As a part of the City of Rogers comprehensive plan, there is a proposal to add another athletic complex (South Community Park) to keep up with the projected growth of the city.  It would be a multi use complex (i.e. ball fields, soccer/ lacrosse fields, outdoor hockey rinks, etc.) and located adjacent to Rogers Elementary School.

Updated as of April 2018

The City of Rogers has updated their comprehensive plan by asking residents to help set the future vision for our community! 
 

As an active and growing community, the Rogers City Council, Park Board and City staff routinely hear from individuals and associations regarding their desire for expanded/new parks, trails and recreational facilities. In order to determine community opinions beyond those of vocal minorities/interest groups, the City undertook a statistically-valid, random-sample survey of residents (the “community survey”) in order to better gauge the true level of desire, willingness to pay and the specific types of facilities most and least desired by our residents. The results of that survey generally found that:

• No property tax increase for these purposes would find sufficient support at the polls, with 55% opposed.
• Sixty percent of likely voters would support a ¼ cent increase in the local sales tax for up to twenty years to fund construction.
• An indoor pool/aquatics facilities, community center and trail connections lead the list of projects for which respondents were most willing to raise taxes (i.e., higher or new taxes).

Projects Under Consideration

Based on the results of the community survey, and the City’s Park and Trail Master Plan, the Rogers Park Board has recommended a collection of improvements/facilities to the City Council for funding consideration, per the chart below:
 

The City Council then reviewed the Park Board’s list in light of the potential need to bond/borrow for such projects depending upon the desired timing of construction, and the need for additional revenue to retire any such debt (or an increase in current capital funding if a pay-as-you-go option were selected).
Based on the broad nature of the projects above and the need for additional partnerships for certain projects (e.g., School District or State of Minnesota funding), any proposed referendum/ballot question would likely be written to request authorization for the the tax to fund all or a portion of those projects – in other words, “up to” the entire list of projects, but possibly not all projects, pending availability of other funding sources, reasonable bid costs, etc.

Next Steps

Given the community survey results - which indicate that residents are not amenable to a property tax increase, but are potentially open to the concept of a sales tax increase under certain circumstances - the City Council has decided to further investigate the concept of posing the question of a sales tax to the voters via referendum at the November 6, 2018, general election. The City will be providing additional information in the coming weeks and months and will solicit feedback from residents and business representatives prior to deciding whether to ultimately place the issue on the 2018 ballot (the deadline to adopt a resolution placing the referendum question on the November ballot is July 24, 2018). But it should be noted that the City Council, as a body, and City staff will not be advocating for or against passage of any ballot question, but will simply provide information so that voters can make an informed choice.