Two months after adopting major changes to how fees on private development generate parkland funds, the St. Paul City Council is considering changes.
A proposed amendment would affect where parkland funds generated by private development can be spent. Under the parkland dedication ordinance adopted in August, the fees must be used within a half-mile of a development project.
The city council will likely ask the St. Paul Planning Commission to study and recommend a process for spending the fees outside of the half-mile radius for certain types of park and rec facilities, such as city basketball courts, which are plotted at least a mile apart.
City staff “felt the half-mile distance on where you can spend (the parkland fees) didn’t really match the service area,” said St. Paul Planning Director Donna Drummond. “It just allows a little more flexibility within those service areas.”
Council president Russ Stark said that under state law, the fees would still have to be spent “within a reasonable distance of where they’re being generated.”
At the urging of member Dai Thao, the council laid the issue over until Nov. 4 to seek more information from the Parks Department.
