The City of Chanhassen is dedicated to improving park facilities and enhancing the quality of life for the community. We are always looking for ways to add amenities to existing parks as well as building new ones as our city expands. Park projects are planned as opportunities present themselves. The two most common funding mechanisms are:

Park Dedication Fund

Chanhassen has a park dedication ordinance that recognizes the impacts that a growing city has on the parks and recreation system. The City seeks to ensure that areas are preserved for future parks and trails. It establishes a cash in-lieu of land fees where the dedication of land is not feasible or practical or will not create a site useable for park purposes. Fees collected are deposited into the City’s park and recreation development fund or its multipurpose trail fund and are used for the development of new or expanded facilities. Park dedication may not be used for maintenance or replacement of existing facilities. The City has and will continue to update its park dedication ordinance from time to time to reflect changes to Minnesota Statutes.

Park Replacement Fund

The City has been acquiring and constructing community and neighborhood parks for 50 years. In aggregate physical improvements within these parks including playgrounds, buildings, ballfields, fencing, structures, etc. total over $25,000,000 in accrued assets. The oldest equipment within our parks has reached an age and condition that replacement is required, because repairs are no longer cost effective. The Park Replacement Fund was initiated in 2019 in response to this need to start replacing park amenities that are no longer serviceable.  Funding has been established at $250,000 per year for this initiative.