Prosper Town Council rejected a plan for a 7-acre neighborhood park in Creekside, a future single-family residential development on the east side of Legacy Drive and south of Frontier Parkway.
Council rejected the agreement at a Jan. 13 meeting. The project would have added a concrete trail, irrigation system, sod and trees, and the town of Prosper would have reimbursed a portion of the costs.
The discussion
Council members were hesitant to spend public money on a park that would only benefit a small number of Prosper residents, especially after voters rejected a proposition to spend $24 million on parks and recreation in a bond election last November.
“We have to think differently on how we spend our park funds today because we don’t have the money because the bond didn’t pass,” council member Cameron Reeves said.
The details
Funding would have come from three places:
- $286,500 in park improvement fees paid by the developer
- $250,000 of additional funds committed by the developer
- $173,500 from the town of Prosper
Developers in Prosper have to pay park improvement fees for residential developments. Under the proposed agreement, those fees would have gone toward the neighborhood park instead of being used for a park somewhere else in Prosper.
In exchange for the additional $250,000 contribution, the developer also wanted naming rights to the park, which would have been named after his family.
The town ordinance requires anyone seeking naming rights to contribute at least 50% of the cost to the park.
Next steps
After rejecting most of the proposed agreement, Town Council offered the developer a $45,000 credit towards the park improvement fees in exchange for widening the existing trail along Legacy Drive.
Council will vote on the reduced version of the agreement at a future meeting.
