Buena Vista is growing — and our community has been asking questions about what recreational opportunities we want to invest in together. This survey is part of that ongoing conversation.
Over the past few months, the Town has been gathering input from residents through local events, an open house, and an online survey. Here is a summary of what we've heard:
The Town and consultant team hosted a community open house on January 28th, 2026 to introduce the project and gather initial input from community members. Questions and prompts discussed at the in-person event were then formatted into an online survey to collect input from a broader population. Key takeaways from this initial round of engagement are listed below.
General Parks / Trails / Programming Themes:
- Connectivity is a top priority, particularly crossings, linkages, and regional connections.
- Indoor recreation and winter amenities as a key unmet need.
- River access and river-oriented spaces are central to community identity.
- There is a desire for programming that is inclusive, seasonal, and multi-generational.
- Managing growth and seasonal crowding is a key challenge.
- The community favors strategic, high-impact investments over incremental or delayed action.
- There is strong support for external and visitor-based funding sources, particularly grants, lodging taxes, and developer contributions.
Recreation Facility Themes:
- Strong interest in a recreation center exists, particularly if delivered incrementally or through partnerships.
- Indoor aquatics consistently ranked as the top desired amenity, followed by fitness and court space.
- Participants favor balanced funding approaches rather than single-source solutions.
- Willingness to pay appears substantial, particularly among likely users, with the strongest support for annual individual fees around $250–$400 per year and household funding levels generally clustering between approximately $200–$300 per year.
Before any new community facility or recreation center is considered, it’s important to understand that Buena Vista’s existing parks, trails, open spaces, and recreational programming already require sustained— and currently undedicated — funding to keep pace with community growth.
How Parks & Recreation is currently funded
The Town currently funds Parks & Recreation through the General Fund, which lacks a dedicated, stable source of revenue for parks, trails, and recreation services. Survey results from March 2025 found that only 42.6% of respondents were aware that the Parks & Recreation Department lacks sustainable and dedicated funding sources to maintain existing recreation facilities, programs, and trails. Nearly 4 in 10 residents had no idea this gap existed.
A recreation center is a separate, additional investment
Based on comparable communities, a 40,000–55,000-square-foot recreation and aquatic facility in Buena Vista would require annual operating budgets of $1.6M–$2.2M, and communities should anticipate subsidizing 20–40% of those costs beyond user-fee revenue. Construction costs for a facility of that size are projected to range from $18 million to $32 million in 2026 dollars, indicating the cost will likely increase each year due to inflation and other factors. Any funding mechanism for a recreation center must account for both the ongoing maintenance of the Town’s existing park system and the construction and operation of a new facility.
Several potential funding mechanisms are being explored. Each has different implications for who pays, how much, and how the facility would be maintained. A lodging tax ranked #1 in the March 2025 community survey; 76.7% of respondents supported forming a Special Recreation District in Northern Chaffee County. Click any option below to learn more.
A mill levy is a property tax increase approved by voters. One mill equals $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed property value. A mill levy dedicated to Parks & Recreation could fund both existing park maintenance and a new recreation center.
This approach is common in Colorado communities and provides a stable, predictable revenue stream. It requires a ballot measure and majority voter approval.
BV Applicability: Strong — $130.1M assessed base; predictable; progressive (scales with value). Survey support: Moderate (#4).
A Recreation District is an independent special district formed specifically to build and operate recreational facilities. It can levy its own taxes and issue bonds, independent of the Town’s General Fund.
Districts allow for broader geographic reach (serving areas outside Town limits), dedicated governance, and the ability to issue revenue bonds for capital construction.
BV Applicability: Strongest — extends beyond Town limits; own bond authority; progressive (county-wide equity). Survey support: High (76.7%, n=561).
A dedicated sales tax — requiring voter approval — can generate significant revenue without directly impacting property taxes. It distributes the cost more broadly across residents and visitors alike.
Sales tax revenue can fluctuate with economic conditions, but many Colorado towns use this approach successfully for parks and rec facilities.
BV Applicability: Moderate — seasonal retail base; regressive (burdens lower incomes). Survey support: Moderate (#3).
A lodging tax applies a percentage fee to overnight stays within Town limits — hotels, vacation rentals, and short-term rentals. Because Buena Vista attracts significant visitor traffic, a lodging tax distributes the cost of community facilities beyond just local residents and property owners.
A lodging tax is the community’s top-ranked preference and does not burden property owners. However, it can only support ongoing operations — not construction of a new facility.
BV Applicability: Good — tourism-driven; variable revenue; visitor-borne; reduces resident load. Survey support: High (#1).
A general obligation bond allows the Town to borrow a lump sum upfront to fund construction of a major facility — like a recreation center — and repay it over time through a dedicated property tax levy. Voters must approve both the bond and the repayment levy.
Because GO bonds are backed by the Town’s full taxing authority, they typically carry lower interest rates than other borrowing. The repayment levy automatically retires when the bond is paid off — typically over 15–25 years.
BV Applicability: Strong — standard for rec facilities; progressive (property tax backed). Survey support: Moderate (#2).
Note: the funding approach has not yet been determined. Your input through this survey will help guide that decision.
Buena Vista is actively working with the Boys & Girls Club to support the development of a facility in the community.
The Boys & Girls Club is a national nonprofit youth development organization that provides after-school programs, summer camps, mentoring, and life skills programming for young people ages 6–18. A local club would serve about 350 youth in Buena Vista and the surrounding area.
The Town is in active conversations with Boys & Girls Club of about funding and programming of a new facility in town. If developed, this facility would operate independently of the town, but would allow for shared use of certain amenities during specific times of day during the year, including gym space and a walking track.
The Boys & Girls Club and a potential recreation center are complementary but separate initiatives. While they could potentially coordinate programming, the rec center survey below focuses specifically on community-wide amenities and the public funding needed to support them.
Don’t know your assessed value? Use your market value as a rough guide — Colorado assessors typically value residential property near market rates. You can look up your assessed value at the Chaffee County Assessor’s office.
These scenarios reflect a Special Recreation District mill levy. A recreation district would be a separate taxing entity — meaning this cost would be in addition to your existing property tax bill, not a replacement of it. For this exercise, we are using the Buena Vista School District boundary to define the recreation district area.
▼ Click a scenario below to select the level of investment you would support
No new tax or Special Recreation District is formed. Parks & Recreation continues to be funded through the General Fund without a dedicated revenue source. No new recreation facility would be built.
Funds baseline parks, trails, and open space operations and improvements. Does not include a recreation facility. This scenario includes a dedicated funding source to maintain and upgrade existing amenities.
Funds a community recreation center with fitness, courts, programming, and multi-use space. Does not include a swimming pool or aquatic facility. This scenario includes cost of construction, operations, and maintenance of the recreation facility in addition to baseline funding for parks, trails, and open space operations and improvements.
Funds a full-featured recreation center including a swimming pool and aquatic programming. Indoor aquatics ranked as the top desired amenity in the January 2026 community survey. This scenario includes cost of construction, operations, and maintenance of the recreation facility in addition to baseline funding for parks, trails, and open space operations and improvements.
Estimates based on Colorado’s 6.765% residential assessment rate. All figures are planning-level estimates — actual costs will depend on final district boundaries, assessed value changes, facility design, bond structure, and user fee performance. A formal financial analysis is recommended before any ballot measure.
Since you’ve selected a scenario that includes a recreation facility, help us understand your priorities. Pick your top 3 amenities in order (1 being your highest priority) — beyond the standard Multipurpose Court, which is required for any rec center.
Selected: 0 of 3
Lodging tax was the #1 ranked funding preference in the March 2025 community survey. However, it cannot fully fund a recreation center — it can only support operations. For context, increasing Buena Vista’s lodging tax would generate the following:
A lodging tax increase could fund operations only — not construction. Building a recreation center would require a dedicated property tax mechanism such as a Special Recreation District mill levy, which residents would vote on. Note that the lodging tax is not automatically used for recreation.
Colorado State law sets out a multi-step process for forming a Special District. Here’s a high-level overview of what that looks like for a Recreation District:
Responses are collected for planning purposes only. Email addresses are stored separately and never shared.