Title
RESOLUTION OF INTENT FOR CITY SUPPORT OF THE ENVISIONED SPIRIT VALLEY CENTER FOR YOUTH AND COMMUNITY WELLNESS FOLLOWING A MODEL REPRESENTED BY PARTNERSHIPS WITH HARTLEY NATURE CENTER AND THE GARY NEW DULUTH DEVELOPMENT ALLIANCE.
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CITY PROPOSAL:
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Duluth city council hereby states its intent to support creation of the envisioned Spirit Valley Center for Youth and Community Wellness following a model represented by partnerships with Hartley Nature Center and the Gary New Duluth Development Alliance.
Statement of Purpose
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: This resolution expresses the City Council’s intent to support creation of the envisioned Spirit Valley Center for Youth and Community Wellness (hereafter, the Spirit Valley Center) following a model of city/nonprofit collaboration established by partnerships with Hartley Nature Center and the Gary New Duluth Development Alliance.
The Spirit Valley Center is envisioned as a privately run $15 million, 38,000 sf, multi-purpose community facility - sited at Memorial Park in west Duluth, abutting Laura McArthur Elementary School, in the heart of the Spirit Valley business district - that would house and provide an array of community services for west Duluth residents of every age. Envisioned services include daycare, school readiness, after-school and summer youth programming, senior recreational programming, nutrition, and health and wellness.
The City intends to support creation of the Spirit Valley Center following a model established with Hartley Center and the Gary New Duluth Development Alliance. Under this model, the nonprofit leader of the Spirit Valley Center would:
1. Hold a very long-term (up to 50-year) lease to locate and operate the Spirit Valley Center on a portion of the Memorial Park property to be agreed upon; and
2. Retain all responsibility to pay for all of the costs to construct, operate, and maintain the Spirit Valley Center and the programs and services housed there.
In the carefully structured Hartley/Gary New Duluth model, the City would:
1. Offer a very long-term lease to locate and operate the Spirit Valley Center at no cost to the nonprofit lease holder;
2. Retain ownership of the land and the building;
3. Oversee and manage facility design and construction.
4. Retain responsibility to pay for all of the costs to construct, operate, and maintain outdoor park facilities in the portions of Memorial Park that will not be absorbed by the Spirit Valley Center building.
5. Conduct a community-based public planning process, in partnership with the Spirit Valley Center leadership, to define how the entirety of what is now Memorial Park will be used, improved, maintained, and managed into the future.
6. Assist with solicitation and management of sizable state and federal grants where applicable.