Highland voters will decide in November whether they want a major expansion to the Lincoln Community Center and park.

Town Council members unanimously approved an ordinance Monday that would put to voters the question of incurring the debt to fund an approximately $15 million expansion and renovation of the Lincoln Community Center and park project, even though the town does not by statute have to pass the tax hike by referendum.

Mark Herak, council president, said officials want to let residents decide whether they want to see the community center, the park and its facilities expanded.

“We believe in transparency and openness. We want to let the people decide,” Herak said.

The ordinance calls for bonding for the project for up to a 22-year term at approximately $1.2 million a year. If approved in November, the referendum would mean about a $105 annual increase in property taxes for a home with an assessed value of $200,000, according to information provided by Alex Brown, parks superintendent.

Brown said the project would enable the park department to offer a variety of in-demand programming year-round. Plans call for building an approximately 50,000-square-foot indoor turf sports complex with about 32,000 square feet of turf. The turf field could be divided into as many as six soccer fields, depending on the age of participants and the size of the needed fields.

The space also will be used for other turf sports such as baseball and football.

In the summer months, plans call for covering the turf with a hardwood surface for volleyball and basketball.

“Nobody wants to play soccer inside in the summer,” Brown said.

The expansion is part of the long-range master plan for parks created in 2008. The construction of Lincoln Community Center followed in 2011. This sports complex is phase two of that master plan, Brown said.

If voters approve the referendum in November, Brown said the project will go to the architect and get underway. If everything goes smoothly, the project would break ground in September 2019, and construction would be completed by October 2020.

Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.