Posted: 2/14/07
Final Draft - by Cliff Buchan
If arena-fieldhouse numbers work, do it
As the weeks, months, and years have clicked away, many in Forest Lake have longed for progress for a community center on the city site south of the local airport.
That prospect now appears to be close at hand. A proposal before the Forest Lake City Council could result in the ice arena and fieldhouse component of the community center coming to fruition. Local athletic boosters are teaming with the community center task force to push the proposal.
It is a proposal that will need the city council’s help in form of industrial revenue bonds to finance the construction of the facility that will contain two sheets of ice, one that is indoors and one that is a covered outdoor facility.
The city would also provide the land through 30-year ground lease for the six acres needed for the facility and parking lots. The city will also extend sewer, water, storm sewer and streets to the site.
For those of us who have followed this long and winding community center effort since the summer of 2001, some of the moves the city is being asked to make are in contrast to how the project was perceived in the early days. In a perfect world, the city would plan, design, fund and build the entire complex.
But this is not a perfect world and those early days have come and gone. In more than five years of planning, ground is yet to be broken on any aspects of the city community center.
Positive steps have been taken, to be sure. Washington County is rapidly moving forward with its government services annex and public library on land adjacent to the community center site that the county purchased from the city.
Pratt Development has purchased land for the first phase of its Headwaters housing/commercial project within the area.
All are key moves, but the progress on the city community center has been slow. Finding ways to fully pay for the complex have been the major challenge. Short of a major bond issue to the residents of Forest Lake, the financial wherewithal has not been adequate to get the job done. That is not to say the financial sock is empty as the Pratt and county land deals have cash positives.
When the real estate market turns positive and housing starts increase, there will be more parkland dedication fees available for the community center project.
The proposal from the Forest Lake Area Athletic Association and the Forest Lake Hockey Association with the endorsement and support of the community center task force is a way to get the first “community” segment in the ground.
The business plan presented to the council last week is evidence that the bonds and operation costs can be more than covered by the revenues generated from the arena operation. If the city can be assured that the numbers are solid, the plan should be allowed to move forward.
With a ground lease, the city is not parting with the property. It can also be argued that the infrastructure that the arena site will need is a project cost the city would have undertaken in any community center effort.
A preliminary legal counsel and city staff review of the industrial revenue bonds indicates no risk to the city. The city would simply serve as a pass through for the bonds to provide the bank financing for the project.
In the years since the community center planning commenced, numerous plans and ideas have come and gone. The plan before the city council at this time has promise and deserves serious consideration.
This is the start that the public has longed to see for a number of years. It establishes a key component of the community center complex and significantly lowers the overall cost of the project.
Moving ahead with this component will leverage the city and the community center task force to prepare the next phase of the project. There is still much to do.
The proposal is a positive but it is not an end-all to the quest for a community center. It would only seem logical that at some point soon voters in Forest Lake will have to be asked how much they are willing to spend to provide a community center that is certainly needed.
That will be the true test of this community’s desire to shine or stand in the shadows like other second-rate communities.
Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605