City Council - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Welcome to the May 4th Blue Springs City Council meeting. If you will stand with me, I will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

That you can be seated. I was just following. I will now call the meeting to order. First item on the agenda is confirmation of a council member Kaylor present. Bolan present. Ruml present. Ericson present. Markwart present. Rowan present. Mayor Leves here. We have a quorum. Next item is the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve? Second. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Council member Kaylor. I. Then I rum. Hi. Ericson. Hi. Markwart. Hi. Rowan. Hi. Mayor Leves. Hi.

Motion carries. So, next item on the agenda is actually recognition of Missouri Local Government Week. So, I have a proclamation on behalf of the city. Uh, this is something that happens annually, but uh we want to take the time to recognize especially all of the city employees, all the hard work that they do in keeping the city running on a day-to-day basis uh throughout the year. And so I have a couple of whereas clauses that I'm going to read making this Missouri local government week here in Blue Springs. It says uh the week of May 3rd through the 9th is celebrated as Missouri Local Government Week. And whereas Missouri local government week is an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the dedication and contributions of local government officials who are at the forefront of making vital decisions that affect the lives of all Missurans within our community. And whereas a local government is the government closest to the citizens and the one with the most direct daily impact on residents. And whereas local government serves as the foundation of democracy in our state and nation, serving as citizens through city councils, county commissions, school boards, and among others. And whereas local governments work to improve the quality of life in communities across the great state of Missouri. Uh now therefore, Chris Leon, mayor of Blue Springs, and the city council do hereby proclaim this week, May 3rd through the 9th, as Missouri local government week. Let's give it a round of applause. Local government week. So you will see throughout the week from city communications, a lot of celebration of the work that happens here at the city. Uh as the resolution outlines, a lot of important work happens on behalf of residents here at the local government level. uh I will just say much more than it happens at the federal and state level because I can and there's nobody to to disagree with me otherwise. And so uh we're going to be uh celebrating all the work that happens and we hope that the residents will do that as well. So pretty exciting uh thing to recognize here in Blue

Spring. So next item on the agenda, we have several public hearings all having to do with the same project, but we're going to take them one at a time here. So first thing I'm going to do is open the public hearing related to the Lux 2 resoning and plan development concept plan. Open the public hearing. The city clerk will read items for the record.

Mayor, the city has one exhibit to enter into the record. City council information form dated March 24th, 2026 with the following attachments. Staff report with attachments. Affidav affidavit of publication the examiner on February 7th, 2026. 185 foot notification map. Owner list of property owners within 185 ft of the site. Copy of letter sent to said property owners. Title 4 land use section Blue Springs code of ordinance by reference. 2014 comprehensive plan by reference. and bill approving reszoning and plan development concept plan. This is all we have to enter for the record.

Okay. So, I now swear everyone in. So, if both staff and we'll just go ahead and do um anybody that's going to speak on this item, if you will stand and I can just swear everybody on at once. Okay. If you'll raise your hand if you swear the testimony you're about to give in this case, you need the truth. So, help you God. I do. Okay. Then when you come up, you'll just have to give us your name and address for the record. Staff, if you'll continue with your presentation.

Chintel Fry Planner 3903 West Main Street, Blue Springs, Missouri, 64015. So, good evening, Mayor and members of the council. Uh this evening is a request from David Williams on behalf of the city of Blue Springs for a reasonzoning a plan development concept plan for approximately 2.9 acres located at 1500 Northwest Northridge Drive. The request is to reszone the property from a general business with a plan unit development overlay with a generalized uh zoning of MF18 with the uh plan development designation to allow a mixeduse building. The proposal is for a fivestory structure. The ground floor includes approximately 11,500 square ft of retail space along with garages for the residents. And the upper four floors would include approximately seven residential units. Those units would range from studios up to threebedroom apartments. So overall, this is an integrated mixeduse development with the retail and residential. The site is surrounded by a mix of uses. To the north, you have Lux One Apartments, which is already zoned in MF18. To the south is Price Chopper, which is zoned a general business. And to the east is Seven Highway with an additional commercial development. and to the west is the Northridge Villas which is a single family residential. The property itself has remained undeveloped for many years. Looking at the comprehensive plan, the property falls within the N1 area specific plan which is designated as mixed use with a retail dominant. The plan specifically envisions small-cale retail that may be supported by residential uses particularly on the upper stories. staff finds that the proposed development is consistent with both the future land use map and the N1 area

plan. The MF18 zoning district is intended for the highdensity multifamily buildings, generally four stories or taller and are often located along major transportation corridors are serving as a transition along more intense and less intense uses. Given the site's proximity to seven highway and the surrounding commercial and residential mix, staff finds that the MF18 is appropriate at this location and functions as a transitional zoning district. I still have more from the building design perspective. The proposal consists of a mid-rise apartment building that will incorporate cast stone bays to provide a strong visual foundation. The upper floors articulated to add depth and variation while stepbacks are utilized to reduce the perceived mass of the building. Balconies are also integrated to the facade contributing to both architectural interest and resident amenity. The primary entrance is clearly defined along the frontage. The building height is just under 60 ft which is within the allowable range for the MF18. Setbacks are significantly exceed minimum requirements and the building coverage is well below the maximum. So there's adequate room on site for circulation and buffering. Staff finds that the renderings meet the intent of the city's design standards with the final architectural details to be reviewed at the PD final stage. Parking has been calculated to meet code requirements with 170 spaces required and 170 spaces provided. The applicant is proposing a shared parking agreement with O'Reilly Auto Parts and Price Chopper and documentation of these shared parking agreements will be required at the time of the final PD review and approval process.

Access will remain along the existing two driveways at Bernardet Crossing. A traffic impact study was conducted and determined that the existing roadway network can accommodated the projected traffic and no off-site improvements are required at this time. Because this is a plan development, the applicant is requesting a waiver for modifications to include that they would continue using Bernett Crossing as currently designed as a private road and incorporating shark shared parking agreements and reducing the 25 foot parking set back to 7.2 2 to 7 1/2 ft. Utilities are available and adequate to serve the development. The sanitary sewer has sufficient capacity and the public water is available. A final storm water management report will be required prior to the approval of the final PD plan to confirm that the detention facilities function as designed. Fire protection standards and hydrant spacing will also be verified prior to a final approval. After reviewing the application against the zoning map amendment and plan development criteria, staff finds that the request is consistent with the comprehensive plan, supports the intent of the MF18 district, and will not create significant adverse effects impacts on surrounding properties, and reflects sound planning and urban design principles. The development of this long vacant site also supports economic vitality in the corridor and provides additional residential units to support nearby commercial uses. Staff recommends approval of the reszoning and the plan development concept plan subject to the conditions outlined in the staff report. And here are some of the renderings of lux 2 that were provided. And that's another rendering and I would be happy to answer any questions that you and I have and the applicant is here to speak on behalf.

Any questions for staff from the council? I know this information is in the packet. Uh but just for the public uh how many units was the apartments and what can you tell me about the commercial how big and how much square footage? There's the upper floor, four four stories will have 70 residential units that will vary between studios, onebedroom, twobedroom, and three. And the lower retail areas is approximately 11 uh 11,500 ft of retail underneath. And that will also include um onecar garages for the residents, too.

All right, seeing none, then the applicant president want to come give a presentation, answer some questions. you being sworn in and just give us your name and address for the record. for the owners. Not every cities are just clients that want to build this location. opinion. So really just the idea just watching I just think it really will reinvigorate more excited about it. I think I've maybe had one project in 20 years now. They actually live there. Both of them

question questions from the council for the development.

What can you tell us about the uh plan for the commercial property? I know usually there's some behind the scenes that can't be made public, but uh any for the intent of the commercial and what it's going to be used for. I will say that again it's just under 12,000 from the very first time I talked to about the expense of nice location and then hope that point is that what we're aiming for.

Okay. Any other questions from the council? Your honor, may we act?

Um I I have some questions on the residential and I know that we have the um apartment complex right next door to the flex one. Um and I apologize. I'm still kind of new to this. I'm not just kind of some questions on this is general stuff that probably everyone already knows. Um the occupancy right now or we we're completely full and and then there is a um approximately 70 spaces in there with between different sizes. Um and there's a I guess a need or are you guys filling these? Are they already being spoken for? So we don't release it this early, but this is the big night we're successful now. You do that. First of all, it's not overly respectful to the body that needs approval.

But once you have that, get right into it. And yes, we do projects like this pre and and you're you're correct. This is kind of what we see happening of course in our neighbors and Lee Summit and other places we're building apartments that look very similar to this and this is a very nice render. So thank you for do I understand the current the current apartments has a waiting list of some kind or at least has in the past. I guess that's probably what I said he was referring to was you're not pre leasing them but the the current apartment has a waiting list that this could fill. We know that. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you for your time. Appreciate the presentation. Any other comments from the council before I go to the public? Then we will go to the public. Is anyone in the audience like to speak in support of? In support of Anyone speak in opposition to opposition to Anything else before I close the public hearing? I'll close the public hearing. We're going to take each public hearing in a row. So the next one is a public hearing on the major lux community improvement district. So I'll open the public hearing to that one. City clerk has some items to read for the record.

Mayor, the city has one exhibit to enter into the record. City council information form dated April 29th, 2026 with the following attachments. Ordinance to approve petition and establish district with petition attached as exhibit A. This is all we have to enter for the record. All right. I guess next I need to swear everybody in again, don't I? Okay. Okay. If you're going to be presenting on this one, staff or otherwise, could you please stand? Raise your right hand. You swear the testimony you're about to give in this case be the truth. So help you God. Okay. Do we have a presentation for staff for this one? Just Baker Tilly. Okay. I guess Baker Tilly, then you're up next.

Oh, the developer is up next. Okay. Developer will present first. Who from the developer is going to come give us a presentation on the C? I feel like we just saw you. It's It's good to have you back. Thank you.

Uh again, I need your name and record or name and address for the record. So what I'd like to cover most importantly question is spend moments of the flex. We have lots of experience. to say before we would ever ask everybody to last a long time last decade plus we like to make sure that we present our trust in this case you've already seen their work next door but you can see some other projects other than delux you can see experience processing projects the project site called out much prettier than this tealing parking lot that you see on the screen. And I can't remember staff may have said this previously, but just in case for the record that we did on the purchase of this from the city and really wanted these are the details I'll let you run

through with your eyes. We talk about a lot of details for the ground floor. We have studios for four different types of units. Uh lots of amenities construction timeline for tonight. We are going to move faster than lightning. You will end up seeing before we even get the final plan building permits to go and start the demolition site that these gentlemen are absolutely focused and determined to be open this time next year. I believe experience. So we wanted to partnership. So it has two major parts. One uses two different one is called chapter 100 and the other is called community improvement district or C. The chapter 100 actually has two components. The C The chapter's first of two components is real property tax. The proposal in front of you, what your financial advisor has looked at in detail is a proposal for 15 years of real property tax% followed by five additional years. There's an on screen, but it's simply noting that the central fire district has the option under the state statute now to out of a city approved chap

statement. They have chosen not to opely out but instead to still have 75% of the tax and 25% that is the first piece. The second piece of chapter 100 sales tax exemption on construction materials that when we buy lumber or any other material that goes into construction building site you would not have to pay sales tax that's the last piece that's part of partnership sales tax the sales tax% of you would apply that first story where restaurant that would last years and we always special. So with that we could certainly go into more details. I know you all have your financial advisor detailed analysis showing that this in fact does if you want to get any details about why it'll stand aside. Mayor,

we see if there's any questions for the developer first. So, we're splitting this up, right? So, this right now is this is technically just the C public hearing. Yes. I should have said that that mean so uh going back to the commercial part of it uh you as a developer has interest in making sure that's some kind of retail restaurant something that has sales tax generation and not a service a lawyer an insurance agent something like that

every other questions before we move on to the next presenter okay thank you for your time appreciate Now, we can have our representative from Baker Tilly please come up. If you've already been sworn in, then all I need is your name and address for the record. It looks like they're going to give you a mic. If you haven't noticed, we seem to be having some issues with the system. So, we'll try to make it work.

Very good. I'm Colby with Baker Tilly. We're off of 7285 West 132nd Street, Sweet 220, Northland Park, Kansas 64213. and uh I'm here to present um the major two developments. Uh we are the city's financial advisor. We reviewed the project proposal from the applicants uh at a very detailed level and presented what we appropriately call for report. That report not only offers the argument for the statuto basis of part four would the project continue without consent but also it is a deep guidance for all the assumptions from the developer for the development to get really endeavor to answer any questions on the public side of the development from from the city's financial advisor in an impartial way. We can go to the next slide. We're going to start off right away with the requested assistance. Um I think in Kurt's presentation we discussed some of the requests. So we won't get into too much detail since that was presented. But for the rate of return which is really the basis of whether or not the project needs uh additional public public private partnership we looked at the return found incentive which is at 5.24%. the lower boundary of the PWC survey which is a survey of investors who invest in properties much like this throughout the country. Uh their range of what projects to invest in and what returns must the project earn in order to see get this kind of investment between six and 10% and that is the benchmark that be used to establish whether or not a project needs some additional assistance. with assistance. This project hits right in the middle of that boundary which is 8% for the return. Next slide. And before we get into uh too much about the project, I know that we covered in great detail earlier, but um we

evaluated the project as as mentioned there, which is the total 100 101,000 square ft units 12,000 square feet retail space across the eight described in the zoning presentation. The requested incentive package has a total gross value of 7.1 million over the entire term. with a present value of 4.2. Um it's composed of the sales tax exemption on construction materials from chapter 100 with an approximate value of $4,000. The property tax statement for the for the full term at 3.7 million and then a C sales tax approximately,000. uh we have a 20-year chapter 100 and 27 year C contemplated in this project and across the various sources we have a debt equity mix of 60% that 40% equity in the project that's proposed by the applicant um the go next slide one thing we want to talk about as part of our analysis is not only the conclusions we developed here but the process by which we arrived at all those conclusions. We sort of take a five-step process to review this. We review the project as was proposed by the applicant especially with respect to their overall returns for the project. And by returns we mean that rate of return discussed internal rate of return is a return metric based on non non-interest rate sensitive returns for a project. And that allows us to benchmark it not just locally and in current time but across time for what investors are looking for and give us a really objective metric to measure these projects against. The next is that we want to take a close look at project revenues. Uh this is where we seek to go to other sources to evaluate

both the rental revenues on on a residential basis but also revenues on a commercial basis to see if what the applicant's proposing is in line with the current market. So we want to ask questions like are the revenues within the market? Are they understated, overstated? What is the correct benchmark? And we work to answer those questions report. We also look at this from an expense basis. What are the expenses of the project? Again, are those overstated, understated, in which direction we evaluate those to show what the impact on the return is. Beyond that, we establish this internal rate of return. uh what it is about the incentive and then compare it again to the PWC investor survey and other sources that's necessary to establish whether the project meets the return ranges that investors would demand if they don't. We determined that additional incentive would be required for the project to happen. Um we took a close look at the project cost overview. This is where we're getting into are the costs reasonable? Do they make sense? Um overall we're looking cost to construct, cost to acquire, costs across the board. We're looking for sensitivity as well. So, if construction costs seem elevated or understated, we like to look and say, how sensitive is the project on that? And what margin would those costs have to adjust for it to be no longer requiring public private partnership. And we found that both within those ranges and according to that level of sensitivity, the project still met all the standards to pass the but There were a few items that we were looking at that were a little outside of what we might consider a normal range. But these are items related to acquisition that are often times benchmarkable, but there's commonly circumstances associated with why there's going to be above or below. And if there are small percentage of the total budget, then we then look at what the actual sensitivity of that item is.

And we found by and large every one of the assumptions baked into this project was of reason for this project and was sensitized appropriately so that we can we can make a confident finding that a public private partnership is necessary. So for the operating assumptions we'll get a little bit into the level of rent, the retail revenue and the vacancy rates. Um to start right off we evaluated because this is a multif family mixeduse development. How reasonable are each of rates for both commercial and residential. And we determined that all the rates were within what we would consider a market range for the area and we took a very close look of a number of comparable properties throughout the city and throughout the rest of eastern Jackson County. Uh for the vacancy rates, we established that there was a reasonable measure of vacancy potentially even a little bit lower vacancy rate. comparable investments and for the retail revenue uh we evaluate that on a lease per square foot basis because this is property developer their revenue is going to form of square foot per square foot leases generally and we found that range is well within what we expect in the market returning to the internal rate of return calculation uh we're looking at a rate of return below the market range as we mentioned in the beginning of the presentation uh with this public private partnership that is well right in the middle of the return rate you'd expect for a project like this to happen in the current market. In conclusion, we have a primary constraint where a few costs associated with acquisition and as mentioned earlier the high construction price. Though it though was expensive to

construct these buildings, we found that the applicants construction price was very much in line with what we would expect from a market range for development of this type. Um, we looked at not just comparable markets but comparable buildings within the wider market in the city and county and the the metropolitan area for comparable markets and then we evaluated how sensitive each of these variables were because most of the variables we evaluated were largely online. The sensitivity analysis proved out that there had to be wide swings in the project details for this project to no longer meet the butt for test or to be a valid candidate for for the public private partnership. Um so we've concluded the incentives do appear to be necessary to support the project as proposed under the current bargain conditions while recognizing the project may be feasible under more ideal conditions. Those ideal conditions they would be have to be substantially more ideal than they are now. projects go forward information here. That concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to pass the torch or any questions.

No, I was clarifying with staff. So, uh this is an appropriate public hearing if you have com or questions about the chapter 100 bonds as well. Um and we can also bring the developer back up if you want to clarify some of those. Baker Tilly is the one that does the analysis on the but for Gilmore and Bell which will be up here are our attorneys that prepare the documents and all that. So if you have questions about the market analysis for either of these uh incentives you would be the guy to ask. Right. That's fair. Okay. So uh I'll ask one while they're thinking about it. So uh C for the record for residents legislator what what can funds be used for? Do you even know specifically what they will be used for for this project?

I would defer a little. Okay, we we can we can ask somebody else that question. Any questions about the analysis that was just presented to us.

Can you give a little bit? You talked about 8% return and your target is 6 to 10%. Um what does that usually look like? You talked about swings in the market and what that might justify it. What what would make that a little different? What would we get closer to six? What would it be closer to 10? Why is that the target return for something like this? So what the the fortunate part about this specific return range we're evaluating is that multif family doesn't tend to villate too much from what we consider this target range. It does move over time slightly but this is a pretty durable range as we look into look into projects like this. The type of things that we move on instead of targets is very much baked into the project revenues and project expenses. If the expenses came in substantially higher, you would see that market rate of return drop substantially. And obviously most projects, there's a desire to bake in some room for those increases which normally materialize. That's why we look at the construction costs with a cost estimator to understand what that actually looks like. With project revenues, obviously such a very housing heavy development, we're looking at how close are those to the surrounding market and how reasonable are rates in the current market and looking into the future. And you would have to realize revenues substantially higher than the ones that are cont private partnership. And conversely, rent rates substantially below to get it down.

So what would this look like if this wasn't a mixeduse development? If this was purely residential, how would that affect the analysis for something like that? It would be very hard to say without knowing exactly. Sure. Any other questions for our presenter? Okay. Thank you for your time. He's the last one I have to bring up. Do I need to get more bill now? Okay. I had them on for the next public hearing. Okay, then I guess you could come up. If you've already been sworn in, then give us your name and address for the record.

Good evening. My name is David Bush. I'm an attorney with the law firm of War Bell. We're at Crown Center. Address is 254 Grand Boulevard and I am filling in for Sarah Gap tonight. She is the attorney Bell who has been working with city team, city staff. She did the bulk of the legal work uh the document preparation. So, I'm filling in tonight and I can speak to the project. So, I will start with a brief introduction. Uh, this is the first time I' I've spoken to the city council in I think about eight years. I've been in house with the city police summit for the last seven or so years and before that I was feel for 15 years. So, it's it's been a while since I've um spoken to the city council here. There's three different types of incentives that the city can use. Of all the incentive tools that you might ever consider, there's really three categories. One is tax redirection. The second is or tax reduction and the third is a new form of tax. So the incentive request that you're seeing tonight is the second and third category. It reduces the cost to the developer through tax abatement and it generates a new form of reimbursement through the C sales tax. So those uh if you were to boil it down to what these incentives do that's what the function of these two incentives are uh tax reduction and a new form of taxes for to reimburse the developer. And then as you've already heard there's two types of incentives you're considering tonight. And so I guess this is a bit of a procedural comment even though we're talking about both of these incentives during this public hearing. Uh during the next public hearing we can just enter all the evidence and testimony into that record which I think is what the mayor referenced. Um so the way I like to think about the incentives and describe them to you in a very simple non-leal ease way is think about it from a timeline perspective. What happens when the project is constructed and then over a period of time so you have a a good understanding of what the incentives are during the construction period. uh sales tax exemption would be afforded to um the project through the chapter 100 incentive and the valuation of that based on the calculations provided by the developer is about

$400,000 which is about 1.9% of the total project cost. So one of the benchmarks that I typically look at is total project cost compared to the value of the incentive being requested to the developer as a percentage of the total project cost. In this case, total project cost 21 million. The sizing the bonds is 23 million to provide, I think, some additional capacity during construction. But the benefit of the sales tax exemption through chapter 100 would be about 1.9% of the total project cost. Then moving on through the timeline, after the project is constructed during the first 15 years, there would be 100% real property tax abatement, which means uh there would be no taxes paid to Jackson County for the for the land or the improvements. And the that is achieved is um title is transferred to the city. So during the entire period of abatement which would be 20 years the city will own bare title to the land and will be leased back to developer and then there's a lease document that's in your meeting packet that contains a number of protections for the city. So the project will look and feel just like a private project. It'll look just like an apartment complex uh and the retail below but the city will be the fee owner and it will be leased back to the developer toffectate the taxment. So for the first 15 years, 100% abatement and then years 16 through 20, 75% abatement, the total value of that incentive to the developer is about $3.7 million, which is about 17.5% of the total project cost. And then the CI, which is an extra sales tax imposed just on the retail at the project, is projected to generate a net present value benefit of about $288,000, which is 1.3% of total project cost. So if you were to of all the incentives they're requesting and the benefit of those three components, it's about 20.7% of the total project cost. What I'm used to seeing from my work is a range when incentives are requested

typically between five and 25%. I I've seen variations both ways. I've seen some incentive requests that are lower, some that are much higher, but the typical range of incentive requests is usually between five and 25%. And so this incentive package of 20% is at the higher end but within that range that I typically see as far as the mechanics go when the CI is is formed. If you approve the C then the C will go through a sales tax election process with the single property owner and then the sales tax will only apply to the sales that occur at this property. So it doesn't affect the sales tax rate of any other property just the geographic area. And to answer the mayor's question from earlier um they are requesting that the C only be used for asphalt paving and asphalt markers. So the the more general answer to your question, mayor, is a C can find two categories of improvements. If you were to make a blight finding, then a C can be used to rehabilitate the property and get rid of the blight. That's not the case in this situation. They're just requesting this for public improvements, which is the second major category of what CIS can find. So through a structure that will be used to make the asphalt paving and the paving markers a public improvement from the CIB's perspective, not the city's perspective. That's what makes it reimburseable by the reimburseable project costs under the CI. So as those sales tax dollars are generated that will be used to reimburse the developer for the asphalt paving paving markers. And then the chapter 100 transaction I already mentioned that the city takes title and will be the property will be leased back to the developer. contains a number of protections for the city. The other two documents in your meeting packet, there's a trust indenture which governs how the money flows involving UN bank as the trustee. Um even though these are called bonds, they're not general obligation bonds in the city. There's no full faith and credit pledged by the city to back these bonds. And in fact, the developer purchases the bonds. So the developer

will obtain their own private financing. The developer will buy the bonds from the city and then the developer will pay back those bonds over time. So that does not impact the city's general obligation bond ability or anything associated with your geo capacity. Um let's see a couple other questions that came up. I already answered what can the C spend. Another question mayor you asked about sales tax generators and Mr. Peterson answered that it is in their best interest to have um not not services but actual sales. And I I can I I suppose I can reaffirm that conclusion because the CAD sales tax dollars are only generated from retail sales. So services that don't actually sell something, they would not receive uh the sales tax reimbursement from the community improvement district. Uh you've already heard a thorough analysis, the but for analysis, which is a independent justification for why the are needed and you've heard that explanation. And I think that wraps up all of my initial conclusions. I can certainly talk in more detail or answer other questions, but that's I think that's a good summary of the two further consideration.

Questions for Gilmore Bill from the council. Okay. Thank you for your time. Thank you for answering my questions. Any comments before I go to the public? Anyone in the audience like to speak in support of in support of in opposition to I will close the public hearing. Now I close that public hearing just uh open the next one. We'll open the next public hearing. The industrial development project and chapter 100 bonds. City clerk has items to read for the record.

Mayor, the city has one exhibit to enter into the record. City Council information form dated April 28th, 2026 with the following attachments. Trust indenture, lease agreement, bond purchase agreement, presentation, but for analysis and ordinance to approve plan, issuance of bonds, and approved bond documents with plan attached as exhibit A. This is all we have to enter for the record. All right. Again, if you if you may speak on this issue, if you can stand again, let me swear you in. Do you swear that the testimony about to give in this case be the truth? I hope you got it. Okay, let's just start all over. It looks like developers already headed up there. So, uh, give us your name and address for the record.

There's a microphone on your dice there if you can use that. Okay. Um, so the items from the last public hearing will now be included. So, what questions do you have for the developer? I guess I'll start. Um, on lux one, was there any public financing? There was not. Okay. So, what is the big difference of why we're asking for such a large public finance? It's a great question and there's nuances, but the big answer is that was straight multif family. It didn't have any mixed use. It didn't have podium construction. So, it was a totally different from a construction and cost perspective, totally different project.

Okay. Um, as far as the abatement, 100% seems rather high for 15 years. Is that standard to what you're seeing or is there a different way to do this? It just seems like we're taking quite a bit of property tax. No,

you're right. This is not this is not unheard of, but like Mr. Bushek said, it's on the spectrum. It's medium medium high. Um there's so much history these things to come together to get to the place where we're here for you tonight take I don't know I don't think I'm exaggerating six months four to six months there's lots that go go into it and I will say this and again a lot of people in the room have been through this so they can shake their head we didn't even start here but as you start all the variables as you put it together to get to a reasonable return that your financial adviser has affirmed this is where we ended up so again looking to kind of the earnestness we knew we needed to be able to get it financed. Didn't start exactly here. As we put everything together, this is where it ended up because this isn't less than or more than what we needed to get it financed. This is what we needed. So, the last thing I'll throw in, I think the reason, not I think I know more is needed on a vertical mixeduse podium structure like this here is because the bigger we go with projects, we have scale and it helps a lot. And so, a project that's amazing on a small piece of land here, that'll make a huge difference, but it's small. has 70 units and 12,000 ft of retail is incredibly hard actually to be able to take those fixed costs of all the amenities all those sorts of things uh and to make it work. So I think that explains why we're on that medium medium high part of what what I see out there Mr. See? So, what choice

as far as the amenities? Are some of those going to be mixed use between the two projects or is it all the ones that you listed? Is there going to be two dog parks then? Is there going to be one for Lux one and one for Lux 2? If we need to get into the fine details, we can because we have an owner designer architect here, but the high level if we want to be at that, yes, there's there. Any other questions for the developer? Okay, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

I've got Gilmore and Bell up again. Does anybody else need to present or just be available for questions? So, that's how I'm reading it. Right. Okay. Any questions for either Baker Tilly or Gilmore and Bell before we close this public hearing? Okay. Is there anyone in the audience like to speak in support of support of the chapter 100 bonds? Anyone speak in opposition to? All right. I will close this public hearing. Next item on the agenda is item eight, introduction reading bill 5399, approving the Lux 2 plan development and reasonzoning.

I'll introduce it, your honor. First reading of bill 5399, an ordinance reszoning property from GBPUDRO, general business plan unit development restricted overlay to MF18 PD high density multif family residential plan development and approving a plan development concept plan for Lux 2, Major Lux 2, Major Lux 2 at 1500 Northwest Northridge Drive, Blue Springs, Jackson County, Missouri. I move to approve the first reading and um proceed with the second reading.

Is there a second? Second. Okay. Now, discussion. This is just discussion on the resoning and the plan development concept plan. Any discussion on this item. Okay. Seeing none, then all in favor? I. Any opposed? No. Motion carries. Second reading.

Second reading. Bill 5399, an ordinance reszoning property from GBPUD RO general business plan unit development restricted overlay to MF18 PD highdensity multif family residential plan development and approving a plan development concept plan for Lux 2 Major Lux 2 Major Lux 2 at 1500 Northwest Northridge Drive, Blue Springs, Jackson County, Missouri. Your honor, I move we approve on the second reading and assign the appropriate ordinance number. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Okay, roll call. Council member Tholan, I. Ruml, I Ericson, hi. Markwart, I Rowan, I. Kaylor, I, Mayor Leves, I. Motion carries and given ordinance number 5495.

One of the things I should have asked in the public hearing is how you guys are going to spell this because we have it like four different ways in the agenda. So, I will I will ask you that at the end of the meeting. Um, okay. Okay, next item on the agenda is item nine, introduction to reading of bill 5400, establishing the Major Lux Community Improvement District. I'll introduce it, your honor. First reading of bill 5400, an ordinance approving the petition for establishment of the Major Lux 2 Community Improvement District and establishing the district. Your honor, I move to approve the first reading and proceed with the second reading. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor? I. I. Any oppose? No. Motion carries. Second reading.

Second reading of bill 5400, an ordinance approving the petition for establishment of the Major Lux 2 Community Improvement District and establishing the district. I move we approve on the second reading and sign the appropriate ordinance number. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Roll call. Council member Bruml. I. Ericson. I. Markworth. Hi. Rowan. I. Kaylor. I. Then I. Mayor Leves. Hi. Motion carries given ordinance number 5496. Next item is item 10, introduction arena bill 5401, approving the industrial development project and chapter 100 bonds for major lux. I'll introduce this one too, your honor.

Good job. First reading of bill 5401, an ordinance approving a plan for an industrial development project, authorizing the issuance of taxable industrial development revenue bonds in a maximum aggregate principal amount of not to exceed 23 million and authorizing certain documents and actions in connection herein. Your honor, I move to approve the first reading and proceed with the second. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion on this item, your honor? Yeah. Council member Brema, I'm just really struggling with 100% ab 15 years of what it's given up for the school districts and the other uh taxing jurisdictions. So, I just wanted to voice that opinion on that situation. So,

yeah, I think that's fair. Council member, I know there's a lot of discussion in the community, not just here in Blue Springs, but other surrounding communities that may or may not have been referenced already tonight. Um because the I think the u the perspective is that somehow giving an incentive. We are taking money away from the school district or from the services of the city. And uh so I think outlining it for the residents is not a bad thing. Currently, this piece of property receives zero tax dollars. No tax dollars go to the school district. No tax dollars come to the city. It's not generating anything at all. It's just a piece of property. And so um by abating it for 15 years, the school district's getting zero money now. They're getting zero money for 15 years. So the the cost to it is not really giving anything from the city coffers to the developer. The developer is not getting any money from us. They're not getting uh anything that we're giving from our budget. They're just uh not having to expense the entire cost moving forward. And so uh what we're hearing developing a lot for those residents of community is every time we talk to a developer they say the costs of construction right now are so high that it's almost impossible to construct a project without some sort of incentives. And so the benefit that's the the judgment that we're making here on the city council is does the community benefit from this project instead of leaving it as a vacant property. And so, um, some of us, if we make that judgment, we're getting maybe a hundred new residents for a 70 unit apartment building. Uh, they're going to generate sales tax that isn't currently being generated. Or maybe residents move to this apartment complex that are in houses now. And so, they're vacating houses that then can be sold to other residents. As we know, housing is a real big shortage right now. And so, that is a a potential benefit. The sales tax generation for 100 residents is probably like for two and a half% sales tax what the city have is maybe like 50,000 a year. So it's not a lot. It's maybe

another cop, it's maybe another employee. Um but that two and a half% is out of an average of about $20,000 in sales that an average resident might bring. So that's about a $2 million impact that a hundred residents could have to the community. And so, um, I think that's worth sharing with the public that this is something that we're not giving the developer money. We're not giving away revenue. We are just simply saying they don't have to pay the cost associated with the project fully because of the community benefit that they might be giving to the residents and the community of Blue Spring. Um, I think that's helpful and I think as Councilman Ruml talks about, that's a hard judgment for us to take is whether or not this property could do anything. If it sits vacant for 15 years and nobody gets it, that's fine. If something gets built there that does generate property tax and does generate sales tax, then it could have been a benefit to the school district or to the city. And so those are the judgments we're making. We think oftentimes we're making those on behalf of the residents in a positive way. And so, uh, that's, uh, how we outline this. I think we're going to talk about this a lot. I don't think it's going to be the last project asking for incentives. And so I think we're going to be very intentional about sharing with you, the residents, what the impact is and what the benefit we get to the community as we do this. So I appreciate you bringing that up.

Any other discussion from the council on this item before we go to the public? Council. Yes. Thank you before I even asked. Thanks. Um again, I I I'm with Councilman Bremo on this. Um, the other thing that you'd mentioned is that this is probably not the last time this will come up. And I'm only hesitant on this because I I don't want to set a precedent for this is how we do it all the way down the road. Um, granted, if it does fit for the other projects that come down the road, then maybe it is a good fit. Um, I just like I said, I'm still questioning. I did like your answer on that. Thank you. Okay, we will go to the

uh Oh, we've already done public. Sorry. Uh, okay. This is still first reading. If there's no further discussion, all in favor, I I I. Any opposed? No. Motion carries. Second reading. Second reading bill 5401, an ordinance approving a plan for an industrial development project authorizing the issuance of taxable industrial development revenue bonds in a maximum aggregate principal amount of not to exceed 23 million and authorizing certain documents and actions in connection therewith. The honor, I move we approve on the second reading and sign the appropriate ordinance number. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Okay. Roll call. Council member Erikson. Hi. Markworth. Hi.

Rowan. No. Kaylor. I. Tholan. I. Rummel. No. Mayor Leves. I. Motion carries and given ordinance number 5497. Okay, I do have a speaker appearance warning, but it appears to be for the visitor section and not one of the items on our agenda. So, we will move to item 12, which is a resolution approving a contract with Amino Brothers for the Main Street Improvements. Do I have an introduction? Introduction it is, sir. Thank you, Council Member Kaylor. You jumped on me. Yes. Right. Um, is there a second?

Second. This is just a resolution. So I just need a voice vote. But is there any discussion on this motion? See none. All in favor? I. I. Any oppose? No. Motion carries. We'll move on to item 13. This is introduction reading bill 5402 accepting the temporary and permanent easements for the main street improvements. I'll introduce it, your honor. First reading of bill 5402, an ordinance accepting temporary construction and permanent utility easements from the abuing property owners for the Main Street improvements project 2025 bonds WA25. Do I have I move to approve the first reading and proceed with the second. Is there a second?

Second. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Any opposed? No. Motion carries. Second reading. Second reading of bill 5402, an ordinance accepting temporary construction and permanent utility easements from the abuing property owners for the main street improvements project 2025 bonds WA25. Honor, I move we approve on the second reading and assign the appropriate ordinance number. Is there a second? Second. Any further discussion? Roll call. Council member Markworth. I. Rowan I. Kaylor. I. Bolan. Hi. Ruml. Hi. Ericson. Hi. Mayor Leves I. Motion carries to give an ordinance number 5498.

Next item on the agenda is a presentation for our parks, recreation, and open space master plan. And then we have some uh friends from Barry Dunn here as well as staff. Parks director looks like he's getting prepared. We are ready. Those people that left early, they're missing all the fun stuff. I know this is the good stuff, man. We got the I'll just recognize we have most of the park commission here in the audience with us and several parks employees. So, they're excited about as well. Please continue.

All right. Thank you. Good evening, Blue Springs City Council. It's great to be with you. My name is Ryan Higgerness. I'm a manager with Barry Dunn and I'm joined by my colleague over this shoulder, J.R. Clanton, also with Barry Dunn. And it's been our privilege to work alongside your staff and community over the last year plus on this plan. and we're excited to share um at a high level uh the details of this plan with you today. And before we get into the the bulk of the presentation, which should be rather short, about 15 to 20 slides here, I wanted to start off just by pointing out um that for this particular process um sometimes when we go into a community to do a master plan, there's a an issue, a big issue to solve or or um you know, organizational challenge or something of that nature. And um happy to say there's so much for Blue Springs to be proud of in this process is that that's not the case. This is really us helping a really high performing organization um just optimize and become a little bit better. And I think uh some of the stats here point to uh the success of the department over the last decade or so um with the previous master plan and all that they've done to improve the community, improve the parks and that uh really showed through the statistically valid survey that we did with your community where we see more uh higher than average uh park utilization through the community uh significantly higher than national averages and also a significantly higher reporting of the quality of the parks and amenities that are offered to the community. So, just want to start by uh giving kudos to uh to the city, to all of you, to um to the staff who have implemented those improvements over the years to get you to where you are today. Um and as you'll see in some of these other slides, how efficient this uh operation is. So, as we make recommendations in this plan,

it's really in the spirit of optimizing an already high performing organization. So uh today I want to walk through the master plan timeline and the uh process uh that we've gone through for plan finalization. Uh we'll talk about some of the the key findings. Uh we will look at the strategic plan and some of the um the recommendations and uh priorities there and then talk about next steps. Before we get into that, just wanted to provide a little bit of definition. We'll be using a few different terms uh here and I want to provide some context in terms of what we're talking about when we say master plan, strategic plan or implementation plan is another term that you may hear. So, um Blue Springs had the foresight to to bring us on to not only do a parks and recreation master plan, but also a strategic plan. So, that master plan is going to be uh a long range outlook. It's very uh data and analysis driven. Has very much an external focus on what is the the what does the future of Blue Springs Parks and Recreation want to be. Uh that strategic plan is going to be more of a near to midterm focus, maybe three to fiveyear outlook um and more of an internal focus on uh what are we doing as as staff and as an organization to uh to move things forward. And then the implementation plan, which we'll talk about towards the end, but we'll be a workshop with staff to help develop that implementation plan is really looking at the short term over the next one to three years. How do we get the momentum going on this master plan and strategic plan? And it's very tactical. Who's doing what? When are they doing it? How are they doing it? So, just a little bit of a timeline. Uh we began this process with you in uh the

early part of 2025. A lot of the community engagement work and the analysis work happened over the summer and into the fall at which point we transitioned into our uh visioning mode and uh we had uh visioning workshops with staff with the park commission. I had conversations with with you uh to receive input on the the findings at that point and then uh we've gone through that draft phase and now we are in the finalization and implementation phase. I wanted to just zoom in a little bit on those final few phases and just call a few things out. We did after that visioning process receive some updated data and so we did make some revisions to our um earlier deliverables to uh just bring those up to date with new data. Uh we met with you all on March 30th and uh and presented findings or had opportunity for input on that draft plan and then are here with uh you today with a much prettier graphic design plan uh that uh is hopefully much more easy to uh to digest and ready for the community. Um so we're looking forward to your input on that. Tomorrow we will be spending time with staff to do that implementation workshop and build out that implementation plan. And the goal is uh then for staff to bring that to you uh to to validate that draft plan and uh make sure that that's in line with the city's overall goals and objectives before moving forward with that. So we've already provided a lot of information to you previously. I just wanted to highlight a few of the the key findings from the process. There was a lot hundreds of pages of analysis uh that were done both by Barry Dunn and by our partners uh with Birio and ETC Institute. Um one thing I wanted to

point out when it comes to the park uh parkland in Blue Springs um you are doing a a great job in terms of people's access to parks. When we look at national standards, um, Blue Springs is at or exceeding, uh, what would typically be offered in terms of acreage of parkland, uh, and especially when we consider parkland natural areas that aren't managed by Blue Springs, but that your community has access to, um, it it's, uh, very high. Now, where there were some uh opportunities identified is in terms of the quantity of parks and some gaps, of course, uh in the the south of Blue Springs, as a community grows, um there are some gaps there to address. And of course, kudos to your team for already having plans to address those gaps and those needs. And then there was a lot of analysis in terms of finances, looking at uh expenditures, looking at capital um expenditures, looking at revenues, and just I think this chart does the best job of wrapping everything up as we look at Blue Springs and look at the amount of uh cost that they're recovering through the revenues that they bring in through their programs, their fees, their memberships, sponsorships, etc. uh it is well above uh what we see typically and in fact you can see the NRPA that's a national park and recreation association they report that the upper cortile for cost recovery nationwide is at about 53% and blue springs is nearly 12% higher than that so it just speaks to the efficiency of uh of what you offer in the community and how um how well that you're operating and providing the most value to your community for the that are spent. So, another kudos to your team. So, I want to talk about how did we then

develop priorities uh from this plan? And a lot of this was listening to the community. We spent many months over the summer at events, at at coffee shops, um at the uh Independence Day celebration, uh engaging with the community in a variety of ways. Some of that was conversation, input cards, budget exercises where we had play money. Um, and we heard from so many people across the community. Your communications team did a great job getting the word out through emails, through social media, through signage and parks and facilities. So, the word was definitely out there that this process was happening and we received a considerable amount of engagement. And I think most importantly uh the statistically valid survey that was done uh provides you that um that academic rigor the validity to know not only did we hear from your community and those who are engaged and interested but um specifically within a specific confidence interval what is the true interests and desires of your community from a random sampled population. Um and h I'm happy to say that uh in in most cases those both that uh feedback generally from the community and what we saw in the statistically valid survey was very well aligned. Um and so that uh really speaks to the input and engagement of your community. So from that survey and from all that public input uh we uh scored those based on uh priority frequency of what we heard what the survey identified as the greatest needs um by the most people in the community and what were their highest priorities and gave us this list that you've seen previously of of a summary of um program and facility needs and operational uh needs. And so this information was then used in our

visioning workshop. And um as part of that process, we worked with uh staff with the park commission uh to develop some specific strategic priorities that fed into the strategic plan. And go ahead one more slide. There's a few images of some of those workshops. You see uh very interactive some sentence strips and dots and uh a lot of great feedback that uh went into this both from staff and the park commission. And Justin, if we can go one more slide here. Um so this input fed into the strategic plan that was developed. Again, this is that near to midterm kind of three to five year horizon of what are the priorities um and what are the specific goals that we're trying to achieve. It was important for us that that aligned with the citywide strategic plan. And you can see on the screen there those strategic priorities. Um for this plan there was a a new set of strategic priorities developed that were many of those very much aligned but we made sure that for each of those we talk about how they tie back to the citywide strategic plan. So, uh, as part of this process, there is a revised Blue Springs Parks and Recreation mission and vision statement that you see on the screen there, as well as the strategic priorities of high quality of life, community identity, accessibility, increased awareness, balance growth, and organizational health. And for each of those in that strategic plan, you'll find a goal statement. You will find a list of objectives and then a list of strategic actions and how they they align with the overall citywide uh strategic plan. So the next step that we'll be embarking on with staff tomorrow is taking those objectives and strategic actions and getting very specific about um specific actions that

be can be taken to put this plan into action over the next couple of years. And so that will um be a living document that staff will have that um can be sorted by strategic priority, by individual, by date um to talk about how are we going to move each of these items forward. So that information uh will be synthesized after our workshops tomorrow um provided back to staff uh to review and then for all of you to to weigh in on and provide additional input and ensure that alignment. That's so important. I think I just talked through a lot of those next steps here. Um, but you see that outlined on the screen here as our final steps in this process. And with that, we are happy to answer any questions that you have.

You have any questions about the parks master plan? Yes, sir. We have two former park commissioners up here that are now city council members. So, we always love that. Well represented here on the city council. Uh, I I know I had a chance to talk to you before the meeting. And I know there was a lot of conversation about uh the investment that Blue Springs is making in its parks and kind of how that benchmarks do like communities. Can you talk about a little bit what the data said and and what the what that looks like for how we're addressing that now?

Absolutely. So we uh looked at several different benchmarks for Blue Springs and one thing that I loved when we asked staff about how they wanted to benchmark themselves uh they wanted to benchmark themselves against the best of the best. So instead of just looking at nationwide averages or or regional peers, uh we did that, but they also wanted to look at uh those agencies that have been um finalist for the national gold medal award. So in the park and recreation field, that's um an annual award given to um communities for based on population uh cohorts. So we looked at the uh finalist for that award over the last many years and we used that as a a specific kind of rather than just the general population who are those high performing agencies nationwide and in your region and also benchmarked you against those. And um speaking of that to that cost recovery of your agency when we look at your overall expenditure operating expenditures were we're were on par but a little bit lower than those peer organizations whereas your revenues were a bit higher. Um and then in terms of the investment of the community in in recent years your your uh capital improvement uh expenditures um were above uh what we what we see from all of those peer groups. um the the uh across the board. So I think that halfsent sales tax that you have dedicated towards capital improvements has really done a lot in recent years and into the future to help to bring these things to reality.

Anything you'd add there JR financial wiz? Yeah.

Uh could you also talk a little about the engagement that you received through this process that we can be pretty confident that it's a reflection of what the community wants out of our park system? Yes, we one of the things that Barry Dunn prides itself on is its approach to community engagement. We realize that there's only a handful of people that want to show up to a civic building on an evening to pro provide input. Um and so while we did host some focus groups and things of that nature, we really wanted to be present in the community. So, uh, multiple trips, multiple days where we were, um, talking to people at existing events or, um, at the coffee shop as I'd mentioned, uh, just showing up to parks during busy days during the summer at the Splash Crowd and, uh, canvasing the the park, handing, you know, we a lot of, uh, parents watching their children play and while they're sitting there giving them an input card and asking them to share insights about their experience. We had a lot of local businesses that were willing to put up posters or or business cards available to uh to people. So, we saw um we like to track touch points. So, how many people interacted in one way or another? They received an email or or saw something on social media or they they engaged with us at at an event and had over 145,000 of those touch points across the community. Um, we had hundreds of comment cards that were completed. Um, hundreds of of inputs from thousands of visits to the online engagement site. So, 247 people could go uh to a website, learn about the plan, provide input either through a map or through an ideas wall or through a budget exercise or or the survey. And then um hundreds of responses to that statistically valid survey. And we provided that both for um the random sample and we received more responses than were necessary uh for the statistical validity but we also made

that survey available to the entire community and received hundreds more uh responses there and we were able to compare that data and see how that aligned and as I mentioned earlier it was very closely aligned. So, we're very pleased with the um amount of engagement that we saw from the community and um and between that engagement, the awareness through the communication channels and then that statistically valid survey, I have a lot of confidence in uh those results. There's tens and tens of people that watch this meeting, so I don't know what you're talking about. All right. Any other questions? Yeah. Council,

I'd just like to thank you and thank the community. uh publicly because without the community's involvement that you've generated, we wouldn't have this really cool report and I it's it's neat. It's nice to see. Thank you. I want to piggyback on that. Uh Ryan, I remember sitting down almost 18 months ago now and uh making the decision to move forward with Barry Dunn. Um your expertise, your team's expertise and your professionalism through this uh interaction with staff um commissioners uh and as you say public. I just want to say thank you as well and I am excited to get on the implementation plan and really see this stuff go to work. So, thank you. Thank you so much.

All right. Appreciate your time. Thank you so much. With that the presentation, then we have a resolution to uh adopt the parks and recreation master plan. Do I have an introduction? Yes, sir. You do. Okay. Got a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Okay. This is just a voice vote. All in favor? I. Any opposed? No. Motion carries. Next, we have the visitor section. I do have a speaker appearance form for Miss Joanne Honeywell. You will come up and you have three minutes to tell us what you're here to talk about. My goodness. Good evening. Three minutes. Three minutes. That's what you got.

Okay. I'll try to make this brief. To piggyback on the parks and recreation department. I'm in South Kansas City. We currently have a pocket park. I'm trying to talk to our HOA about maybe donating it to the city so the city can be responsible for it. And my reason why I enjoy the park, but as it is, it's in our HOA and we pay for it. Uh people from outside our little community are using it more than us. Okay. So, I'll cut that off about the park and now we'll go to the traffic issue that we have. I'm in Cambridge Park, South Kansas City on Sixth Street and Major Road. We have a problem. We've had two wrecks there within a week. Um, part of it is a sight line because of a fence that has put up. The other part is the speed of the traffic. So, what they've done is put up a traffic sign right off of Seven Highway and I think before Tennessee, but the sign is too close to Seven Highway. There's an incline there. So when you come up that hill, you're not going to get up to speed before you get to that sign. So it's not telling the true speed of the people that are going up and down that street. It needs to be moved another 200 ft to the east. Then there's another one on the pole at six and major and that's where the school bus bus wreck was and the last one was on the 25th. Um, so I reduced speed needs to be there and I lost my train of thought. Sorry. Take a minute off. But we we've got to do something. Also, we have golf carts flying up and down the streets. Teenagers hanging off. Four or five teenagers at a time hanging off. I took a picture of one in the park that I'm going to try to get the HOA to

donate to the city so that the city can have a park in South Kansas City. But I just before I came here, four or five teens, they are driving up on the sidewalk into the park with golf carts flying up and down music loud. There are children running everywhere. I witnessed a lady with three four year old didn't have her child's hand ran across into major That's a busy street where the wrecks were that would have been devastating. But um I think that's it. Am I allowed to talk about anything previous? Well, you got 30 seconds, but I have a question for you. Okay. But go ahead. You got 30 seconds. Tell us what you

I want to thank you. I am opposed to Lux 2 because of the 100% tax and I should have stood up, but I was nervous. But I am definitely opposed. That's too long. 27 years. I have a grandchild that lives here that's 22. She'll be almost 50 years old by the time that's paid off. No. Okay. Now, all right. Uh, are you talking about the traffic trailer, the speed trailer that they put up or you talking about an actual sign? Yes. The trailer. Okay. That's on the wheels when you come up seven.

You won't get you barely get to 30 miles an hour because of that incline there. It needs to be back a little farther to get a true measure of how fast they're going. And they speed through there. They did put a a speed limit sign on Sixth Street. Mhm. Yes. But there also needs to be one toward Adam's Dairy because they come from that direction really fast. Most of these are teenagers that are that are I mean speeds 45 50 miles an hour up and down that street. Well, I have two great pieces of information for you. First of all, they will move the speed trailer um probably this weekend. Okay.

To to a little closer to sixth and major. Secondly, uh we had some of your neighbors here two meetings ago after that bus accident happened. Yes. And uh the city's already started a process to do a traffic study uh so we can evaluate what needs to happen with that intersection to help make it safer. So, we're already in process. It started this week. So, you have good timing. Okay. Good. and then give it some thought about if we can donate that park. We we have a lot of park commissioners that will be glad to have that conversation. Yes. So, I I've already floated it with some of the people in the HOA. So, that would be great. Thank you for your time today. Appreciate you coming. Thank you. Good night.

Good job. Okay. Do we have any council members that would like to add any comments this evening? Go ahead. Uh, Council Member Mark, if we're speaking freely here, um, before we meet again, we will have Mother's Day um coming up next weekend. It's on my list. Good job. Good job. Well done. Well done. No, just want to make sure uh don't forget, Mom, um those of you that that um we have uh we have lost one in the last year, so it's going to be a little bit more hurtful this year. But, uh, those of you that do, um, get out there and celebrate her, um, make her feel special more than just the one day, but definitely on that day.

That's absolutely true. Any other council member comments this even? Yeah, I want to give uh, kudos to our um, our Oh my gosh, what department am I trying to No clue. Yes, hold on. Parks, PD, filling in our potholes. are. Thank you. My god. Public works. Public works.

So, we had a little um there is a culde-sac in the community uh that were getting um some pot fil filled and they had um some uh tape to make their kickball like little stadium that they were doing. So, um they decided to just go ahead and make those permanent for them. So, they have a permanent kickball field. So, kudos to to the public works for doing that and made some kids extremely happy. So, Thank you. Any other council member? I don't want to steal your thunder, sir. No, you you go right ahead. I will be glad to speak as less than everybody else. So, your honor. Yeah. Council.

No, I probably I'll just say I'll say it anyway. But having been married a long time, mothers and fathers, for your fathers in the world, just remember Father's Day is after Mother's Day. So, what you do for Mother's Day could be reflected in Father's Day. That's a little You're smart. Is that what you're saying? That's what I'm saying. Be smart, guys.

Well, speaking of Mother's Day, uh, Vesper Hall is doing their Mother's Day lunchon, uh, on Friday. So, uh, be sure to to go join them. The lunches at Vesper always great. Speaking of parks, so I'm glad to join them every once in a while. It's pretty awesome. On Saturday, if you want to take mom fishing, it's our fishing derby. It will be at Rotary Park on Saturday. So, I don't know what time that starts. Uh, it's early. nine nine am okay fishing derby 9 am at Rotary Park. So that's always exciting. And then yes, of course on Mon on Sunday is Mother's Day. So don't forget that. I think that's all. Oh, uh before the next meeting, we will have Memorial Day. So city officers will be closed on Memorial Day.

No, it's 18. So okay, I I had that on. We have two more weeks before that one. Okay, ignore that one. It's not going to be closed. That's all I have. So anything I'm missing, they're just going to shake their head. Okay, with that then I will accept a motion to adjurnn. So move. Is there a second? Second. Okay. All in favor? I. Any oppose? No. Motion carries. Yeah.