Park Funding
Survey Results: Park Funding
Survey Info - This survey was sent on behalf of Syracuse City to the FlashVote community for Syracuse, UT.
Syracuse City owns a vacant 50 acre parcel of land located at 2000 West and Gentile. The City is now planning to turn it into a park and sports complex to take advantage of historically low interest rates and to avoid turning away participants from future recreation programs due to lack of park space.
The construction cost is estimated at $31 million which includes four softball/baseball fields, five soccer/football/lacrosse fields, lighting, spectator stands, five pavilions, a large playground, pickleball courts, basketball courts, leisure/open space, trails and restrooms. About $5 million is already available from City savings. (You can see the draft plan here).
To pay for the remaining $26 million, the City is considering a bond that would cost the average Syracuse home an additional $13.77 per month ($165 per year) over 20 years. If a bond election was today, would you vote in favor of a $26 million bond to construct this new park and sports complex?
What best describes the most that you would be willing to pay in additional property taxes to have this new park and sports complex constructed?
Recently, our lives have been impacted in many ways by the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people are using parks and open space more and many people have had negative impacts to their income.
Which best describes how the current situation may be impacting your support for this project?
The City is exploring the possibility of offering some investment bonds to residents that would be used to pay for park construction. Suppose you could choose to invest $500 for each 3-year bond, and it earned better than a bank CD interest rate, say 3% per year ($15), then at the end of three years the City paid you back the $500 plus the three years’ interest ($545 total).
If you were able to purchase bonds like this from the City to fund park construction, would you be interested in doing so?