IMPORTANT Member Communication!

USC Families, 

On Wednesday, May 18, 2016, 5:30 PM at Urbandale City Hall, the Urbandale Parks and Recreation Commission will consider lease proposals for the Urbandale Soccer Complex, fields at Walker Johnston Park - just west of the skate park (where our U6 teams currently play), and North Walnut Creek by the Urbandale Police Station.  There will only be enough time for a couple of people to represent the club at this meeting as stated by the Parks and Recreation Commission.  We wanted to share our proposal with you - see attached document.

We believe our proposal demonstrates Urbandale Soccer Club's ongoing commitment to being good stewards of the facilities we use, and in making long lasting investments in the City of Urbandale.  It also offers a compromise to eliminate competing demands for the same space with J-Hawk Soccer Club.

• Our proposal offers contributions of $80,000 over 10 years towards the parking lot improvements.  We felt this was reasonable as the parking lot largely benefits our membership who are, along with UGRA members, the primary users of the lot.  Without our contributions, the expense of the parking lot fall exclusively on the taxpayers within the City of Urbandale - many of whom may never utilize this space.  This dollar amount is also in keeping with recommendations made by the City of Urbandale, and the historical approach the city has used for the development of youth athletic complexes.  USC has been financially prepared to contribute, as the parking lot was being planned for years by the city, and will be able to do so without having to raise player registration fees.
• Our proposal also represents a reduction in field area available to USC as it excludes U6 field space currently available to USC at Walker Johnston Park, and moves U6 activities to the soccer complex.  This will be challenging for us, but we believe we can make it work even though the demand for USC’s programs has not decreased over the last 10 years.  Prior to the inception of the J-Hawk Soccer Club, roughly five to six years ago, USC had exclusive use of Urbandale Soccer Complex, Walker Johnston Park and North Walnut Creek.  Over the past few lease negotiations, we have continually lost field space.  Our proposal focuses on the property where we have made the greatest investment of club resources.

Unfortunately, this proposal is viewed as inadequate by J-Hawk Soccer Club.  J-Hawk Soccer Club not only wants exclusive use at Walker Johnston and North Walnut Creek, they have asked for exclusive use to one U12 field at the Urbandale Soccer Complex.  As part of this process, a lot of information is being shared - not all of which is accurate.  We wanted to clear up a few points:

• USC, and our select programs, have averaged 922 players over the last four fall season (covered under our existing lease agreement), not 630 players.
• JUSC is a not for profit activity, not a for profit enterprise.
• USC has a need for ALL the fields at the soccer complex.  Fewer games were played at the Urbandale Soccer Complex last fall due to arrangements made with partner clubs and league schedules in order to minimize use of the complex during the parking lot construction.
• There are options to expand field space at Walker Johnston Park which are not being pursued by J-Hawk Soccer Club.
• USC is making a reasonable investment into facilities we utilize - we don't expect to use city property without contributing towards its improvement.

If you have any questions regarding this proposal or the lease process with the city, please contact either Victor Fageroos, USC President, at victor.fageroos@urbandalesoccer.org or Scott Vander Hart, USC Vice President, at scott.vanderhart@urbandalesoccer.org.  Thank you for your support.

Urbandale Soccer Club

Board of Trustees

5-11-16 usc lease proposal.pdf