University Place – The campaign for a University Place Metropolitan Park District has collected enough citizen signatures to qualify for the April ballot, the campaign announced Friday.
The measure’s success comes after a multi-month, volunteer-driven effort in the University Place community. Local residents organized the petition in response to announcements by University Place City Council last year that, due to city budget shortfalls, the City would be unable to sustain funding for the City’s Parks & Recreation programs. The elimination of all funding for recreation programs, will directly impact children programs, youth and adult sports, and senior programs.
“A big part of University Place’s appeal is that it’s a great place for everyone to live, from families to seniors,” said campaign Co-Chair Scott Traynor. “The University Place Metropolitan Park District will help ensure permanent, stable, dedicated funding for recreation services covering everything from our senior programs to the highly desired Camp UPlay for the kids.”
“We’ve had an incredible response from the University Place community,” Traynor added, noting that “the next step is to get the word to the voters.”
Metropolitan Park Districts (MPDs) are well-established in state law, with eighteen already existing statewide. The proposed University Place MPD is a fully independent body, overseen by five elected Commissioners from the University Place community, and directly accountable to voters. MPDs are capped at a maximum of only 75¢ per $1,000 assessed value. All funds raised by the University Place MPD would go exclusively to parks and recreation programs.
“Everyone in University Place wants stability for our recreation system,” said Traynor, “and we’ve excited to find a responsible, accountable, dedicated way of reaching that goal.” More information is available at UPMetroParks.org. The University Place Metropolitan Park District measure will be on the April 26th ballot.