Council creates special-assessment district for Altru Sports Complex site work; one dissent

The Committee of the Whole approved creation of a special-assessment district to finance site work for the Altru Sports Complex project, adopting an engineer’s report that describes $8.7 million in assessable improvements.

“That first procurement package includes all of the utilities, paving, and site work,” city project manager Lieberman told the committee and said the total estimate for site work is currently $11,800,000. “That strategy includes a combination of some of the cash funds, the enterprise funds, such as water, wastewater, stormwater, infrastructure, and it also includes a portion that will be special assessed.”

Lieberman and finance staff described the planned financing mix: utility enterprise funds (water, wastewater, stormwater and streets) will fund the portions that directly serve utilities, the economic development sales-tax fund will cover parts of the parking and landscaping that directly benefit the facility, and the city will special-assess approximately $8,700,000 for paving, storm sewer, street lighting, earthwork and landscaping. Staff materials cited an $11.8 million all-in estimate for the first procurement package (GMP 1) and noted the special-assessment engineer’s report apportions $8.7 million to the district.

Council members asked whether the city would be special-assessing itself for lots owned by the city (the site includes lots for the Altru Sports Complex, Hugo’s Raceway, the lot under consideration for the Children’s Museum and a stormwater pond lot). Lieberman said those lots are owned by the city and that the Special Assessment Commission will determine benefit apportionment; finance staff confirmed the city intends to pay for support infrastructure and that certain portions would be funded from the 3/4-percent sales tax and the economic development sales-tax fund.

Miss Thorstead (finance) summarized the funding breakout shown in staff materials: the engineer’s $8.7 million district is reflected as two components (roughly $4,467,000 and $4,238,000 in the engineer’s schedule) that the city plans to amortize over time; the portion tied directly to facility operations would be supported by the 0.75% sales tax while other portions would come from enterprise cash or economic development sales-tax funds.

Council Member Osovskiy registered a procedural and policy objection about proceeding while the project remained over budget and said she would not support moving forward until the facility budget fit within projections. Despite that dissent the motion to approve the engineer’s report and create the district passed; the transcript records a recorded dissent by Osovskiy.

Why it matters: creating the district allows the city to proceed with procurement and financing for site work that serves multiple co-located facilities (sports complex, racetrack and a proposed Children’s Museum). The financing plan mixes enterprise funds, sales-tax proceeds and a special-assessment district that—because the city owns the benefitting lots—effectively assigns assessments to city funds.

Next steps: staff will proceed with the special-assessment district formation process and the GMP 1 procurement package; the Special Assessment Commission will later apportion benefits among lots.