Renton committee leans toward $60 million parks bond focused on modernization, asks staff to add Tri Park design work

The Renton Parks & Recreation committee spent the meeting weighing bond options and project packages and directed staff to prioritize a revenue-oriented modernization package while also funding design work for the partial Tri Park master plan.

A city finance official laid out sample debt-service scenarios and taxpayer effects, saying, “At a $10,000,000 bond issuance, it would be about $800,000 per year debt payment,” and using a 20-year term at a 5% assumption to estimate impacts at larger bond sizes. The official warned that issuance costs typically run from about $100,000 to $500,000 and that interest-rate changes would alter those estimates.

Staff presented a project framework organized into six groupings — complete projects, a hybrid (the partial Tri Park), modernization (upgrades to existing parks and revenue-generating facilities), core investments (asset protection), enhancements (beautification and wayfinding) and continuation (no-bond baseline). A parks department official said…