Lacey residents might be asked to vote on a proposed parks tax as early as this summer
Lacey City Council is leaning toward placing a proposed Metropolitan Park District on the August ballot. If approved, the new district would levy a property tax to fund and maintain parks in the city.
Lacey has more than 20 parks, including area favorites such as Rainier Vista, Wonderwood and Wanschers Park at Hicks Lake.
A 15-member Parks Improvement Funding Workgroup reviewed parks expansion and replacement projects identified in the city’s six-year Parks Capital Improvement Program, then recommended creating a Metropolitan Park District to the city council last month.
If approved, the parks district would levy a property tax of 45 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation and cost property owners about $225 a year on a house valued at $500,000. It would raise about $6 million per year for parks.
Lacey proposed an MPD in November 2018, but voters rejected it.
Following last month’s recommendation, the city council took a deeper look into the topic at its Tuesday work session, including when they might ask voters to support the measure.
City Manager Rick Walk pointed out that April would be the first opportunity for a special election, although that wouldn’t give the city much time to prepare or educate voters.
August is primary season, but there are not as many competing interests as there are during a general election in November, Walk said.
Council members agreed that summer makes sense.
“People are going to be out in our parks seeing how beautiful they are,” council member Robin Vazquez said. “And we can use those opportunities to say ‘Expanding this, improving this is what you’d be paying for.’ So I feel like August is a strategically good time, because people will be in our parks right before the vote.”
“That’s exactly why I’m in favor of August as well, yeah, because of the leverage that we get from the summer weather,” Deputy Mayor Malcolm Miller said. “While they’re using them, I think the iron is hot.”
A summer ballot measure also would not conflict with an effort to renew the city’s Transportation Benefit District, which is not expected to come before voters until the end of 2026 or early 2027, Walk said. The voter-approved Transportation Benefit District uses a 0.2% sales tax to help fund road and sidewalk repairs.
During the meeting, the council also talked about how best to prepare the measure for voters.
A number of future projects, such as the next phase of work on Greg Cuoio Park, take place in northeast Lacey, council member Nic Dunning said. He said the city needs to make clear that all areas of the city will benefit, not just certain areas.
“So as we go forward, that’s my my main concern: that everybody’s benefiting from this,” Dunning said.
The city also needs to get its messaging right, Vazquez and council member Carolyn Cox said.
“I think we need to be able to describe a specific project, or a couple of specific projects, that we will be giving to people if we want them to vote for something,” Vazquez said.
Cox recalled what went wrong in 2018.
“One of the things that sunk the 2018 measure is there was some nebulous language in there, and then there was this misinformation that got out into the community about building stadiums. ... I agree with Robin, we need to have some very specific proposals, and I think they need to represent different geographic parts of the city,” Cox said.
“I think we’ve got to identify early on, you know, what we’re talking about, so that we can kind of control, you know, what’s going out into the community and what we’re really talking about, rather than having the grapevine run amok about these things,” Cox said.
One voice was missing on Tuesday: Lenny Greenstein’s. At a previous council meeting, Greenstein had asked for more information about the MPD proposal, but he had an excused absence on Tuesday, Mayor Andy Ryder said.
The Parks Improvement Funding Workgroup recommended a long list of capital and replacement projects for the city’s parks, but they also picked a top five from each category.
Top 5 capital projects
▪ Meridian Park pickleball courts, skate features and/or pump track.
▪ Spray park #1 near Nisqually Middle School.
▪ Pool and indoor playground.
▪ Next phase of work at Greg Cuoio Park.
▪ Meridian Park sports field development.
Top 5 replacement projects
▪ Huntamer Park playground equipment.
▪ Homann Park picnic area renovation.
▪ Wonderwood Park trails resurfacing.
▪ RAC infield turf replacement.
▪ RAC baseball complex playground equipment replacement.
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
