Walla Walla voters are considering a new property tax to fund the City’s Parks and Recreation Project in a special election on Feb. 10. The levy proposes a tax that would create a Metropolitan Parks District, or MPD, which would collect $0.75 per $1,000 of assessed property value to then fund nine projects for developing parks within city limits for the indefinite future. 

These projects include items like accessibility improvements in Pioneer Park, funding to reconstruct the Fort Walla Walla Amphitheater and a proposed seasonal ice rink located near Memorial Pool. 

Some residents view the ballot measure as an essential step toward granting Parks and Recreation reliable funding for future projects. Others hope to prioritize affordable housing and reviving the city’s economy before park development. 

Andy Coleman, the Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Walla Walla, is at the forefront of campaigning for the levy. As the Director of Parks and Recreation, Coleman has relied on the city’s General Fund to fund park development. An MPD would introduce a resource with no end date that would exclusively fund parks and recreation. 

“[An MPD] will provide dedicated funding for parks and recreation, which we currently don’t have. We’re part of the general fund — the general fund supports police, fire, the library, parks and recreation and other services, so as the general fund shrinks, oftentimes we have to too,” Coleman said. 

Coleman hopes that, by introducing an ongoing resource for developing park spaces, the city could both attract new residents and improve the quality of life for current Walla Walla citizens.  

“I hear from people, the residents who move here, they’re like ‘we moved here because of the parks,’ and that’s thanks to a great team of people that we have in the department plus support from City Council and the City Manager,” Coleman said.

Walla Walla City Council also expressed support for the MPD levy in a council meeting on Wednesday, January 28. While the council does not decide if the levy passes, they passed a resolution in support of an MPD as their official statement to Walla Walla voters, who will deliver the final decision to approve or deny the formation of a parks district. 

Rodney Outlaw, the sitting council member representing Walla Walla’s Central Ward, was the single dissenting vote amongst the council in their Wednesday Jan. 28 meeting. In the meeting, Outlaw expressed concerns for community members who enjoy the current park system and might be placed under financial strain with an additional property tax to fund an MPD. 

Outlaw shared his thoughts as a Walla Walla voter and community member in an interview with The Wire. 

“A large part of our community is [a] retired, fixed-income community, for one […] and on these fixed-incomes already, that’s pretty thin,” Outlaw said. “To ask for another $0.75 per $1,000 for a lot of families on fixed-income is a lot to ask.”

At the same time, Outlaw explained that he supports changes and improvements to the park system, but feels that the city and Walla Walla voters could prioritize other areas of community development before funding an MPD. 

“I think there’s a different way that this could be packaged,” Outlaw said. “I think it’s a great idea, but I think if we found a way where we actually have action towards attracting new industry […] and we have a grip on a plan of action for affordable housing starting in our community, then package the parks with that.”

Outlaw explained his concern that park development could forsake voters’ needs in order to fund other amenities in the city.   

“[Parks are] important. My family uses the parks all the time, and I love it; my kids, my wife, we love it. We walk through the park, we look at the Christmas decorations — it’s really cool. I love the parks, but I love our people too, right?” Outlaw said. 

Like Outlaw, the Chair of Citizens for Walla Walla Parks, Jim Wilson emphasized the current parks system as essential to families in Walla Walla. For Wilson, though, the nine projects outlined in the levy would create accessible spaces for generational use, which he believes is key to retaining residents who move to the valley. 

“I was the first in my family to move here, but my parents live in Wheatland Village, my dad just turned 90. Accessibility is an issue for them. For my wife and I, we just love doing things outside in Walla Walla,” Wilson said. “That idea of multigenerational access to the pools, sports facilities and performing arts centers — it’s something that matters.”

While Walla Walla already offers working parks and recreational facilities like those Wilson and his family use, he believes that the fundamental idea in founding an MPD is its use in opening up state-funded grants for the city to apply to in addition to supplying funds from the property tax proposed in the levy. 

“What’s really smart about an MPD is how […] it provides cities that have MPDs [with] state-level grants and bonds that the city alone couldn’t get. It could as much as double, or more, that amount of money that is being used and set aside to access matching funds in some cases,” Wilson said.

Parks funding will be determined by Walla Walla voters in the Feb. 10 special election. As residents consider their vote, they in turn decide the future of Walla Walla’s parks, considering resident retention and attraction as a crucial element in budgeting for city amenities.