City Council Presses Pause on $50M Community Center

The St. Louis Park city council is putting plans for a new $50 million community center on ice.

During a Monday work session, the council directed staff to come back in six months with more figures on fees and revenues and with a plan to build the community center in phases.

Steve Hallfin said that he and his fellow council members “still kind of had sticker shock” and that the council was waiting for resolution on expensive city projects such as Southwest light-rail and the Highway 7 and Louisiana Avenue interchange before committing itself to building a new community center.

“I think the uncertainty of how much money we might have to put into light-rail betterments was the driving factor” in the council’s hesitation to go forward with the project, Hallfin said. “We don’t want to scale back on the community center.”

In July, the council asked staff to examine a $45.3 million “Park View” option designed by the consulting firm, Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc. The Park View plan would give the community center scenic views of Wolfe Park. A large, three-story parking structure would be erected at the current location of the Rec Center parking lot.

Residents of a median-valued, $205,000 home would pay an estimated $81 to $134 over two years to fund the community center, an increase of 4.3 percent to 7.2 percent per year, according to a staff analysis.

In July, council members said they were hoping a community center would last for 50 years and asked staff for numbers about the expected tax impact of creating the center, which would cost almost $2 million a year to run.

Council member Susan Sanger argued in favor of moving forward immediately on the community center during the Monday work session, but most of the other council members agreed to place plans on hold.