This is what Friends had to say about the proposal to expand the Civic Center by tapping the Vision Fund, also known as the 2012 Vision Fund. You can read what others had to say in this coverage of the City Council deliberations.
Dear Mayor Kooiker:
We would like to take this opportunity to provide views on the proposed expansion of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center and the process by which the council will review and deliberate on this major proposal.
Insofar as the proposed expansion remains within the footprint of the existing Civic Center and adjacent parking lots, it does not have any direct impact on the greenway and would therefore not be of concern to Friends of Rapid City Parks.
However, because the proposal makes a substantial demand on the Vision fund, it has indirect effects on the greenway and our park system through decisions of how the city will allocate its Vision resources. An example of a park project that has gone through the Vision vetting process and remains on the table is completion of the master plan for the greenway tracts with improvements to the 10.3 acres at West Memorial Park. This proposed project would improve water quality, manage stormwater runoff, and improve safety as well as beautifying one of the major entrances to Rapid City. It is illustrative of the many beneficial proposals that compete for the Vision funds.
The successful track record of the Vision Fund has been its painstaking, inclusive, and citizen-driven process. Your administration has stated its commitment to transparency. The presentations on the Civic Center expansion proposal are impressive, but transparency requires not only excellent production values, but time to access, view, digest, analyze and participate.
Given the magnitude of the Civic Center expansion proposal, the time scale of its impact on the Vision Fund, and the extent to which it will tap Rapid City’s fiscal resources, we encourage you and the council to give the proposal a concomitant amount of consideration and deliberation.
Most importantly, we ask that you give members of the community time to catch up with the process. That may mean leaving the decision to the community at large, in a vote to decide how they want to allocate their tax dollars.
Sincerely,
Steve McCarthy
President