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As part of a January Gresham City Council listening session, HBA engaged with staff on the city’s future plans for parks maintenance. Currently, Gresham funds parks maintenance through its general fund and Police, Fire and Parks (PFP) fee. This year, City Council will consider three main proposals for funding parks maintenance. The first includes increasing the PFP fee from $7.50 per month where it has remained since 2012. A second option includes creating a new park utility fee that would fund park maintenance independent of police and fire. Finally, the City Council will consider the merits of creating a new park district that would use additional property taxes to fund both park maintenance and capital projects. A new parks district would require a territorial boundary and voter-approval, along with decisions on capital improvement funding and any associated impacts to parks system development charges (SDC). HBA will continue to advocate for a sustainable source of parks maintenance funding for any of Gresham’s park acquisitions and capital improvements, in order to ensure a managable capital improvement plan and accompanying SDC schedule. To learn more about HBA’s work in Gresham, contact Roseann Johnson at roseannj@hbapdx.org. Next Article Previous Article