County debate starting: Who should pay for parks?
| Saturday, Jun 06 2009 12:00 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jun 06 2009 12:00 PM
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The problem with developing a 20-year vision for the future of Kern County parks is that, once you’re done, you have to find a way to pay for it all.
On June 30, the Kern County Board of Supervisors will vote to create the county’s Parks Master Plan.
“It actually identifies, based on projected growth, where we will have the need so we can identify the number of acres and the number of parks that will be needed,” said Parks and Recreation Director Bob Lerude.
At some point after supervisors approve that plan they will start talking about funding it. There already are some ideas about how to do that:
Neighborhood parks
• Require land developers to build neighborhood parks and then turn them over to the county.
• Create a fee on property taxes, similar to parks and maintenance districts created in the city of Bakersfield, to pay for upkeep of the new parks.
Regional parks
• Create a development fee allowing creation of larger “attraction” parks like the Buena Vista Aquatic Recreational Area or Lake Ming.
THE DEBATE
Last Tuesday, as Lerude gave supervisors their first look at the parks plan, debate swirled around the idea of creating more fees and taxes in these tough economic times.
That debate has continued, and will continue, as the process moves forward.
“Is this the right time? Should we be holding off a bit?” Lerude asked. “The longer it takes you to implement funding sources, you will be that much further behind.”
He said the recent real estate boom brought new communities with thousands of residents to the county.
“You have thousands of people in these large developments that have no parks — no facilities to serve them. It’s not right that in certain areas of the county there are not parks,” he said.
Supervisor Jon McQuiston said he agrees that neighborhoods should be engaged in building and maintaining their local parks.
“We need to be better requiring (developers) to put the parks and recreation facilities in,” he said.
Then maintenance fees could keep the parks in good shape.
But McQuiston doesn’t support development fees to fund large destination parks.
“Regional parks should be our responsibility. We have a number of regional parks in nearly every geographical area,” he said.
He used the idea of an eco-tourism park in the Kern River Valley — saying the county could build partnerships with nonprofits and state and federal government to create that kind of resource.
Supervisor Don Maben said there needs to be a uniform fee paid by everyone in Kern County because the county needs to do everything — from small local parks to regional ones.
It can’t continue to make few demands on developers either, he said, pointing to the development boom in Rosamond in the 1980s and 1990s.
“We got a couple of dirt parcels and $80,000,” he said. “We’ve taken land and we still got land, but nothing on it.”
So far the county hasn’t done the best job on building new parks, Lerude said.
Money used to come from property taxes, prior to Proposition 13, he said.
But now that money isn’t there and the county has few resources to build parks.
ANOTHER VIEW
Michael Turnipseed of the Kern County Taxpayers’ Association has a different take on how the county should run parks.
Kern County Parks is, he said, “a 1950 model that hasn’t changed.”
Historically, the county has built parks in county areas but failed to pass responsibility onto cities when they annex the neighborhoods around the parks. The cities keep the tax revenue, the county keeps the parks and pays for them.
“Every little town has a county park in it,” Turnipseed said. “There was a time when the county had the money and maintained them. That time has changed.”
He suggests the county give all neighborhood parks to the neighboring city and focus on its regional parks.
But most important, he said, is for the county to develop a plan for building and funding parks and stick with that plan.
“They need to have a sustainable plan. We can’t just put bandages on,” he said. “It’s easy to come up with dreams on paper. Now we have to see what are the priorities for the county and then fund it.”
