Slab at Marymoor is all about money

For six weeks in the spring of 2006, the big sweep of pavement at the north edge of Marymoor Park thrummed with activity. Crowds streamed to the huge tent pitched on the site to watch the dazzling performances of Cirque du Soleil's celebrated troupe of acrobats and dancers.

But for almost every day since, the black pavement has sat empty and unused -- "5 acres of asphalt, in a park," as Greg Helland, president of the Friends of Marymoor Park, puts it. It can't even be used as a parking lot because its drainage system lacks the runoff treatment equipment required by environmental regulations.

In any case, the asphalt slab at Marymoor, built for $1.5 million, sits as a highly visible marker of the tensions that surround King County's efforts to raise money for parks through commercial tie-ins with private businesses.

County voters will be asked in the Tuesday primary to approve a six-year property tax of 5 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to pay most of the cost of operating and maintaining Marymoor and the county's 180 other parks and regional hiking trails (a separate 5-cent levy on the ballot would go to buy open space, improve trails in cities and aid Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle).

But a substantial and growing share of that operations and maintenance budget -- more than a fifth of the 2007 total of $23.1 million -- comes from Cirque du Soleil and other private companies who pay to stage productions in the parks, plaster them with advertising logos or sell bagels and sandwiches there.

The county poured the asphalt for Cirque du Soleil early last year after the traveling circus lost the use of its former regional site, a parking lot owned by The Boeing Co. in Renton. In return, Cirque du Soleil agreed to pay a total of $450,000 to mount its show on the pad twice in a five-year period. In addition, the county gets to keep the money it charged circusgoers for parking on the grounds.

The 2006 show was the first, and the county's take vastly exceeded expectations, parks officials say: $300,000 in gross revenue from parking (at $10 per car), which nets out to about $200,000 after allowing for the cost of staffing the lots. Cirque du Soleil was so happy with the arrangement that it plans to come back in 2008, a year earlier than it originally planned, and the county hopes to negotiate an extension of the contract.

"We're very excited about that," parks department enterprise manager Jessie Israel said.

The department also hopes to attract more paying customers to the pad. So far, Israel said, the county has collected about $50,000 from a dozen users of the pad, with half of that coming from a weeklong dog show and the rest from an arts fair, a hospital fundraiser, a bicycle club, skateboarders, basketball players and others.

Despite his somewhat disparaging reference to the slab, Helland thinks it and the other commercial ventures in the parks have demonstrated their worth.

"There are some that are very happy with the way things have worked out, and there are some that are still quite opposed to the overall concept," he said. "But in aggregate, I think for the most part that these enterprise activities have worked out reasonably well.

"It doesn't seem that there has been an inordinate impact on park users. It does seem as if it has certainly fulfilled the intent of using the existing parks facilities to help realize funds for maintenance."

Still, Helland, said, "it's kind of a fine line" -- the one between an acceptable level of business activity and too much. One idea that would be over that line, Helland said, would be selling the naming rights to Marymoor Park itself.

Michael Hobbs thinks the line has been crossed already: "I'm certainly in the camp that is disgruntled about the commercialization."

Hobbs is secretary of the Friends of Marymoor, a non-profit association of park neighbors and users, and he also served on the county-convened task force that recommended the levy proposals.

"They're letting someone like Cirque du Soleil pretty much dictate what they want to do," he said of the parks administration. "It feels to me like the park is pretty much for sale."

The 5 acres of asphalt cover what used to be soccer fields (although Israel said the county has installed artificial turf on other grass soccer fields at the park, allowing for a net increase in use).

"I'm not sure it's really a great use of 5 acres to have paved it," Hobbs said. "I think it really detracts from the park."

He's also concerned that Marymoor seems to be bearing the brunt of the largest enterprise initiatives, including the sale of the naming rights to the park's velodrome to Group Health and the leasing of land for summer music concerts.

But while there's been some grumbling among the Friends of Marymoor, he said, "there's also a fair amount of sort of reluctant acceptance that some things had to be done to keep the parks open."

It was a budget crisis in 2002 that got the parks into the levy business and also into the business business. Squeezed by a regional economic downturn and voter-approved initiatives limiting tax revenue growth, the county forcibly weaned the parks from reliance on general fund support (now less than 15 percent of the operating budget).

County parks in cities were offloaded to those cities. Some parks were closed in the winter, with permanent shutdowns threatened. The operating budget and work force were cut by a third each.

An earlier task force recommended a four-year, 4.9-cent levy proposal, which was approved by voters in 2003 and staved off some of the more extreme cutbacks. The task force plan, adopted by the County Council, also called for higher user fees and the development of moneymaking arrangements with corporations.

The proposed 5-cent operations levy, which would cost the owner of a $400,000 home $20 a year, would replace the expiring levy. Slightly larger than that levy and starting from a greater valuation base countywide, it is designed to restore maintenance to its higher, pre-2002 level.

The parks' capital revenues, used for equipment and buildings and planning-related projects, come from permanent taxes on real estate sales, and the department can rely on that money with more certainty (since the budget crisis, county accountants have required the parks department to certify the legitimacy of personnel and other expenses charged to capital accounts). That financial structure reinforces investing in capital projects such as the asphalt pad to generate operating revenue.

Still, Israel said, the parks department is sensitive to concerns about commercialization.

"Our goal is to keep parks open," she said, "but if we ever do anything to the parks in a way that goes against what our constituents and our park users want, we hear about that."

PAYING FOR PARKS

King County voters will be asked Tuesday to approve a six-year property tax of 5 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation to pay most of the cost of running the county's 180 parks and regional hiking trails. The owner of a $400,000 home would pay an additional $20 a year in property taxes.

The new levy would replace a tax that voters approved in 2003. That levy, which cost the owner of a $400,000 home $19.60 a year, is expiring.