Town Lake is an economic engine for Tempe and the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area. There are costs associated with keeping this amenity running smoothly. Here is the list of expenses:

Town Lake Expenses Since Its Creation
This includes everything spent on the lake itself and the surrounding shore area by the City of Tempe since the lake was built. It also includes the engineering expenses for designing the lake and other pre-construction activities. Want details? Read

A Brief Explanation of the Community Facilities District
The City of Tempe created the Rio Salado Community Facilities District (CFD) in 1998. The CFD was created in order to have property owners within a close proximity of Tempe Town Lake (and benefit from it) help pay for the cost of construction and the annual operations & maintenance of the lake.

How is the assessment calculated?: The linear lake frontage of each land parcel in the CFD was measured, along with distance from the lake itself. The City then broke down this figure by ownership into the developable square footage of the parcel. Each parcel’s developable area was then divided by the entire CFD’s developable area to determine the percentage of the whole on a parcel-by-parcel basis. This percentage is then applied to the CFD budget to determine the assessment. Read More on the Town Lake Financial Plan page.

Community Facility District Operating Budget History
1998/99    1999/00    2000/01    2001/02    2002/03    
2003/04    2004/05    2005/06    2006/07
2007/08    2008/09    2009/10    2010/11    2011/12