Lacey staff recommends east-side soccer upgrades as next step for Regional Athletic Complex amid looming debt deadline

Lacey Parks, Culture & Recreation staff told the Parks Board on June 4 that, given limits on Public Facility District (PFD) sales tax revenue and a looming debt-timing deadline, the next feasible step for the Regional Athletic Complex (RAC) is to prioritize soccer-related improvements on the complex’s east side and upgrades to the existing soccer field.

The recommendation follows a year of master planning and a consultant-led study that produced three concepts for the undeveloped west parcel and several options to convert the current soccer field to synthetic turf and add lights and seating.

Why it matters: the city shares a portion of a PFD sales tax with Olympia and must have outstanding project debt through Nov. 30, 2027, to preserve authorization for the tax. Troy Wu, the city’s finance director, told the board the governor had signed a bill on May 17 extending the PFD authorization and that the city needs to have debt outstanding on the original project to keep collecting the tax.

“One of the conditions on that sales tax is that there is outstanding debt,” Wu said. “If there isn’t outstanding debt, we lose our authorization for that sales tax.”

Staff and consultants said the three concepts for the west parcel ranged from a collegiate regulation baseball field with two softball diamonds and full support amenities, to a three‑softball field layout, to a mixed plan that included a collegiate baseball field and a large multipurpose field that could support softball and soccer. All three concepts included parking, maintenance facilities and lighting.

Trent (SCJ Alliance), John McNamara (SCJ principal landscape architect) and Andrew Lieber (ALSC Architects) walked the board through guiding principles used for the master plan — user experience, flexibility, connectivity, differentiation and stewardship — and emphasized phasing that preserves the Garry Oak grove on site and provides pedestrian connections across Marvin Road.

Wu presented a 35‑year projection showing RAC operations are heavily subsidized; roughly 38% of costs are covered by user fees and rentals, while the remainder is subsidy, mainly from the city general fund, PFD sales tax and lodging tax. Under staff assumptions, the PFD share available for annual debt service will dip noticeably in 2028 because of an interlocal allocation threshold, and the city’s debt policy generally discourages terms beyond 20 years.

“You have to stay in debt to the state in order to get the money,” Wu said, acknowledging the oddity of that condition. He emphasized tradeoffs in debt terms: longer bond terms raise available principal but increase total interest costs substantially.

City staff said the recommendation to council, scheduled for a June 10 work session and possible council action June 17, is to pursue improvements on the RAC’s east side first — converting the existing grass soccer field to synthetic turf, improving lighting and adding spectator seating — because those moves address immediate program needs while fitting within the realistic PFD financing the city can expect.

“We’re going to be recommending to council, here in 2025, that the first feasible step in realizing the long‑term vision for the RAC is to focus on the soccer improvements on the East Side of Marvin Road,” Dan Burbage, director of parks, culture and recreation, told the board.

Board members and staff also discussed transportation and pedestrian crossings across Marvin Road. Public works and consultants said they would study both at‑grade and grade‑separated crossing options; a future roundabout has been discussed by other agencies but would not be part of the immediate master‑plan construction.

What’s next: staff asked the council to decide by July 1 whether to advance a bond/issuance plan that would allow the city to issue debt in mid‑2027, which in turn would preserve the city’s continuing authority to collect the PFD sales tax. No formal board vote on the RAC concept was taken; staff will present this recommendation to council at the June 10 work session.

The board and consultant team will continue refining design and phasing if council gives direction to proceed.

Ending: The city’s short‑term recommendation narrows the initial scope to east‑side soccer upgrades and related RAC maintenance needs, while keeping long‑term options for the west parcel on the table pending council choices about how much PFD revenue to allocate for debt service and whether to issue bonds with longer terms.