Cedar Park Type B board approves FY2026 project list and budget, adds rec-center space study

The Cedar Park Community Development Type B Corporation on July 8 approved a list of FY2026 projects and a proposed FY2026 budget recommendation, adding a $150,000 Recreation Center space-needs study and approving a separate $1,646,617.64 budget amendment to repurchase about 5.15 acres from CP North Shore.

The move-setting action will send the Type B budget recommendation to city staff for inclusion in the city budget process and on to the City Council for final adoption, with staff noting a target final adoption date of Sept. 11. The board voted to approve the projects list and the budget recommendation during the same meeting; it also approved the FY2025 budget amendment related to the North Shore settlement.

Finance staff said the Type B half-cent sales tax and conservative interest projections support the proposed spending. “For every purchase at a brick-and-mortar store or for online purchases shipped to an address within Cedar Park, our businesses, residents, and visitors pay sales tax of 8.25% ... Of that amount, 2¢ is collected by the city, and of that 2¢, a half cent is received by the Type B fund,” Finance Department presenter America Solis said during the meeting. Solis presented a draft budget projecting $12.7 million in revenues for FY2026 and $12.3 million in proposed expenses, leaving a projected net increase in fund balance of roughly $341,000 under current assumptions.

Board members approved $5 million in transformational-project funding for the design phase of an arts collective and $5.65 million in community and mobility enhancement project requests (the community-and-mobility total includes the $150,000 Recreation Center study). Parks and Recreation Director Mike DeVito described the rec-center study as a facility assessment to evaluate space needs, potential expansion and reconfiguration, and future programming; he said the existing recreation center, opened in February 2009, is roughly 47,000 square feet and serves about 5,500 members. “When we did [an] assessment back in 2021 ... our facility right now is about half the size of what we really need for our community,” DeVito said.

Solis told the board the proposed budget includes $1.1 million in debt service and about $607,000 for board and staff support. Staff noted an updated reserve requirement — two months of budgeted sales tax plus an annual debt-service payment — that results in an estimated $3.1 million reserve. Under the draft, the Type B fund’s projected ending balance shown in staff materials is about $4.7 million for FY2026, gross of the reserve. Solis also said staff projected FY2026 sales tax growth at 2% above the current fiscal-year projection based on year-to-date receipts.

Separately, the board approved a FY2025 budget amendment of $1,646,617.64 to fund a settlement and the repurchase of roughly 5.15 acres located at the southwest corner of Discovery Boulevard and Main Street from CP North Shore; staff said that amendment is already reflected in the FY2026 starting balances presented in the draft budget.

Board members discussed longer-term capacity to take on debt for potential construction tied to the arts collective. One board member reviewed pro forma scenarios presented in board materials showing the effect of a hypothetical $35 million construction bond over 20 years and concluded the additional debt “doesn’t appear to impact us as bad as I had anticipated,” given projected sales-tax growth. Staff and board members agreed the list of projects before them could proceed to the public-notice and public-hearing steps required before council consideration, and that the board could later choose to defer or remove projects for reasons other than immediate fiscal constraint.

Votes at the meeting were taken by voice; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the meeting transcript. Staff noted that approval of the projects list allows staff to publish required public notices and schedule public hearings, and that the board’s budget recommendation will be included in staff’s presentations to the City Council.

The board’s next scheduled meeting was announced as Aug. 12 at the same location.