Council must reject Coppermine tennis facility
The County Council has an opportunity to show independence and leadership Monday by voting down Bill 73-21 and disapproving a lease with a private vendor, Coppermine LLC, for a tennis facility on property owned by the county in Millersville.
Coppermine is a private business that operates several sports facilities in the Baltimore area. In June, the county signed a lease with Coppermine to construct “part” of a tennis facility in Millersville, relying on the county to build the infrastructure for the facility and the outdoor courts. Coppermine’s “part” of the tennis facility is the indoor courts, and it will operate and maintain the whole facility.
I have noted before that a tennis center on land zoned as rural-agricultural is the antithesis of the smart-growth agenda promised by county executive Steuart Pittman. His administration has been unwilling to abandon this ill-conceived project, presumably because dropping the plan may require the county to repay the state $835,000 in Open Space funds used to develop plans for the facility.
There is, however, much more wrong with the proposed Coppermine facility than violating smart-growth principles and, by the way, violating the General Development Plan (GDP2040) passed by the County Council in May.
The cost to the county to subsidize a private business, which exceeds $7 million and will keep growing, is unacceptable.
The tennis facility was first proposed in 2012 by The Tennis Alliance of Anne Arundel County, a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation. After several years of trying, however, that group failed to demonstrate the wherewithal to develop the facility as a nonprofit.
So instead of abandoning the fiscally challenging facility, a private for-profit corporation, Coppermine, has replaced the nonprofit model. Under the Coppermine proposal, user fees from county residents are slated to pay principal plus interest on a $6 million loan, operating costs, maintenance costs, Coppermine’s profit and rent to the county.
Since the portion of the Coppermine proposal with the financial forecasts for user fees is redacted, the public is not allowed to scrutinize this important “detail” about projected income at the facility. Also unknown are projections for future county costs, including capital maintenance for “extreme wear and tear” during lease, required buyback at the end of the lease and “hidden” costs such as road modifications to correct traffic issues.
Before the lease is approved, the public and County Council need to review complete details of the project proposal, including the “proprietary financial forecasts” and likely future costs.
Furthermore, there is no pressing public need for more tennis facilities in Anne Arundel County. The 2017 County Parks and Recreation plan actually stated that there was a surplus of outdoor courts in the county. There are numerous outdoor courts with lights within 15 miles of Millersville.
In fact, Severn Valley Tennis and Fitness Club, a private facility under 2 miles from the Millersville site devoted mainly to indoor tennis, closed because it could not attract enough members. There is no reason to think this project will succeed where others have failed. What is different is that taxpayers are heavily invested in this project.
The County Council is our elected representative and the final fiscal authority for the county. As such, the council has the vote on the lease for Coppermine via Bill 73-21. Since the Coppermine proposal is redacted, citizens and council members literally have no idea what we are being asked to finance for the next 50 years.
The council should consider the many problems with the tennis center project and Coppermine arrangement, then exercise its fiscal authority to reject the lease.