City Council - Regular Meeting

Call public meeting to order. 6 p.m. Even though the clock says five back there, the city of Belton will hold a public hearing on proposed annual budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1st, 2026 and ending March 31st, 2027. Are you going to say anything? If anybody wishes to speak on or about the budget, come to the microphone, state your name and address, and speak your piece. Not you. Sorry.

No, I didn't. So I guess he can speak on it. Again, I will ask if anybody wants to speak on or about proposed annual budget for fiscal year beginning April 1st, 2026 and Mar ending March 31st, 2027. Come to the microphone and speak your piece. Hearing none, I will close the public hearing. Return the public hearing. Call meeting to order. Pledge of allegiance. Council member Macauen.

I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Roll call, please. Mayor Larkkey here. Council member White here. Council member Thompson here. Council member Davidson here. Council member Bryan here. Council member Lawson here. Council member Richardson here. Council member McCllum here. Council member Johnson here. We have a quorum. No personal appearances. Presentation number one, Dr. Andrew Underwood, Belton School District Superintendent. That should be on.

We'll give it a test here. Yep. You raise it up. Yeah, there you go. Sounds like it. Thank you very much, professional,

Mayor Larky, and city council for allowing me a little bit of time. I wanted to talk about a bond issue the school district has uh on the ballot for April 7th. Uh we always feel like we need to obviously share information in regards to what our projects are, what our plans are. Um, not everybody may agree, but at the end of the day, we want people to be informed voters so when they do show up to the ballot box, they know what they are voting on. And so sometimes, as our joke is, yes isn't always yes. No isn't always no. But in this case, uh, we're talking about some renovations, uh, some upgrades. I'm going to cover those and then if you all have any questions, I'm going to honor your five minutes as I'm down to four minutes and 20 seconds already. And, uh, make sure I cover information. We do have a few flyers. If there's anyone in the crowd that has not received one, be happy to share that. Before I get started, I would also like to point out that you can still register to vote if you know someone that's moved into the Belton School District uh until actually tomorrow, March 11th is the deadline, but you can register uh to vote until then. And then I believe um uh early voting can occur as far as no excuse or no reason as far as uh the 24th of March. So uh and the big day will be then April 7th. So, coming soon, uh, first and foremost, I really just want to hit what we're calling our four pillars. Uh, in regards to this, this is a $58 million. Uh, it is no increase to our le our current levy. So, the levy would remain the same. Uh, some ask why and how. We extend out the life of debt. Uh, my example would be if you have a 15-year mortgage on your home, maybe we're extending that out to 25 or 30 years. Uh, but your payment stays the same. And so, our levy will remain the same. Uh, that has to be voter approved. Obviously, that's why we take it to the ballot box. And so, the items uh that we're going to talk about, we hope to cover uh in regards to this bond issue. Uh first and foremost, we're going to start with our little folks and then we're going to move from there. Uh in our elementary buildings, uh we've got a lot of traditional settings. We're

looking at more collaborative hands-on experiences for our young learners. We feel like that's more the environment. We feel that our uh younger kids uh maybe in 2026 and beyond is a little different learning style than what uh you or I might have experienced uh as a youthful age. And so we're looking to change uh to more of a flexible seating uh opportunities and options. If I had my way about it, we'd get rid of every chair desk that we have in the school district. We may not be able to do that, but we do want to create some flexible learning spaces uh for our kids uh in each of our classrooms at the elementary level. Secondly, we're going to talk a little bit about some of the past. Most of you guys know about Yokum uh was a middle school at one time. We have uh changed that more to a career teched center, but we're only using about a quarter of the building right now. We have engineering, we have robotics, we have our wood shops, uh we have our our medical biomedical sciences in that building currently. If you've seen part of the B building that we've renovated, we've tried to turn it into more of a lab setting uh where people can see in, teachers can utilize multiple spaces at the same time uh for some hands-on experential learning for our students. And so we'd like to do that for the entire building. some of the projects uh that we are looking at. Uh we had a metal shop at one time on the hill over at the old high school. The equipment became dated. We got rid of that uh in some part due to safety concerns and so we'd like to bring a metal shop back uh for our students. Also, we've talked about cosmetology as an opportunity for our students. We think that'd be a great experience. Uh and that's not just makeup, you know, haircuts, you name it, the whole nine yards. And so we think those are great options and opportunities uh for our students as well. We've talked about some other training uh when it comes back to the uh skills and trades as far as HVAC. So heating and air could be an opportunity as well we look at. And then last but not least, some entrepreneurial experiences for our kids, some of the ideas that they have that they want to

create some learning or hands-on experiences for themselves in those spaces. So, uh, really kind of turning, uh, Yokum into more of like a vocational center, uh, but it's still about a career teched, uh, type focus. Uh, we'll throw in a little technology there as well as we still feel like we need some skills and need some trades, but we also need to, uh, watch for technology as well. Uh, a few other things real quick. Uh, early education expansion. Uh, we have a great early childhood program uh, at Grace, but we need to expand that. We can serve 250 kids in that program. We have almost 200 to 400 depending on the year that are on a waiting list. And so we know that we need to expand that. We are looking at either renovating and or obtaining additional facilities to provide at least up to another 150 spaces for young learners, which is our birth of 5 years old. Uh lastly, uh maybe uh well actually two things. One, the not fun stuff. We've got some mechanical needs. We've got some uh uh plumbing, other things that people can't see to the eye, but are necessary as far as just bathrooms, uh hot water heaters, uh pipe plumbing, you name it. Um some rooftop repairs. We've done a lot of work on roofs. Uh but we always seem to find more leaks and other things as we become let a house sit for two years and see what happens. U we utilize our facilities. Some of our facilities are older and so they're always going to have needs and we have some needs there as well. Uh the last thing I want to point out is we also want some innovation uh for some of our learners as well. Our mindset has been this is K through 12. I've talked about uh actually before with preK talked about our elementary uh talked about high school but also our middle school. We're looking at adding a possible multi-use space. We want to add a drone program for our middle school students and then grow that into the high school. We think that innovation and technology, you guys have heard about Amazon uh drones and

delivery. uh where are we in five years, where are we in 10 years? And so we want to train our kids up and have those type of experiences. And then we've also talked about having a a similar type space at the high school. We want to expand and have JOTC. Belt needs to have JOTC because former air base got a lot of retired military, very proud uh retired military and if anybody should have that, we should have that. We have not, but we are working on that. So, we want those spaces and those spaces can be utilized for uh as far as a multi-use in regards whether it's band, whether it's JOTC, whether it's Special Olympics. Uh we can do all kinds of activities, athletics, the whole nine yards. Last but not least, football. A few people know about that. We got this guy that, you know, is pretty good quarterback for the Chiefs and uh we got an MVP that we signed yesterday. If you guys hadn't watched the news, uh super excited about that. We need a running back. Nonetheless, um our turf is 16 years old. Average life for a turf field is about seven to 10. Uh we have done a great job of taking care of it. Kudos to our grounds uh and our maintenance people for doing a great job with that, but there's a life and we need to address that as well. Not everybody likes uh athletics, but we do have to spend some money on that. And we're looking at the possibility of some turf with our softball and baseball fields as well, so we can get more use out of them. Uh if you guys have any questions, I'm pass my five minutes. I apologize. I'd like to thank uh Dave Daniels, Mary Cummings, a couple of our board members for being here tonight. And last but not least, Rebecca Haynes, our public relations person. She has put together a magazine with our students. It's going to hit everyone's mailbox here in about two weeks. It's going to touch all our buildings, but it's also going to talk about the bond and she put this flyer together as well. So, Rebecca, thank you for that.

Any questions for Dr. Underwood? I will add, switching my mayor hat off and put my schoolboard hat on. I will add that uh why we can do this with no levy increases that we've been fiscally responsible on the board to pay our debt down early and as soon as we can. So, so that's another reason why we can do that. Absolutely. Uh that's been one of the focus of the board is that they want to pay down debt. We've uh actually paid down a little over 2 million uh principal just last year alone. So, we're not only making our payments, we're uh actually trying to pay down more. Uh and so it does create space for us to do these type of projects and our kids deserve it. Go ahead. So you're moving more towards a pseudo STEM focus.

You know, we uh you know, there's a balance. Uh we believe in technology and believe our students need to utilize it. Uh but there also needs to be the hands-on experiences, the skills. Uh you know, a lot of people are talking about AI, but we need welders. We need people that are skilled in trades. Um, you know, we've got a group that's working culinary arts as well. So, there's a lot of skills and hands-on opportunities. Uh, some people joke that welders may be the next uh millionaires. Who knows? And so, uh, those people are needed. We want to train our kids up and what they're interested in, but we need to provide those different opportunities for them. Uh, we're also looking at some of the creative experiences for our elementary kids as well. We've talked about doing a farm school. We've talked about we have the steam school already. uh we're talking about some computer science experiences uh as well for our kids. Once again, just trying to get hands-on experiences for them. It's not just about reading and writing and math. We also think there are skills and exposing them to different types of trades. So many times kids do what their parents, family or friends do. Uh and so we just repeat that cycle. There are other things that you can do and you have skills to. Not saying that if my dad's a doctor or my dad's a dentist or my dad is a carpenter that I shouldn't do that, but we want to give them different opportunities, exposure so if they are interested in something different, they can give it a test drive in high school and not have to spend four years in college trying to figure it out.

Anybody else? Thank you. Thank you guys very much. Item H, unfinished business. One, motion approving final reading of bill 2026-03, an ordinance approving the Belton, Missouri Police Department Municipal Jail 2026 housing contract for inmates of the Raymore, Missouri Police Department. Present. Second. A motion is second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Roll call. Council member Lawson. Hi. Johnson. I. White. I. Richardson. Hi. Davidson, yes. Bryan, I McCllum. Hi. Mayor Larkkey. Hi. Thompson.

Yes. Motion passes. Item two, motion to reconsider resolution 2026-023. A resolution approving a memorandum of understanding between the city of Belton, Missouri, and downtown Belton Main Street, Inc. for a 2026 sync with the Mayo event. Present. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the motion to reconsider? Go ahead. For the record, due to a potential conflict of interest, I will recuse myself from discussion and abstain from voting on this item. Any other discussion on the Go ahead. Sorry.

Yeah. Um, I requested this come back to us and I'll apologize. Last time we discussed it, I was sort of thrown off by the direction the conversation went in. um and somewhat appears to be a change of heart that we've had about these kind of events. So, I went back and I revisited November 10th meeting of 2025 where we got into the nitty-gritty of parade routes and street closures. And in reviewing that meeting, it was very clear that we were discussing parade route changes and costs for parades. Now, this event that we discussed last night, I'm going to stop you. This wait this is just the motion to reconsider and then we'll read the motion then you can continue. Okay.

Okay. Anybody else on the motion to reconsider? Hearing none. Roll call, please. Council member McCllum. I. Johnson. No. Lawson. I. Richardson. I'm sorry. Davidson. Yes. Brian. I. Thompson. Yes. White. I. Mayor Larkkey. I. Motion passes. Motion to reapprove R26-023 as reconsidered. Present. Second. Motion in a second. Now continue. Okay. Sorry.

The point I was getting to, thank you, mayor. Um, is that in November when we agreed to a schedule of fees, we were strictly talking about parades and we clarified that multiple times in the meeting. When the Cinco the Cinco de Mayoou came up last time, like I said, I was very thrown by the direction the conversation had gone and so I didn't clearly state my intention that the city also sponsor the Sino event to address some of the questions we had at the last meeting. No, DBMSI does not make any money on the Sinko event. In fact, they budgeted $7,000 in January before they were aware that a schedule of fees had been attached to street closure eventus. Okay. So, if we, you know, I can stop there and we can discuss if we want to support this event or not. I can go deeper into what I revisited in the January or I'm sorry, the November and December meetings. But to me, my takeaway was it was very clear this council intended to continue to support existing events, street closures, parades, whatever it may be with city support. These are not things that we have charged for in the past. So when DBMSI submitted theirou for this event, it had a new schedule of fees attached and we did not give them a heads up on that and I'll apologize that I didn't continue the conversation last meeting to say, "Hey, we need to do this for Cinco 2." Um, but I would like to do that and I will also acknowledge that even if we agree to wave the fees and sponsor this event, their board had already budgeted the money, right? And so then they had to go back and redesign the event and they may potentially move it off of Main Street proper, cancel the street closure, scale down the event, and hold it at Powell Park. And I don't think anybody wants that. Nobody wants to see the event be scaled down. This is the fourth year this event's going to go on. Um, and they've been really uh amendable to the coalition, which has an event the day before on Saturday, and they said, "Well, could we also close the street and have the event Saturday?" And they were told, "No, one event per day." So they moved it to Sunday. I would consider that collaborating and working alongside them.

Well, that's not I'm sorry. I don't mean to interrupt you, Councilman Person, but that is not accurate. What was asked was if we could work together to have it on Saturday and I responded, "Yes, we would like to do that, but my understanding was that DBMSI had already booked the bands for Sunday." So, there was no collaboration. Well, the offer to collaborate was there and from what I understand, there was a delay in a response from the coalition. I don't really want to get into that. If we don't need to, but if you want to, we can. It was a day delay because I don't check my email at night.

Gotcha. If if you say so. Um I've got a different timeline and that's kind of the pain point for all of this is that we've got some conflicts, interpersonal conflicts that are getting in the way of community events, established community events going off with the same level of support the city's always had. What's changed?

Go ahead. I didn't know you stopped there. Go ahead. Um, I just want to repeat kind of what I said last time. For the most part, I agree with what you were saying there, um, Council Member Lawson, and that we should, um, support community strength, you know, things that support our community is something that our tax dollars are intended for, right? Um, and this particular event, similar to the car show, I see it as a potential. I understand it doesn't currently make money, uh, as is described. uh but is a potential for that, right? And I would love to see that change. I'd love to see this grow into something a lot bigger. I mean, I'd love to see more uh venues like that, more events, festivals, all that kind of stuff. I'd love to see that. So, I think we're in our infancy still at this point uh in terms of festivals and events that we have in the town. So, I would support us continuing to support them uh until we get to a point that's a little larger. Um so, that's what I'm going to say. I I agree with you on that point, but I still think it's important that we look at, you know, um, again, it could be anybody could come in, any entity, whether it's DBMSI or anybody could come in to try to make a profit off of festivals, which is again encouraged. I think it's potentially good for the community, but we need to make sure we're careful about how we are um, paying using tax dollars to prop up those, you know, entities.

Go ahead. I wouldn't disagree with that and I made the same remarks last time that if it was a proposed commercial event and it comes to this board, we would have to look very closely. Um, it is about a if they have to pay the city, they're going to lose $10,000 total on this event. Right now, they've already budgeted 7,000 out of pocket. And if you're not familiar with DBMSI's funding source, it was the DMV, the license office, which was reassigned. So, this group that has given 40,000 plus already this year to community um nonprofits like the Educational Foundation, like the Cass County Dental Clinic, um BCPI, they're pouring money into the community and now the city's going, "Hey, let's also get our cut of it when we've never charged them before." And again, we did not give them a heads up that a schedule of fees was being added to theou. And to your point that they are a nonprofit that potentially could make money on event, potentially they could, but we have a right to say, "Hey, as a registered nonprofit, we're interested in your books. Is this a good investment for us or are you guys making money off it?" And they would have to answer to that. And I think it's fair to give them a heads up to say, "Hey, we'd like to know if our investment in your events is paying off." I think it's apparent obviously that this is a free event. It doesn't cost anything for people to go and participate. Why would we want to stifle that? I I just think the framing there is a little off though because to say we're asking for a cut is not what's going on here. We're we're we're doing the opposite. We're saying this costs us money and we're trying to do what's best with the tax dollars. Right. So I I don't disagree with the majority of what you're saying there, but I think the framing is important.

I have some questions about the fees. Um I understand the police officer's time could be anywhere from $50 to $80 an hour. I have some questions about public works charging $530 to set out barriers for events. And I've also advocated before that we find some space on Main Street to store the barriers and then when approved street closures happen. It's not going to take three guys driving around in a truck to get them out. We can place them out. I mean, there's ways to do this more efficiently. We don't have a bunch of nonprofits flush with cash despite what people think. And we have a right to ask about the books with events. I'm just saying we and I'll take the ownership for this. This last time we discussed it. I didn't stick to what we had promised them when we discussed it in November that we were going to continue to support events as we had been. And so I just want to fix that tonight. Look, I again, I just wanted to make it clear that I'm in favor of us supporting this, but primarily from a standpoint of we're in the infancy here, and we want to encourage more of this at this point because again, it does bring economic um potentials as well as, you know, strengthening community. So,

and I I just want to say that I support them taking on the the cruise nights. I think that's terrific that they're doing that. And I support doing Cinco de Mayo. I think that's an important festival. Are you stating that we did not give them theou prior to the no council meeting?

Nope. They they submitted theou prior to the council meeting. What was new with theou is a schedule of fees that was based on our discussion about parade fees and parade routes from November. I don't know how it got changed that street closure events now had anou with the schedule of fees, but that was new. That's not how they've submitted street closures in the past. And they and they did it straight up. They said, "Okay, this is the form. I'm going to fill out theou. going to tally up what the new schedule of fees indicates this is going to cost. Wow, this event's going to add 2,400 bucks now. Their budget was approved in January. Like, we didn't handle this, right? Is what I think. Okay, that's that's your argu and and I and I qu Why didn't they come tonight to ask for this themselves?

Well, I went to fact check with them. I I asked them, hey, how much did you budget? When did you approve your budget? When did you know there was a schedule of fees? um you know, if you would prefer to speak to a DBMSI rep, we can make that happen. But I felt comfortable bringing it back. I chose to bring it back. They didn't reapply. I said we goofed up and I wanted to fix that. Okay. Well, and they didn't ask for it initially at the previous council meeting either, did they? That was you. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So, on that note, I I guess I'm Did you get approached by Dside to make that request or Okay. No, I no, I was again confused by the direction and the tone the conversation took and it got approved as is with theou and the schedule of fees and I thought that's I don't know that we wanted that. I think as a group if we revisit this we would have made a different choice but it took a turn. Let me just clarify even initially not I understand not tonight whatever but initially our initial conversation was did I guess where did you did you come up with that on your by yourself or did DBMSI make that request from

Yeah it's the same request I made when the Eagles took over the car shows to not have them pay thousands of dollars to continue a volunteer-run community event that they spend money and time on. It's the same presentation I would have made for them and did. Okay. Yeah. Anybody else? Go ahead.

Um, I also want to say, um, I've attended the festival the last few years and the shops that stay open, it does bring businesses to the shops. They do. It does a good community. I mean, there's people. It's It's just a good thing to have. It builds community spirit. Um, yeah. Uh just sorry just wanted to jump in just so everybody on the council is clear we are in the portion where you are reconsidering the resolution as it was drafted. So if there is a desired change then the same motion that was made previously at the past meeting regarding amendment to exhibit B of theou would need to be made. I do believe Andrea came prepared this time with that written out for everyone.

Go ahead. I I I I just want to backpedal a minute. Uh I'm sorry I call you Al Allison. I never remember to call you Councilwoman Lawson. So, um and I want to hear what you said and I and I am all about festivals downtown and I'm all about festivals between downtown and the train. I'm I'm about festivals because we've got to have people here to to drive more business here. But did I hear you say that if we impose this then they're going to take their party elsewhere this year? Is that what is that what you said?

Yeah. Based on the last meeting, they as a board met and said, "Hey, we don't have an extra 2400 bucks budgeted for this. What are we going to do?" And so they amended their plans to have it at Powell Park and not close the streets, scale back the food trucks and the offerings. Um, they made that decision on their own. I asked to bring this back tonight of my own accord and for us to reconsider what our intent was when we discussed the schedule of fees for parades versus how it got applied to this street closure event. Okay. Well, I guess I guess I don't like the ultimatum much.

Well, hold on. May I No, no, just just hear me out. Um I there none of their representatives are here and Allison, just like you heard wrong about emails and stuff. I mean, we're kind of hearing this third party and you know, I don't I don't want it to even sound like, you know, either you do this or we go home and and I'm going to give you time to clarify it, but that's what I heard. So, I would like you to clarify it. I think that ties back to some interpersonal conflicts that you hear that as an ultimatum when really it is a nonprofit board being responsible to their budget and amending amending their event plans to move it again still on Main Street but at Powell Park where it doesn't require street closure and barricades and police time. All right.

Uh I did not hear that as an ultimatum. I thought gosh that sucks that we weren't on top of it enough to have the full conversation and make the vote that makes the most sense for residents. So, I would like to bring it back up and if we vote to amend it, as I'll read in a moment, like Patrick suggested, I think the event can carry on as it was, maybe it won't. We didn't do them a service by telling them about theou schedule of fees or that, hey, even though we said we intend to support existing Main Street events, we're going to just not support Sinko. Somehow that fell through the cracks. That's that's the appearance we've given and I want to correct that. Okay.

Go ahead. And just for clarification, Allison, are you stating that DBMSI does not have the funds available to pay the fees or is it just strictly their budget for this particular event? I mean, I can't speak to their finances. They are a registered nonprofit and we could look at their books. Um, I think the community impression is that they have money to do these things, but also they've lost their income source. So, I don't feel comfortable saying, "Hey, let's chip away at the remaining amount that they put towards events so that the city can recover costs for setting up barricades." And I understand what you're saying. I just I think we should have more information from them at this point in time. And they're not here to answer that with regard to their financial situation.

What I'm afraid of is that sounds like means means testing nonprofits to see if they get support or not. And with you on the board of a nonprofit that doesn't isn't flush with cash. Does that mean every time the coalition wants to do something, the city's going to have to sponsor it because you guys don't have a bunch of money for events? Well, actually, I don't think the coalition is ever going to ask the city for assistance in sponsoring an event. Okay. I mean, we paid the incorporation fee for you guys. No, you did not pay the incorporation fee. You paid money for the empowerment grant from Missouri Main Street. That's what the city paid. $13,000. Yes, it was.

Okay. But we're talking about festivals. This was to start an organization that my understand was to help benefit the city by really actually working towards re-imagining and revitalizing Main Street. I appreciate every Let me just be clear. I appreciate everything that DBMSI does. I think it's terrific the donations that they make to all of the organizations that they make. I have absolutely no problem with that. What we're talking about here is taxpayer dollars for an event and it's apples to oranges as far as I'm concerned with talking about the empowerment grant and what we're talking about here. Okay. Anybody else? Go ahead.

Um, wow. Did we open up a bucket of worms trying to keep taxpayer dollars, you know, where they belong. Um, I think we had a good intention and it kind of got out of hand and and I totally agree with Councilman Macllum. I'm I'm going to vote yes for this for the change. Um, if it's presented, I won't do that. Okay. Uh, and uh, sorry that was not a dig at you.

Um, but I I think he's on point here. I think for all people thinking about doing this, we're going to need some kind of financials of what you think it's going to cost, what you're going to charge, and what if there is a potential where people are going to start making money, then be prepared for us to say no when you ask for these fees to be waved in the future. That's all I think, council member. That's my stance on it anyway, and I don't disagree with you. So, I'm all right with this one. That's it. Anybody else? didn't mean to read. Go ahead. Uh so then I would make a motion to amend the resolution to remove the costs associated as reconsidered.

Okay. I would make a motion to amend the resolution as reconsidered to remove the costs associated with the additional services provided in exhibit B of theou. I second it. We have a motion and a second to amend the reconsidered motion. Any discussion on the motion to amend as presented? Reconsider. Yeah, reconsidered motion as a amended. Yes, I know what you mean. Yeah. Any other discussion or any discussion on the motion to amend the reconsidered motion? I know it's a mouthful.

Hearing none. Roll call. Council member Bryan. I. Davidson, yes. Thompson, yes. White, hi. Johnson, no. Macllum, I. Mayor Larkkey, yes. Lawson, I. Now the council is back. Motion passes. Now we're back to the motion as reconsidered and amended. Perfect. Any other discussion on the motion that has been reconsidered and amended? Hearing none. Roll call. Council member Lawson. I. Johnson. I. White. I. Davidson. Yes.

Bryan. I. Mallum. I. Mayor Larkkey. Yes. Thompson. Yes. Motion passes. As amended. As reconsidered and amended. All right. Item I, new business, motion approving first reading of bill 2026-04. An ordinance approving the proposed fiscal year 2027 city budget as revised and appropriating funds from the revenue of the city. Present. Second.

Oh, wait a minute. Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Oh, you got to get All right, go ahead. Whoever we're talking,

good evening, mayor and council. Um, tonight I'm just going to go through real quick um the 27 proposed budget. There were some changes made um from our presentation in January. So, I'm going to run through those real quick and if you guys have any questions at the end, please let me know. Um, so the budget highlights again, uh, we've got a 3% estimated growth in sales tax revenues in there, two two and a half% for cola, 2 and a half% for a step for the merit. So, that leaves a fire average increase of 6.24. If you guys remember, three years ago, uh, we redid their pay scales along with PD um, at 7.16. So this is the last year of that uh updated pay scale for those two departments. Uh our benefit costs remain pretty steady overall. Uh we've got a 5% estimated increase in water costs. Uh three and a half% budgeted increase.

Clarify that. Uh the charge that KCMO uh increases our costs that we pay them for water because that's where we buy our water from.

Thank you. and we are not passing that on to the residents. We'll get to that ordinance next. Uh three three and a half% budgeted increase in solid waste. Last time we estimated that at three. We actually got uh word back that it would be three and a half. So that's been changed. Um I don't have little blues increase yet, but I'm estimating 11%. I've got a 10% increase in there for liability insurance. Uh and then the overhead allocation that we make from water, sewer, uh golf and street is 5%. And then loggers increases this year were.7% for fire, one for police, I'm sorry, seven for general, one for fire, and one for police. So we'll go into some changes real quick. um and general fund. After the January presentation, Andrea and I had a conversation about the MARK uh grant that was lowered by 7500. So that was the big change in general fund um capital expenses for economic development. Uh the January presentation didn't did not include uh 30,000 in capital or 35,000 in capital expenditures for economic development. We do have that in there now. It's a citizen survey and then wayfinding uh signage. We're going to go ahead and do that again in 27. Uh Joe and I had another conversation today about a baseball feasibility study that you guys are actually going to talk about in work session later on tonight. So that 70,000 I did add that to the budget as well. Uh park fund uh we rolled over their capital projects. I went to the park board meeting like three weeks ago last month. Um, so this will be the first time that they've actually rolled over their expenses and they've amended their budget. Um, we did not roll over uh revenue for them because they've got the

cash sitting in there right now to be able to cover those capital projects. I did um leave out the AMI rollover and capital for water. So that's a million. It was budgeted this year, but we're going to go ahead and roll it over for next year. So those are the big changes uh from January. Any questions about that? So these numbers are actually going to be a little bit different than the uh 100page document that you guys received with this council packet as well. Any questions so far? Yes, ma'am. Go ahead.

Um I can understand why you would include the baseball feasibility study in the amended budget. Um, it gives me a little pause. I know in the grand scheme of the budget, this is not a dealbreaker, but um, it gives me some pause that we haven't had a public conversation through the work session before we have a first read on it. That's all I'll say. I understand we have two reads. Just my two cents. Go ahead. Yeah, Mr. Mayor and Council. Yeah. Uh, just a reminder that when we budget for something that isn't an appropriation, so if we decide we want to do it, we can do it. If we decide we do not want to make that expenditure, that we there's no requirement that we spend that money. So this just gives us the ability to spend the money if the council so chooses to to take that action.

That makes sense. Anybody else? Continue.

Because like with any capital expenditure, this would have to come back for approval anyway. So um and then these are just updated numbers. They are again are different than the document that you have in your packet. I'm not going to read them all off to you. So before our fiduciary funds which I cannot list out separately because there are CI and TDD funds uh the total expenditures are 123 494 948 with the total of the fiduciary funds at 2.4 four. Our total expenditures are 125,967064. Any questions?

Any questions? I know we've been dealing with the budget for some time, but there may be some more questions. Go ahead. Um, in terms actually, let's just do this as hopefully as simple as possible. Um can you talk through so our expenditures we we have that obviously that's the that's how the budget works. What's our projected revenues based on you know his historical 997589. Oh I thought I still thought I didn't see you change that that row. I thought that was still the January meeting conversation. Sorry.

Okay. Thank you. Can you explain why there's a difference there in expenses and revenues? Expenses and revenues. Uh well, so if you remember back to our Let me see if I've got I know we have rollovers and

Yeah. So, we've got a lot of rollovers. We've got some great big projects that we're doing. AMI is one of them. Um we've got some street projects that we're going doing. And if you look in uh street fund, there's about a $4 million uh deficit there. Um water wastewater is a pretty big deficit. Uh general fund is um almost as it is a zero balance. Uh public safety, we're going in uh to cash a million for the roof. um our street capital projects. We actually received bond funds in FY25. So that cash is still sitting there. We haven't spent it yet. We didn't spend it all in 26 and we're going to finish spending the rest of it in 27. So that's why you've got a big deficit in street capital projects.

I just want to make sure people understood. We see bringing in 100 million, but we're spending 125 million. I just wanted to make sure everybody understood that we have that money. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, the cash has been sitting there. We just haven't been able to spend it yet. And to I guess further, you know, go on that point. Can you talk about our let's talk about this fund balance then because what so what we're doing is we're using that fund balance then to go over our revenue plan. Do we have a healthy fund balance? And I know we've had these conversations, but let's just make sure we remind everybody. And I didn't I didn't actually put those in the presentation. It is actually in the in the big document that you guys have. You've got the fund balance at the end of every fund. And yes, we do have a very healthy fund balance in all of the funds.

Any other questions, comments, concerns? Take in mind this is just the first reading. Mr. Mayor, we can also get all these updated numbers directly to everybody and even put out publicly before the second, you know, after this meeting. So that way there's plenty of time to review before the second reading and final approval. That's kind of where I was getting to. This is the first reading. We can get this stuff and then I think that's a good idea. Yeah, the documents already updated. It's just not out to you yet. Yeah. Anybody else? Hearing none. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Motion passes. Item two, motion approving the first arena bill 2026-05. An ordinance amending sections 42-38 water rates for approved water districts or local governments. 42-39 rates for water consumed outside city and 42296 sewer system user rates of the unified development code of the city of Belton, Missouri. Present. Second. Motion in a second.

Okay. Last time we talked about uh the increases that we've received from KCMO and Little Blue over the past four or five years. Um and with that uh we've decided to increase our water rates for wholesale and residential and commercial outside city limits. We are not passing in increases onto our commercial or residential that are inside city limits. Same with sewer. Outside city limits we are increasing but inside city limits we are not. So I'll read the rates real quick to you. Uh residential outside water um and we measure our uh our usage by the 100 gallon. So currently the residential outside water is $144. We are going to $158. Non-residentidential outside water 144. Uh we're going to $158. Wholesale water is 75 cents. We're going to 83 cents. Residential outside sewer is 2.25. We're going to 2.36. Non-residentidential outside sewer 2.25. We're going to 2.36. And of course, sewer is charged um based on your water usage.

Go ahead. Can you remind us the last time we made an increase for outside of city limits? 24 FY24 I believe it was. Okay. Yeah. I was trying to say we had two off years. So we we increased in 24. We did not increase in 25. Did not increase increase in 26. This is for FY27. OB obviously. Anybody else? Go ahead. Yes ma'am. I'm just curious. So I apologize if you don't know this. Do you have a sense of how many residential outside, wholesale, and commercial outside the city limits um water customers we have? So, wholesale we had two. Okay.

Um sewer we have maybe 80. Uh water, commercial, a couple. There there aren't very many. Sewer, commercial, a couple. Okay. Thank you. So, it's not going to be a substantial amount of revenue for the city. Anybody else? Hearing none. All in favor? I I.

Any against? Motion passes. Item three, motion approving first reading of bill 2026-06. An ordinance amending chapter 11 health and sanitation section 11-106C collection of the code of ordinances of the city of Belton Missouri. Brazette second motion a second. You're still here.

I'm still here. This should be the last one. It's trash. Uh so last time we did talk about uh the trash ordinance or the trash contract. Um GFL is going to be passing on a three and a half% increase to us. So we're going to take that and pass that on to the customer. So, we're going from 2127 a month to 2201 a month. Uh, the additional trash carts that the customers have um will go from6 602 a month to $8 a month. And we have some customer some customers that have upwards of eight additional trash carts.

To be clear on that, that is only if you have more than one trash cart. That is not a replacement. That is only if you have more than one trash card. Anybody else? Hearing none. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item four, motion approving first reading of bill 2026-07.

An ordinance approving a reszoning from C2 to C2PUD and approval of a preliminary development plan for Uptown District, a 40acre mixeduse development located at the northwest and southwest corners of North Cedar Street, East 163rd Street, and Given Avenue. Present. Second. We have a motion, a second. You're up.

Yep. Thank you, Mayor and Council. before this evening is a request to reszone 40 acres at the northwest and southwest corners of 163rd and given avenue uh from C2 to C2PUD which is general commercial plan unit development um and to approve a preliminary development plan for a 40 acre mixeduse development. Um, this development plan includes a 110,000 square foot indoor entertainment use, uh, 30,000 square feet of retail restaurant spaces on five pad sites, and 592 multif family units in a mix of apartment and mixeduse buildings. Um, the development plan meets all standards uh, with the exception of reductions in the front and rear setbacks to 10 ft uh, which is um, intended to provide a more pedestrianoriented environment that fits within the vision of the PUD. Um the primary access to the site uh will be from a full access at 163rd and Given Avenue uh with two other partial accesses to 163rd Street and an additional access from East North Avenue. Um both Given Avenue and Juniper Street which is the new North South Street are proposed to be public streets uh with on street parking including a mix of angled and parallel parking. Um sidewalk widths uh will be eight feet on both sides of the street rather than the standard five feet to support the pedestrianoriented development. Um included in the development is a central green space that provides three retention ponds which will serve as landscaping and water features for the site um that will include outdoor seating overlooking the spaces. Um other bio swailes and rain gardens are incorporated throughout the site to meet both storm water and landscaping requirements. Um conceptual building elevations have also been included in the proposal. Um which include buildings with ground flooror activity and building materials that blend uh main street designs with modern architectural materials including metal accents. Um and then all commercial buildings are anticipated to have outdoor seating areas and plazas for dining and other activities. Um the apartment buildings are proposed to be four stories and the

central mixeduse building is proposed to be five stories with a parking garage. Uh the developer has provided a phasing plan with five phases. Um however there is a possibility that two or more phases may be under construction simultaneously uh with the infrastructure south apartments and the entertainment used anticipated to start first. Um the uptown district aligns with several goals of the comprehensive plan um as outlined in the staff report and establishes a new precedent for mixeduse development in Belton. Uh the planning commission held a public hearing on February 17th at which no one spoke in favor or in opposition to the request. Um a realtor listing an adjacent property did ask for clarification regarding the future given avenue extension in North Scott uh which is required when the property to the west develops. Um the planning commission recommended unanimous approval of the resonant and development plan and approved preliminary plat. Um staff also recommends approval. Uh the developers planning commission presentation was included in the agenda packet for reference. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions and the developer is here this evening and would like to give a presentation to council.

Any questions so far?

Okay. Go ahead. There were several contingencies in the staff report about this and those have all been discussed with the developer. Correct. Correct. All right. And they're aware of the things that the city would like for them to do. Yes. And those will all be reviewed with the final platin, the final development plan as well. Thank you. Anybody else?

Hello everyone. Hello. How are you? Fantastic. How are you? Good. Good. Uh, can we see the presentation? Here it is. All right, cool. You're going to talk about finances, too. I can if you want to. We need all your money. That would not be the way to start. Yeah, just kidding. You might want to take that back. I do. I retract my statement. Don't put it in there for the record. Noted. Yes.

Thank you. Record it. All right. We'll screen this guy.

There we go. All right. Well, thank you all for being here tonight. Is this Is this too loud for you? Is that the the color? Okay, good. All right. Um, well, my name is uh Tyler Burks, uh, managing director of development for for Petra, uh, company based out of Witchaw, but I grew up here actually right here in this town. So, I'm very familiar with all the things that have happened since forever ago. So, it's grown since then, and we're here to make it grow even more. U, just kind of a project, a presentation agenda real quick. Um, just a further team introduction. And I've got some team uh teammates here with me tonight who did the uh design and support on the project planning. Uh further on the project introduction, which you'll see some site planning and things like that. Uh community programming, uh some new announcements. I know I've kind of kept some things uh under wraps for a lot of you guys as of late, but we finally signed some special agreements so we can announce who that's going to be. Uh project facing and the most important part, what are the benefits of doing this project to the community? what does it bring? Uh and then we'll open it up for Q&A. Oh, sorry. Uh project team, as I mentioned, uh Petra as the developer. Um and then we have uh Josh here tonight uh with DLR. He's him and his team did the uh site planning. Um and SE engineering who we have Jake here with us tonight who did a lot of the uh site planning engineering, civil engineering, things like that. Um and then BHC traffic engineer. Yes, we did get a traffic study. uh Habitat Architects right here in the hometown. Uh Spencer Fain who's representing us in the legal work. Here we go. Here's the uh overall site here. Um so this is uh on the south side looking north. Um on the south side of the project here, we're going to have some multifamily going in. And then we have, as Matt mentioned earlier, we have Juniper,

which is this meandering uh boulevard going all the way to Turner Road from 58. Uh then we have walking trails on both sides of the road here. So is it it pays to what Matt was saying about a walkable community. So that's what we're trying to do here is kind of create an activity center. Um just something that just really hasn't been you know built around this area. So then it's just it's meant to spark further development to the north and to the west uh in the future and expand upon it which is why we have uh given coming all the way through and stepping out on the edge of the uh the parcel line here. Uh and then we have uh five uh restaurant pad sites here. Uh currently um the buildings are are just 6,000 square footprints right now. as we get through uh final planning and design, you know, some of those users will be uh targeted and those sizes of the buildings will be adjusted accordingly. Uh but by and large, I mean, some of these can be individual users or multi-tenented users inside of these. Um you know, 6,000 square feet is quite a lot quite a lot for a lot of users. So, that could end up being a a two or three user type of building on some of these. Um and then we have u phase two of the multifamily uh which will have the ground floor retail which will add uh additional ground floor retail space. Um and then again is to you know provide kind of that idea of you know future development that has that walkability and things like that that'll eventually come in over to the west. Uh and lastly the 110,000 foot entertainment building. Uh overall the site's about 40 acres as Matt mentioned earlier. uh phase one which is on that south side that I mentioned earlier uh currently plus or minus 312 units uh phase two of the multif family 288 units or so in total around 600 units it's not going to all happen at once it's going to happen in phases uh the the buildings will be you

know phased as to however they get absorbed right um so we're not just going to blow out the the whole deal with 600 units all at once it's going to be strategic and and all of that from an absorption standpoint point uh 110,000 foot entertainment complex as I mentioned earlier all told with the pad sites uh the five pad sites and the ground floor retail or about 45,000 square feet of retail space in total um and we're targeting this year to groundbre this is one of the uh viewpoints so this is coming from one of the pad sites off Given on the corner here uh from the souththeast side of the the connection between Given and Juno per uh looking at phase 2 multifamily. So, this is just kind of an idea of what that'll look like. Um we're calling this pad three uh on this one here with uh plenty of um open outdoor seating and things like that. So, there's there's a lot of that planned in here too. A lot of outdoor seating, walkability activities can be had here. So the vision here is to just as you guys were talking about earlier tonight where you can have you know further activities uh on this side of the street and then ultimately connect into where we're standing at now is downtown. So that's kind of the idea as this is kind of a connection point going north and south uh for future programming and then ground floor retail uh right here and then the additional uh multifamily building back here um on the north side. Uh and then so this is from the retail uh ground floor retail area. As you can see we have this nice big plaza area for outdoor seating and activities uh looking south uh east and then so this is uh pad 4 what we're calling here and then pad 5 and then this is on given uh just kind of right at that entrance uh as you guys know on 163rd y highway cedar whatever you want to call it. uh right at that stoplight. This is kind of a little bit

right where that entrance would be looking in uh to the west here. Uh I just wanted to point out something here. So a lot of this programming that we have too is on street parking. Again, this is supposed to be an extension. It's there's a reason why it's called uptown, right? So it's kind of supposed to have kind of that feel of that urbanistic feel a little bit here right here in the middle of town. Uh, our phase one multifamily partner has already been announced as some of you may already know, but I just wanted to put it up here for reference again is Cityscape Residential. Uh, reputable firm. They've done great work here in the metro. Uh, based out of Indianapolis, uh, so Midwest Focused. Uh, this picture up here in the top left is actually one that's going in currently in Lee Summit, uh, right across from, uh, Lee Summit North High School, if you guys are familiar with what that one looks like. So, this is kind of the idea, the the the architectural ren uh vibe that we're going to go for in this area, right? Because it's it's paying homage to, you know, one downtown, you know, the the railroad track, the uh the military base, things like that, things that what, you know, Belton's known for. Uh trying to implement that into the architecture. Um and these are, uh actual buildings that they've built out in other markets. So, as you can see, they do quality work here, and they're going to do the same right here in Belton. uh some of the inspirational photos just kind of give you an idea of, you know, kind of the overall vibe. Again, this is what we're really going for. You know, gathering space, entertainment, excitement, things like that. Um, and then this is kind of an idea of what we were thinking about for phase two. On the multif family, it's not going to be as tall. We're not going to have a skyscraper back there, but this is just kind of an idea just to kind of give you a visual, a further visual what that could look like. Um, you know, things like, you know, the indoor outdoor type of space in that ground floor retail with the Rolex garage doors is fun and interesting. Um, you know, just some interesting architecture with

some, you know, wood and different architectural materials and things like that. Outdoor gathering space, of course, you know, little green spaces and things like that. Plenty of uh landscaping. Jenna's going to hold me to that, I'm sure. She's not here tonight, is she? Um,

she will. So yes and then uh each multif family will have its own you know pool and outdoor space and things like that too. All right here we are. So this is the user that we uh have signed an agreement with uh B&B theaters and entertainment. Uh it is a local company. Uh they own and manage almost 60 movie theaters and entertainment buildings across the country. So they're a reputable operator. Uh so we will be partnering with them on the entertainment building and on the next slides you will see just what this building will look like. Um and so yeah so as before I get into that um this building is custom designed for this site in this area. Um it does not match any building that they've done before or really anybody else has really done. Um, so Belton will have kind of its own little stamp of approval and you know something unique that it doesn't really have or really anybody else for that matter. And without further ado, so site rendering. So this is looking uh north into the building. Uh it'll have this, you know, drop off zone here uh landscaped and and and all of that. Um we're going to have the big grand screens in there. So it'll have 12 uh movie screens in there roughly. Um uh indoor outdoor seating of course just kind of keeping with the theme there. Pickle ball courts is what you see down here. And then on the next slide here, this is looking to uh the northwest. And then as you can see, we're going to have some indoor go-karts going in there. So more details to come on what the details of the indoor go-karts are. Um and then we're at arcade, bowling, things like that. Here's the interior shot looking inside here. So, this is kind of the overall idea of what it's going to look like on the inside. Again, this is preliminary, so it could change over time. Um, but it

kind of has a little bit of that old school vibe to it. If if you've been in to an existing B&B theater, you'll see a lot of that uh of what they've done before. And then so they kind of bring in some of that, you know, 1920s type of feel and some of their architecture. So, we're going to keep with that character as well. Um, and then this is a shot a little bit further into the entrance. And then, as you can see, as you're looking, this is looking to the right as you come into the entrance. Uh we have the uh bar and restaurant area. Uh this is arcade down here. And then the go-karts. Uh we're actually planning to come out over the space. So, there's at one point in some parts of the area, you'll be standing underneath the go-kart track as it's driving by you. Um and then that's actually going to go over the arcade so you can play video games and listen to go-karts zip around over your head. Um, and then a little bowling alley over there. All right. And then phasing plan. When is this all going to happen? Right. So, that's probably one of the more important parts here. Uh, first and foremost, we got to get the road infrastructure in there. So starting with um you know Juniper the boulevard here as it meanders through taking it from Turner all the way down to 58 and then given uh coming from 163rd all the way to the edge of the uh property line here. We actually kind of curved it up a little bit so in the future you can get more buildings on the south side of Given as it further goes through so further activating the area and it's not set up just for a road. Um, you can see all of the the on street parking, things like that. Again, it's meant to be activated in the future, partner with the city, other organizations that want to, you know, have events, food trucks, concerts, what have you, whatever you guys want to do with it. Sounds fun. Um, and then phase two of the actual project development is uh working with cityscape. So, they're going to come in right away. So actually

the roads in the first portion of the cityscape multifamily will start roughly around the same time. So some of the construction uh phasing can happen happen simultaneous as what Matt mentioned earlier. Uh and again shortly after the start of this but probably after um the completion of the roads is when the B&B entertainment building will go in as well. Um, so in a perfect world, this will still be under construction, maybe under its first portion of the lease up while the entertainment building is being built. And then from there, we're still identifying some uh restaurant users. So that's what it's meant to be is all restaurants, not really shopping. It's supposed to be entertainment and dining type of area. Um, as you can see kind of here, I didn't mention this earlier, but some of this uh outdoor space is overlooking uh the retention ponds. uh and all that stuff too. So um yeah, so phase four is overall the retail and then lastly once the uh first phase of multif family is successful and it has fully leased up, we will start uh the second phase of multif family which is phase five of the project. All right, the most important part here, what does this do for the city? Um just some highle things. We can dive into a little bit more of the details a little bit later if you like. Um, but just from our estimations over the course of 30 years, this is just from the taxes alone. That's not including all of the other jobs, benefits, things like that. I mean, I have a whole study that I can show you guys at some point if you want to nerd out on numbers. I know one of you guys asked me about that. Um, but 80 million over 30 years is is just from the taxes is what it's uh projected to make uh for this project here. So, that's, you know, direct dollars to the city. Um, 600 new residents. So overall, you know, it's 1,200 residents in total.

So if you just do 600 units times two on average, it's 1,200. But new to Belton, so we just applied a factor 50% factor to that of there was an an estimation of 600 new residents to Belton growing the population. Um, and then just on site, uh, we have about 600 jobs is what we're projecting, uh, in the current moment. Um, just the entertainment building alone is going to be over 200. um employees that it's going to employ between full-time and and part-time. A lot of those being, you know, high school kids who need jobs and things like that. Um and then that's going to produce uh and just in the first year, first first year full buildout. That's not included. That's not this isn't factoring in a growth factor or anything like that in the future, but just in the first full buildout about 16 million in wages uh going into this project. Um and then ultimately hopefully finish this thing out in 2032 20 uh 2033.

Thank you.

Question. Go ahead. I think one of the issues that or some of the issues that were raised when you did the presentation for the public previously was the traffic issues and you said you did the traffic study and from my review of it and I don't understand all of it. I'll be quite frank. Um, it looked like there were just some things that need to be adjusted on like Cedar 163rd and 58 highway for access and and continuing traffic flow. Was that your understanding of the traffic study? Uh, yes. So, and we have Jake here to help me out with some of the um technical um terms and all that stuff. Do you want to answer that in smarter terms than me?

Yeah, absolutely. Hi, Jake Bosch with Yeah. So, the the traffic um developments like this do struggle with traffic when there aren't a lot of access points. What you have here is there are several access points, which is awesome. That makes the traffic a little easier to get into the site. So, we've got Turner on the north side, we've got 163rd on the east side, and then we've got uh MO 58 on the south side. So, there's three main access points and in the future when Gibbon extends to Scott, then you'll have a fourth. So, that's really good. Uh, so the the main item is what happens on MO 58. U, now we've worked through some items with your staff and we've gotten to the point where we're pretty comfortable. Um, we may or may not have a left on MO 58 onto Juniper. Uh, but we will obviously the left-hand turn from MO 58 onto 163rd will be impacted as traffic then flows onto 163rd and then into the site on given. So that's the area where you know we've got to work with uh mod on that one and see what will be allowable and obviously we go through permitting for through them on that. So there's a there's another step or two to go through on that one but absolutely we've done the study on all of those intersections and we feel like we're ready for the next step.

So you're confident that the access points and the the existing structures are adequate to hold the traffic with some alterations? Yeah, absolutely. Anybody else? Go ahead. Oh, go ahead. This uh this might be a tricky question. Uh but you're bringing a movie theater in. Mhm. And there's one here, right? So, have you had any discussions with them?

Yeah, we actually made an offer on the building to buy it. Um, and then what would happen if that does happen, uh, which there's nothing's been accepted or anything at the moment, um, is that potentially if it does happen, and I'm not saying it is, then the B&B operators would come in, temporarily operate the existing movie theater while the construction of the new movie theater is going on, and then and then there would be a transition into what a new use case for that building, which is what our plan would be for it. However, nothing's set in stone at the moment. I I would make a recommendation.

Sure. Uh people are going to laugh, but they have the best popcorn in the world. So, you need to figure out how to make it the way they make it. You got it. So, that's part of my deal with B&B because I'm a popcorn connoisseur myself that we have to figure out the best popcorn here. So, I agree with you. Anybody else?

Go ahead. Um Tyler, you've done a phenomenal job throughout this process of sharing everything with us and sharing what you can anyways and and looking at the vision and especially I I don't know the conversations have been you know especially probably pertinent because you grew up here so you actually understand a lot of the you know geography and a lot of the the history on different things and whatnot and that has been uh pretty critical I in my opinion anyways. Um that is appreciated. Uh however, we don't know what we don't know. And so I guess my question is probably to staff, but you know who whoever is. Um, so what's what are we talking maybe in a um I don't want to say worst case scenario but but what is um like something falls through like the entertainment district were to fall through but we already have the construction started on um the apartments or a certain phase doesn't happen or what is uh you know what kind of happens in those types of scenarios.

So the development plan would would still be in effect. So essentially if another developer were to pick it up, they would have to build to the same development plan or they could amend the development plan accordingly. So um that's what the purpose of the PUD is to lock the plan in place. That way regardless of who the developer is, the the same standards are held. Perfect. And um in terms of so this is just putting a preliminary plan zoning in place. What's what comes next in terms of steps from uh you know requirements.

So the the next steps if approved they would move on to the final plat which would final plat the properties allow them to start the infrastructure work and then the final development plan which would be done in phases. So whenever the entertainment user is ready to come in, they'll do a final development plan for their portion where we'll look at the design, the site work on that. Same with the apartments um and the future phases of the mixed use. So there will still be opportunity in the future if we look at something and go wait a second that's not a good idea here from and what I mean is from like a street perspective or from a landscaping perspect or whatever we look at something and go wait we need to move this 10 feet that way or whatever the case is those opportunities will still exist in the future. Correct.

The final development plan still allows some flexibility in moving things around as long as the general intent is still met. Okay. And because everything sounds really wonderful, but you know, uh there's always, you know, 2033, there's a lot that can happen in between now and then and just trying to make sure we're being smart with that plan. Anybody else? Oh, sorry.

Um do you all typically manage your own multif family properties or do you outsource that? Uh, depends on the situation, but we're not experts in property management, so that's why I say it depends on the situation. So, typically we'll hire we'll go through an RFP process for property managers and and select the best one for the best uh use case. Gotcha. Yeah. Um, and then just quickly scrolling through your site, I have a question about this whole project. Is this something that would be undertaken using your institutional um development arm or your private equity arm?

Um so each phase if you think about it as its own project. So each phase it's going to have its own capital stack if you will. Okay. And so that could vary you know so on the larger ones of course there's going to be some larger institution uh coming in. I mean these are massive projects. So all told, I mean, I didn't say it, it's like $220 million total buildout project currently. So there's going to be some institution in there. Uh, however, but on the pad sites, I mean, some of these can be a little bit smaller, you know, build the suit. I mean, some of our, you know, like syndicated dollars and things like that would come in kind of more local money do things like that. So it's again, each piece is its own project. So that's how we underwrite it. That's how we look at it.

Okay. Thank you. Uhhuh. Anybody else? Go ahead. Have you got any uh restaurants already signed up? Not signed up, but we've had a lot of awesome conversations. Um and a lot of them were actually waiting on the entertainment to get done. We just finished that last week. So, um you should start seeing some announcements of who's coming in here fairly soon.

Anybody? Go ahead. The only other thing, and I know I'm to be a broken record on this, but I have I I literally just had this conversation yesterday again. Uh I hear it regularly. We'd love to see some town houses at any point in maybe the later phase if that's possible. Just uh you know, um I know the the plan currently is, but I continue to hear from residents about you know that kind of that middle housing option. So, just throwing that out there. Yeah, we're looking at some for town houses u in other parts, but who knows? I mean, like you said, 2030 is a different world from today and maybe that phase two. I don't want to put any promises or anything out there that could change. So, I understand. I'm just Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Anybody else? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Thank you guys. Thank you. Item five, motion approving first reading of bill 2026-08, an ordinance authorizing acceptance of an allocation of funds and execution of a grant agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation, Division of Highway Safety.

Present. Second. We have a motion and a second. You're up. All right. Uh UDI didn't even see my lips move.

Yeah, it's about it's that time of year again. This is the time of year when the Missouri Department of uh Transportation issues their grants and they've authorized two grants for us this year. one for 16,000 for um uh impaired driving and the other one is for $24,939 and that's overtime for special enforcement. We use special enforcement to do a lot of different things in the city. It could be out on the highway 4958. we could be using it in the city to provide um you know where there's been complaints by citizens in regards to traffic uh violations and such. And so uh we also use a portion of this money um it totals $40,939. A portion of it we actually use to um buy equipment for our officers like um radar guns and such which help that help us on selective enforcement. And so, uh, we're suggesting to approve this agreement and then we're asking for two readings. The Missouri Department of Transportation only turns it around, asks us to turn it around really fast so we can get it in and then get it approved and through their process.

Any discussion? I should do this more often. Having heard none, all in favor? I. Any opposed? Yes. Motion passes. Motion for Go ahead. Go ahead. Motion for a second reading. Second. We have a motion and a second for a second. Any discussion? Now, this is a voice vote. No. All right. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion for a second passes. Right. On the second reading.

A second got approved. So, we just got to vote on that. Vote on the second reading. Yeah. So, all in favor of the second reading. We already did that. Oh. Motion to approve the second reading of bill 2026-08. An ordinance authorizing acceptance of an allocation of funds and execution of a grant agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation, Division of Highway Safety. Present. Second. We have a motion, a second. Any more discussion hearing? None. Roll call. Council member Bryan. I. Davidson. Yes. Thompson. Yes. White. I. Johnson. I. Mallum. I. Lawson. Hi. Mayor Larkkey. Yes. Richardson. Hi. Motion passes. Sorry I stepped out.

Six. Motion approving first reading of bill 2026-09. An ordinance amending chapter 3 intoxicating liquor and appendix A schedule of fees and charges of the code of ordinances of the city of Belton, Missouri by adding a consumption of liquor license. Present. Second. A motion and a second. You're up.

In April 2025, chapter 3 of the code of ordinances was fully rewritten to reflect changes in state statute and in our licensing processing software. During those amendments, uh consumption of liquor license was not included. Although it had been available from the state for many years, a consumption of liquor license allows any person operating any premise where food, beverages, or entertainment are sold or provided for compensation to permit the drinking or consumption of intoxicating liquor on the premise. However, the sale of intoxicating liquor is not allowed with this license. A consumption of liquor license is not required if the establishment already possesses a license for the sale of intoxicating liquor. It's the city policy to offer licenses at the same level as those authorized by the state. City code and state statutes are intended to substantially mirror each other to promote clarity and for the ease of regulation and I would entertain any questions.

Go ahead. Um it was noted that there was a few requests that the city received on this front. Could you talk about those? There's two businesses that have reached out regarding more information about them and a prospective business that was entertaining the idea. There hadn't been much in interest in the past, which is why we didn't include it in any of the rewrites. Um, but now we've had some interest. And so these would be businesses that uh operate and do not currently sell, you know, uh, alcohol, but would want to allow people to come in and consume alcohol. Yes, that's correct.

Go ahead. Um, kind of building on his questions, um, food and beverage establishments, I can kind of imagine. Um, entertainment, what would we consider entertainment? Could, you know, a GameStop allow alcohol on site?

So, GameStop, I don't believe that you would you could we could consider that that entertainment is provided on site because you're just buying the video game and realistically taking it home. I would note this is a direct copy and paste from the state statute providing for this license. If a item is not or if a word or term is not defined in the law that means we just go to Websters to see what it would say. Um so entertainment provided on site would mean they would have to be doing something to provide you know that sort of entertainment whether that be like errands would be the example or the entertainment complex that we have here. if they didn't want to get a sale of liquor license, they could apply for this license and just allow people to consume it on the premises. But a place like GameStop, there's no entertainment provided on the premises. So that would not be something that would qualify.

What if they booked a band? I mean, then that would also for us that would be temporary. I don't believe that even our zoning would allow them to book a band. They would need a special event permit. Okay. as well. I'm just trying to figure out what kind of business that isn't already selling food or beverages. This w This is a license that I over 10 years of practice have never heard about. Okay. The city of Blue Springs offers it because when I reached out to the liquor agent, I asked him for any other cities in the metro that currently offer this license and he provided me Blue Springs. Did was it just like a restaurant that didn't want a liquor license to sell? He didn't state. He just said that they have it in their code, so therefore they offer it.

Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. So, uh I've I've been on numerous closures of streets and uh I won't discuss businesses itself, but I've see people walking around with alcohol going in different businesses and looking at stuff. So, how does this influence those people who are just walking the streets with alcohol going into different businesses? So, they would not be allowed in those businesses if they don't have this license. Mr. Attorney,

I mean, one, unless it was a special event where the city has taken the step to allow somebody to walk the streets with alcohol, walking the streets with an open container is illegal. Uh, also walking into other businesses, those people that have a liquor license on the premises for consumption on the premises, if they were to allow somebody to bring their own alcohol in just off the street, they would be subject to losing their state license. So essentially, for that to occur, multiple people would have to actively violate the law and jeopardize their livelihood. Anybody else? Go ahead.

The places that you have that are interested in doing this, they do sell food though, right? That's correct. Is it just that they don't have enough space to sell the alcohol or or for whatever reason they've chosen not to get a retail license for alcohol sales? And are they planning on like using other businesses that sell alcohol like the brewery up here? If they have the consumption on premise license, they could it's basically a BYOB. Gotcha.

But it's a legal way to BYOB. So to answer Council Member White, a business that does not have the proper licensing should not be allowing people to walk in from the street Bob because then it puts the business in jeopardy. Thanks. But this is the way to do it to allow it. Go ahead. Just to piggyback, I guess we're all piggybacking. Um the it doesn't but it doesn't have to be I mean I know you said this was businesses that are are providing food but it doesn't have to be providing food. It just has to be providing entertainment. Correct. I

believe it says or that's correct. Food, beverages or entertainment sold or provided for consumption for compensation. Sorry. Go ahead. Okay. So knowing that entertainment will be defined by Webster, say a shop on Main Street sells baked goods. Nope. Okay. The action of providing or being provided with amusement or enjoyments. Well, but baked goods or enjoyment.

That would be food. So they could if if they wanted to do it under food, then they could they could allow somebody to bring alcohol onto their premises and sit down and drink and eat their food. But just per like again food, beverage or entertainment. So entertainment is providing joy or amusement. But I mean okay to follow up on that that is that so if they're providing baked goods like you know uh they allow a um outside entity, a third party to come into their shop to sell their baked goods if they're doing that on a regular basis like every Friday or something. I'm making this up by the way. uh they could then apply for this permit and on Fridays allow uh Bob as well.

I guess technically we've also gone down pretty far the rabbit hole of a business that would never exist because this would have to be an event space that only one day of a week allows another business to come in utilize their business and then as part of that business they then get a liquor license. Well, for the record part of that scenario exists already. That's why I was that would be terror. Correct. No. Or but either we don't need to get into specifics, but I was just that's that's why I was using it. It's because part of that scenario exists with the baked goods

and then they could apply and have to comply with all of the state licensing requirements and pay the city and state around around $150 around $150 so that somebody could bring wine onto their premises. then also talk to their insurance provider because they have now allowed alcohol consumption on their premises, which if they were operating as a business that did not have a liquor license, their insurance providers going to want to change their insurance then increase their premiums. All righty. Anybody else? Go ahead. What is What have you set the fee for this city license?

Uh, yes. The state license is $60 and the state statute says we can charge one and a half times. So it' be 90 for the city for a total of approximately 150. That's a that's 150.

Anybody else? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item seven, motion approving resolution 2026-28, a resolution approving task agreement number 54 for the Marquy Road Improvements Environmental Service with Wilson & Company, Inc. Engineers and Architects in the amount of $59,744. Present. Second. We have a motion and a second.

This is a very easy resolution. We are uh contracting with our engineering company Wilson & Company to do environmental work on the next phase of Mary Parkway. This is between North Scott and Westover. Um there's certain uh parts of the environmental we can do ourselves, but there are certain portions of it that uh we do not have the ability to uh complete and so uh we're going to utilize their services to complete that environmental so we can move the project along. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have. Any questions? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item eight, motion approving resolution 2026-29.

A resolution approving task agreement number 48, amendment number two for the Northcast Parkway Extension Design with Wilson & Company, Inc. Engineers and Architects in the amount of $135,982.50. That second motion and a second.

Okay. This is a extension of our services to use Wilson and Company to help us inspect the bridge that we're building on Northcast Parkway. Uh on this uh roadway that we're building that goes from Peculiar Drive to 187th in Mullen. Uh there is a fourspan bridge that we'll be building in the middle of it. The majority of the cost of the project is actually just building the bridge itself. Um the bridge is going to be built with different type of peers. You've probably seen a lot of bridges go in where they just beat down the steel into the ground and we build a pier on top of it. In this case, we can't do that because we won't be able to hit any bedrock below it. And so instead, we have to do what they call a drilled shaft. And so that's like drilling a big hole into the ground, then lowering the steel into it and pouring concrete around it. It's a different type of structure and it requires a different type of expertise in inspecting it. Uh so we've actually are going to have them inspect the whole bridge structure and uh this amount of money will provide the inspection for that structure. It's probably more than what we actually need, but it can cover all the hours that they have. I'm hoping that we're under the number of hours that we've allowed for this contract. Uh this contract is being paid uh for by the TDD. So we will be making the payments to the contractor and the TDD will be reimbursing us the uh cost for doing the work. be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Any questions? I just want to say thank you for answering my question before I asked it about the cost there. Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Item J, consent agenda. One motion nonvailable to approve the recommendations noted. Any member of the council may ask for an item to be taken from the consent agenda for discussion and separate action. Present. Second. Motion is second. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion passes. Make communication with city council. Council member Johnson.

Just want to thank everybody who came to the town hall last week um that the coalition put on with in conjunction with the city. We had a really good conversation. A lot of good ideas came from that. Um want to remind everybody that the St. Patrick's Day parade is this Saturday. Lineup's at 4 on Commercial Street and the parade's at 5. Um there are waiverss um that need to be signed by people participating in the parade that's online and there'll be folks with paper copies available um that day. Um also Wanda and I and Gregory Shrod attended a seminar on crisis communication today. Um learned a lot of stuff and we'll pass that along and talk with Claire about that. So that's all I've got.

Council member McCllum. Uh, I personally do not have anything to share, but I do have a parks update. Um, I want to remind everybody if you know anyone that would potentially be interested uh in lifeguards or working there as a grounds crew, um, they are hiring and will probably constantly be hiring as we get into the um, summer season here. So, please uh, please keep that in mind. they're, you know, this is a um a tough job to hire for and uh so I'll probably keep mentioning this. Um youth baseball, softball, and t-ball registrations are open. Uh summer camp registrations uh will open on uh April 1st, and the outdoor water park season passes will go on sale April 1st. And uh I'm not going to go through the whole list of upcoming events, but I will just remind everybody that this weekend is uh on March 14th is Murder at the Station Dinner Theater. So that's everything I have.

Council member Richardson, I got nothing. Council member Lawson. Um I don't have anything. Council member Prime, this Saturday is the St. Patrick's Day parade. Um I did sign up online. It's very easy to pre-register. you can print it out and we'll get lined up and have the parade on time. If we could all just do that one little step. I've got nothing.

Um just to just a reminder that the St. Patrick's Day parade is this Saturday. Um line up on commercial at 4, parade starts at 5, and we have food trucks this year. We have we have several local food trucks that are going to be here. We're very excited about that. Uh Patty and I went to a crisis and disaster planning thing and we talked about Claire the whole time that she should have been doing this rather than us. Um it was Missouri Main Street and we footed the bill ourselves for that. Um and it was it was informative and I don't want to have to think about it again. Council member White, I don't have anything. In case you don't know, there's going to be a St. Patrick's Day parade Saturday the 14th.

I don't have anything else. City manager. I don't have anything, Mr. items. Oh, items for review and discussion. Number one, Gtown Auto Body special use permit.

Yeah, I shared with the council last month about Gtown Auto Body at 1016 North Scott um Avenue um wanting to do a special use permit to expand their um auto uses to include vehicle sales and rentals. Um after we had noticed the public hearing, um the applicant uh proposed adding a 450 foot twocar garage. um to the southwest corner of their property. So, we have renoticed that and that public hearing will be held next Tuesday by the planning commission and that request will come before council on April 14th.

Any questions? Hearing none. Item two, event center minor league baseball feasibility study.

Mr. Mr. Mayor and Council, I'll start with start this by just bringing everybody up to where we are today and then I'll I'll kick it over to Mike and he can go through it. Um, in front of you, we have this minor league baseball stadium and ancillary development market feasibility and economic impact study packet. Um, so where this started and so for the public to know and we've already got a couple of of media uh stories that have been done on this on this. So, um, in case you don't know, um, you probably read and and watch those stories and get as much information as you need. This started back late summer last year, um, as a proposal essentially from, uh, a couple of council members and some representatives of the downtown uh, coalition, the Main Street Coalition. And, uh, the original idea and concept was, well, what if we put a baseball stadium downtown to help redevelopment downtown? And so, um, the idea was like, okay, well, that that seems like a lot, but let's look into at least what that would entail? Um, could we even get a baseball team? That was, you know, one of the questions that was asked. And so, uh, one of the council members reached out to the the, uh, uh, the league commissioner for the Frontier League who does minor league baseball, independent minor league baseball, and they said, "Yeah, we're interested in expanding. We've actually been looking at Kansas City." Um, and they were very familiar with our market already. and said, "Well, if you guys would like to come to a games and check it out and see what it's all about, we'd love to host you." So, a few of us went over to uh Saji, Illinois, where they have a minor league team at their last home stand of the season last year, which I believe was in maybe September. Um, and watched the game, saw a very interesting product. Uh, the cool thing about it was it wasn't just a about the baseball, is about the event venue. Um, so they use the venue as an as a multi-event venue. It's not just a baseball stadium. Uh, and the baseball games themselves are not just about the

baseball. They're more of a multi a uh fun for the whole familyfriendly event. And so it's it's just kind of another entertainment use um for those 51 dates a year that they have baseball, but they also, for instance, in Saji, I believe they're doing 250 uh dates a year. So they actually have that facility utilized more often than not. And so from that perspective, we thought, well, well, that actually makes a lot more sense than just doing a baseball stadium and going after minor league baseball because Belton could probably use a, you know, a conference center of some type. I know we've heard that, uh, there's a need here in this part of the the city for something like that and there's not one readily available. And so, um, if Belton had one, we could draw conference type of of activity from around this region. And so, you know, the idea, we just kept kind of building on that. Um, we said, "Okay, well, it's still a long shot, but we can at least look into it a little bit more." Um, did a request of for information from some firms. We reached out to to multiple people to see, okay, who does studies on this to where we could even see if this is a reasonable if if economically the city of Belton could support it. Um, how could we fund it? Where would it go? All those types of things. I think we've moved off the idea of it being downtown um for no other reason than than the aggregation of property would take and and the traffic uh rerouting that would have to take place and the infrastructure needs that would have to take place just to allow that kind of traffic in a in a very highly trafficked area anyway. So, um I I don't think downtown is going to be where we would try to put something like this, but uh we thought let's just let some experts tell us what we don't know, which is some of the things like can we support it? Um is there a market for that type of of venue here? What kind of other things would go along with it? I mean, would we do a whole, you know, multi-use

development around a baseball park? Uh and those types of things are the questions that we just don't know the answers to. And so we're we're going to uh we are recommending to the council that we at least look into this study, see if this is something that can work. Um and let the study tell us. Uh we don't we aren't going into this with a preconceived notion that we have to have minor league baseball or have to have a stadium. We think that it might be a good idea, but if the numbers don't bear it out, then that that's then so be it. Then then we'll we'll move along. But the potential economic impact is huge. the need is definitely there for some of the things that that a baseball stadium and um or an event type of venue would bring. And I think that something like a baseball team would be something the community would could rally around. So from that perspective, I'm going to pass it to Mike um and let him kind of go over the proposal and kind of some of the things that they would go through with the study. And you're not we're not asking you obviously to vote on this tonight. We're just giving you guys some things to think about and we would potentially bring it back next meeting for with a resolution to enter into an agreement with this with this firm. So Mike,

yeah, thank you. I think really Joe kind of hit the pin on the head when it comes to we want to have as much information as possible to make an informed decision, but also to make recommendations to council as we move forward on this. Um, I placed at your at your spots a copy of the proposal from Johnson Consulting. They were um of the two that we interviewed of the proposals we received, they really provided the most robust package. Um they also were far more in line with as we've taken, you know, we've taken a very open and um you know, kind of collaborative approach with the community when it comes to community development and economic development projects. And so this proposal really kind of fell in line with that where they were willing within the first couple of tasks to have workshops with council as well as other stakeholders as well as to have continued ongoing conversations um as we do kind of some checkpoints throughout this timeline. Um I'll give you some time to digest the proposal itself between now and our next meeting. But I wanted to actually just jump to page 14. Um which I think is going to be the most demonstrable for our conversation tonight. um it's the schedule that they have proposed and they have a breakdown in the pages before that of what exactly each of the tasks will undertake. But for this discussion, I just wanted to focus on um really what they're going to be looking at in tasks one, two, and three. Um this is really going to be gathering the data and putting together the picture of who we are as a community and who we are as a market. Um and pulling on some data that they have access to that we don't. Um, but also looking at other similar sports venues as well as some of the just the general demographic data in the area to give us a really clear picture of is this something that the community or or that our market would even be able to support. At the same time, they're going to be engaging in conversations with, like I said, you all as council as well as other stakeholders so that we can provide them direction on exactly what it is we have and our vision for both

this being both a a future ballpark, but also as being a year-round event space and something that the community would benefit from, not just during baseball season, but the entire year. Um, we move on down through the the the proposal itself and we start to see task four, five, and six. This really is where the lens on the project flips a little bit and this is where they take that demographic data that they've been capturing in the first kind of three tasks and they start building their recommendations to us in terms of what exactly we should have in terms of size of the stadium. Um is this something that we would be is our would our the data they collect would it support a 5,000 seat stadium or are we looking more at a 2500 or a 30,000 seat stadium? Um, are there things like luxury boxes that would be supported? Um, when we build out, say, um, a theoretical or a future convention space or entertainment space, what type of square footage are we actually looking at that could be supported by the information they've collected? Um, and that's where they'll be started providing some case studies on other facilities that they've worked on as well as facilities across the country that they've been able to pull data from to provide us examples as well as making recommendations again specific to the conversations that we've been having with them and guiding them through the final task. So going down through uh like 7, 8, and 9, this is when they'll start really diving into the nitty-gritty and getting into what the tax impact is, both the benefit as well as what financial partners would we need to be seeking out in order to make a project like this feasible. Um, one of the things that I appreciated about Johnson Consulting and being completely transparent is, you know, they've talked about some of their clients in the past is they've looked at the data, they've looked at their recommendations, and in some cases they've discovered that this wasn't going to work. um they were very transparent with us about they're not here just to rubber stamp something or try to shoehorn something. They wanted to provide us true data and direction on is this something that the city of Belton and the overall community can support. And I thought that was pretty refreshing in terms of consultants that come to a you know a proposal like this.

Um, that's where they would also, and I do want to point out, so we're looking at page 14. Um, but if you're also looking uh at the proposal, I believe it's on page 10. This is one of those areas where I know we have heard early on, you know, what the potential cost of a stadium is. Um, I think that is still a a number that is going to move an awful lot based on what we kind of come through in this proposal, but I think how we also are going to pay for or or how we would actually financially support a stadium. Um, what I really appreciate this is in stat in task eight and task nine, this is where they start to look at our current tax base. they start looking at the stadium itself as a tourist draw, not just for folks who currently live in the community, but also really look at who comes to the community from outside the region. We know through Placer AI that Belton already has a pretty large draw um just on our retail and our restaurant market. Um we have a pretty large draw for folks that live 50 miles away, so outside of the city limits that come here to enjoy those amenities that we have. Um, one of the things that they're going to be doing is taking some of that data as well and, you know, combining it with what they're able to find and figure out does that 50 minutes still hold pretty strong or do we have the the possibility of pulling folks from even further as a tourist market? Therefore, we're going to see a trigger on some of our hotels. Do we have the ability to even support another hotel or another tourist supported amenity such as the hotel um based on what they're going to be looking at in this proposal? So again, there's a lot to digest in the proposal. Um certainly want to give you time to look through this. That's just a very high level of where um I anticipate the deliverables are going to be from Johnson Consulting and why this is what we're recommending to council. Happy to answer any questions on just kind of this early analysis. And again, as you start to dig in a little bit more, always happy to sit down and answer more questions or kind of some of the things that I've seen in the proposal going forward.

Go ahead. I appreciate data is got to is very important but it also can be manipulated and looked at in varying ways. So I appreciate the fact that they've provided case studies where we say look this didn't work. Um because I think that's really important that we before we consider something like this that we know that it is going to work. Um and so I I very much appreciate that piece. The follow-up question I have on cost is we've done feasibility studies before on sports related things and I remember the last kind of com the last one we did the conversation was around we paid an initial fee to do a type of feasibility study that then um required more money for further feasibility after the fact. Is is this fee that they are charging including all those steps on page 14?

Correct. So the fee that you see in the proposal includes tasks one through nine and the final deliverable and presentation to council. So as well as So there's so we're not going to have to do you know we're not going to get halfway through and say well you got to give us more money to Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Is there a cost of this stadium like an average of what they're planning on a stadium to cost to be built?

We don't have that number in hand. Like I said, that continues to move and where I think that number is truly going to be anchored is starting from that initial conversation of what it is, what vision we have um for what this stadium is going to look like, including the event space, the year- round activation. Um but also we want to hear from the Frontier League and and what they have been seeing as successful stadium buildouts. um as well, not just new stadium buildouts, but also what are they seeing in terms of some of the stadiums that have been around for 10 years or 15 years. Um are they still holding up and and is that what we want to aim for size-wise, square footage, square footage wise? I think that's going to drive a lot of where that number ends up landing and that's why I want to want them to be able to give that to us going forward

and the city would be at full cost of taking on that.

It depends on how it's all set up and lined out. We have no idea yet. That's that's one of the reasons why we want to do the study. Is this going to be a completely publicly funded study? Would it be or or stadium? Would it be a privately funded stadium? Um when we try to get a developer to come in and do a multi-use type of development and build the stadium into that cost and then then how does that get paid for? Um some would it be a a private uh public partnership? I mean, there's lots of ways to do things like this. And so we really don't know yet. And so that's one of the things we're doing is we're we're not going to try to to force anything. We're just going to say what it is what can we do? What is it going to cost? How would we pay for it if we did have to pay for it? If we didn't have if we had to find funding, where would we have where would we find that funding? Those are all questions we still have to answer. And and until we know those answers, we couldn't make a a legitimate recommendation on whether we move forward or not. So that's hence the study.

Okay. You ready? Yeah. Go ahead. Um, I know that there are several members of the council that are excited and can see the vision for this and there's community members as well. Um, for my two cents, I would be so much more excited to spend this amount of money in pursuing Dryen land developments, getting that on track or building a fieldhouse for uh, you know, young athletes in Belton to enjoy rather than pursue this project. I don't share the enthusiasm or see the vision. Um, so I'm just calling that out now. I I would be a very hard sell on both the study and the down the road costs for something like this.

The hope is that we get something similar to, you know, you just saw a proposal this evening from the Uptown District and the potential economic impact that would bring. Um, one of the biggest rationale for us to pursue this is the potential economic impact it could bring. And if we developed something that would create the kind of economic impact that the uptown district is is is saying that it's going to project, then that would be in a lot more money for parks, a lot more money for dryen development, a lot more money for the city to to do more of those types of things. Uh a fieldhouse, um you know, $80 million what uptown is bringing, how does this compare to that? I I don't have any have any clue yet. Um, but if this does develop and and bring a big economic impact, again, more sales tax, uh, more property tax, those are all things that end up, you know, supporting our parks and supporting our mission as a city.

You don't have any concerns about, um, prioritizing or um, I mean, simply just overwhelming the city as a whole considering two projects like this in a similar timeline. Do you get what I'm saying? Yeah, it depends on how it's how it's lined out and how we're handling it. I mean, the city has plenty of bandwidth to when we're working with developers and doing developments and and I mean, they're they take a long time to flesh out as it is anyway. And so, you know, we're doing all of our due diligence on the on the front end. And yeah, I mean, we've got the bandwidth to handle multiple projects at once. Go ahead.

I will say, man, lots of follow-ups. I will say that um I have been a surprised maybe is the right word at uh generally speaking it seems like it's been uh people seem to be potentially very excited about this idea. Um but I have heard if I've heard two things uh about you know potential concerns. One is of course traffic and uh even though we don't have a site in my you know we don't have any of that stuff. I know. Um but that's one concern is traffic and and the other is is what uh I think council member Lawson was alluding to is just um it's a lot at once potentially. Um not that city staff can't handle it, but you know, does the city want to handle it kind of that that do the residents want to handle it? But I mean, from what I've seen so far, it seems to be relatively positive. So I'm that's uh where I'm at.

Go ahead. I think it's important what you said is that they'll tell us if this is absolutely something we cannot do because I think that's very important for us to know in the beginning is is this even possible. Can we support this? And I think we need to know that before we take any further steps. So I I get I hate it cost this much money but I think that's important for us to know because I think we have enough positive response from community members to make it worthwhile to at least look at. Anybody else? Everybody good? All right.

Anything else? Uh motion to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion and two seconds to adjurnn. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Anybody?