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Artificial turf in exchange for open space funds?
Contributed by: Susan Williams on 4/13/2007

Editor's note: Here is an e-mail sent to Jefferson County Open Space by Susan Williams on April 2 regarding the plan to use open space funds to construct an artificial turf field at Lakewood High School:

I just read a legal notice from the City of Lakewood about what it is
going to do with $300,000 of open space funds and I'm really unhappy.

The money will go from Jeffco Open Space to the city of Lakewood who
will then disburse it to Jeffco R-1 to remove the grass and install
artificial turf at Lakewood High School. My objections are:

1. The use of open space monies for this project: LHS is not open space
nor even a park, and worse, they're removing real grass to put in some
plastic! This does not appear to be a legitimate open space project, as
it does not generally benefit the residents of Lakewood in their need
for open space. It benefits LHS in its need for artificial turf (they
already have the field).

2. The granting of open space monies from Jefferson County Open Space
to Jefferson County R-1 Schools: This is self-dealing, for the County to
give open space money to the City of Lakewood who then gives it to the county school district.

3. The lost opportunity of these monies: This is money for open space in Lakewood that was not selected (by Jeffco). My understanding is that Jefferson County Open Space (supervised by the Commissioners) is charged with evaluating requests for open space acquisitions and making the decision to favor the best application for a grant, presumably the one that most closely matches the purposes of the Open Space Program and is within budget. I find it hard to believe that this was the best anyone could do, and I consider it a failure of oversight. I ask that you please review this application, see if you consider it an appropriate use of these limited monies, and respond to me on that subject. I also ask that you have forwarded to me a list of the open space applications for open space acquisitions within the city of Lakewood. Thank you for your efforts.

S.P. Williams
Lakewood

Here is the response, dated April 8:

Dear Ms. Williams,

This letter is in response to your April 2, 2007 email to the Board of
County Commissioners regarding Open Space and City of Lakewood funds for
synthetic turf at Lakewood High School. Your original email can be
found at the end of this correspondence.

Jefferson County Open Space utilizes its sales tax funds for purposes
of acquisition of properties within the cities and the unincorporated
County, the establishment of trails thereon and for recreational capital
projects. The latter purpose primarily takes the form of our Joint
Venture Grant Program, where approximately $2 million in Open Space
funds are set aside each year as grants to cities and recreation
districts for priority projects, generally capital in nature. The grant
process is competitive and each entity that applies for the grant must
demonstrate a contribution toward the project where Joint Venture Funds
are requested. Some examples of Joint Venture projects where Open Space
funds were partnered with the City of Lakewood include Bear Creek Lake
Park, Fox Hollow Golf Course, O*Connell Community Site, improvements
at Addenbrooke, Lakewood Heritage Center, All Star Park, Whitlock Center
Hockey Rink, Simms Street Trail extension, Lakewood Park playground and
trail improvements. Many of these grants go toward ball fields,
recreation centers, swimming pools hard surface trails, etc.

Over the years, the need for recreation fields has outgrown the
existing number of soccer, football, lacrosse, baseball/softball fields
available. The school district*s natural turf fields take a beating
from use by school activities and to protect their fields R-1 has not
made these fields available for public recreation leagues. By
installing synthetic turf on these fields, overuse and the need for
recovery of the fields is virtually eliminated. More importantly, the
opportunity for public use of the fields is gained. A stipulation for
Open Space funds to be granted to these projects was the need for an
intergovernmental agreement providing public access to the fields
through the city rec programs. The City of Lakewood will be able to
schedule recreation activities on the high school fields during the
summer and weekends, times that the natural turf fields would have been
unused for their recovery. Thus the partnership with the City of
Lakewood and R-1 Schools results in the schools having durable sports
fields that don*t require water, mowing and higher levels of
maintenance and the city has access to durable sports fields for
programming of public recreation programs. The citizens reap the
greatest benefit for their tax dollar.

Yes, the field already exists. But as a natural turf field, it
requires care, watering, mowing and cannot be used if compromised by
weather. A synthetic turf field doesn*t have the same level of
maintenance*doesn*t require water, mowing, and when it rains/snows/or
bakes in the summer sun, the fields are still playable with little if
any down time.

This is a partnership with Lakewood and not self-dealing. R-1 funds
are property tax based, Open Space funds are sales tax based and
Lakewood assesses taxes through property and sales tax to fund their
projects. Each entity has their own separate system of establishing
priorities and authorizing expenditures. In this situation, tax payers
will realize more benefits for those tax dollars.

Lakewood voters recently supported a ballot issue that allowed the City
to retain sales tax revenues beyond TABOR limits to complete or initiate
projects with parks and open space purposes. These are sales taxes for
open space collected by Lakewood*as well as sales tax collected
throughout the County and are distributed to the cities (including
Lakewood) as their attributable share of the County tax. Lakewood
establishes their own list of priorities and through City Council
resolution. Not all, but some of those priorities are proposed to Open
Space to partner in the acquisition costs. These Lakewood/County
projects would utilize the Save Open Space bond funds that voters
supported in 1998 and the City of Lakewood would be responsible for a
match in funds as well as management and operations of the property
acquired.

Lakewood priority projects that have been accomplished in the last few
years include additions to the O*Kane, Two Creeks and Sunset Parks.
Currently approved for Open Space funding consideration are the Lombardi
property at Two Creeks and an addition to Lakewood Park. Two projects
brought forward by the City of Lakewood at the most recent Open Space
Advisory Committee public meeting on April 5, 2007 include two parcels
in the eastern portion of the city near Ray Ross Park, an area of the
city that does not have either the number or size of parks more common
throughout the remainder of Lakewood. The Advisory Committee will be
making a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners for due
diligence expenditures to move forward on acquiring these parcels.

In conclusion Ms. Williams, I agree, Lakewood High School is not Open
Space. However, in order to provide opportunities for the public to
recreate on durable playing fields through city recreation programs, the
contribution of Open Space funds meets the intent of the Open Space
authorizing resolution and its amendment in 1980 allowing for
expenditures for park and recreation capital improvements. There are
few locations that would allow new fields to be built including the
associated infrastructure such as parking, restrooms and spectator
areas. I would hope you agree that by utilizing existing
infrastructures and improving the fields for public use is a win, win.

Sincerely,

Thea Rock
Manager of Citizen Outreach
Jefferson County Open Space







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