000 annually. However, funding for this Program not only failed to keep up with inflationary impacts itwas never adjusted to account for new system components that were added after the Program was initiated. Funding for the PIP was reduced to $40,000 annually in 2012.However, this coincided with the issuance of bonds to fund the multi-year Park Renewal Program which would address the most immediate park improvement needs. As a result of these factors, the PIP has largely become a maintenance-type fund rather than an asset replacement one. Over the past few years, the PIP has been used for smaller athletic equipment replacements, landscaping projects, playground equipment upgrades, etc. Capital Asset Replacement Financing Options As noted above, there has been a number of funding sources that have historically been used to finance the replacement of parks and recreation system assets. They include tax levy, bonds (which are ultimately repaid with tax levy), and in the case of the Golf Course; participant fees. The current Parks & Recreation CIP has a funding gap of $36.2 million over the next 20 years or $1.81 millionper year. A recently-appointed City Council CIP Committee recommended that the City address this gap using the following funding strategies: Consider increasing greens fees to pay for future Golf Course improvementsto generate an additional $100,000 per year. Through 2014-2020,steadily increase/repurposethe tax levy byan additional$1.4 million annually to be dedicated for the replacement of parks and recreation system assets. This financing strategy would close the funding gap to $6.2 million over the next 20 years or $310,000 per year. 2