Stillwater voters will consider sales tax for riverfront improvements

Stillwater voters this fall will be asked to support a local option sales tax of 0.5% for riverfront parks after the Stillwater City Council on Tuesday approved the measure.

The tax, which would add 50 cents to a $100 tab, would go into effect next year and raise $6.2 million within a decade to help pay for projects along the city’s riverfront, including riverbank stabilization, a parking lot, the renovation of the Aiple House, a new picnic shelter and turf, irrigation, historical signage and vegetative management.

The work comes as part of a sweeping redo that promises to remake the city’s connection to the St. Croix River in ways not seen since the creation of Lowell Park, the city’s main riverfront space, more than a century ago.

The sales tax would only cover about half of the hoped-for work. Much of the rest will be paid for with a $6 million grant awarded to the city in last year’s state bonding bill. The projects covered by the grant stretch along the city’s entire riverfront: on the north end, at Lumberjack Landing, it will pay for a kayak launch and trail, a picnic shelter, driveway reconstruction and a Brown’s Creek Trail connection. On the south end, at Bridgeview Park, it will pay for the rehab of the Shoddy Mill and Bergstein Warehouse, boat docks, a boat launch, a parking lot and vegetative management.

A $1.1 million private donation will cover some costs, and the city will pay $179,000 as well, according to city documents.

The Legislature in 2023 authorized the city to use a local option sales tax for the riverfront projects. The $6 million bonding grant came with the condition that the entire riverfront project has to be completed, according to city administrator Joe Kohlmann. The city was authorized to raise some $12.5 million over 20 years, but will only need to do about half that amount in half the time, Kohlmann told the City Council.

A 2023 University of Minnesota Extension study found that about 54% of revenue from a sales tax option would come from local residents and the rest from visitors. The study examined 11 cities that enacted a local sales tax option between 1999 and 2006 to see if the tax had an effect on consumer purchasing behavior; the study found no evidence that it did.