City Council - Special Meeting

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I agree with some of the things that he says, that you feel like someone has to switch as well.

Sorry. L.A., man, sister. It's really good. And it's like, before you said that, that's what I think. Yeah. That's what I first thought when I started.

How's it going? Good, good. Hi there.

Yes, and we'll play at the VAR tonight.

Yeah.

Because I'm afraid I wear too many.

Just listening to Fiddler on the Roof. I thought that sounded like. Here's the agenda. I don't know yet. But you're going to see. Which way the wind blows. Yeah.

Last time I came.

Yeah, I heard a surprise event today. I just did. And I have to admit, I suck.

He goes, I'm already going.

Maybe I'll send it to you.

I still need to clear the water from the plant. I didn't get to clear that one. You need to set that up. Did you go?

Yeah, it's very impressive. I love that. I'd go again. Would you?

Yeah. Who do I set that up with?

Either... Welcome to the webinar.

You can enter it as an organizer. You may now speak to any of the organizers or panelists on the line. When you are ready to begin the presentation, press the Start Broadcast button on the GoG webinar control panel. You will allow all attendees to hear you. This system will notify you once you begin the broadcast.

So we had to cancel, and just all this coming back to me just now, I never...

It's quite an impressive step up from our old, if you ever toured our old one.

I had, and I saw all of Whitney's pictures. I like the four after pictures. And was that open house, was that an open to the public type of thing?

Or was that just an invitation only? No, I think that was an invite.

It was, yeah, it was like a contract I posted that we were getting. So it wasn't an open house.

I'll see you come around.

She brought them over. They were hot still. In fact, I should have brought the cookie sheet that she wrote the two things on.

It would have been effective. So, yeah, you can put all that stuff together. Hopefully there's two more people throwing off stuff. She's going to Vegas without us? She said in a chair. No, but that's exciting. Oh, yeah. With friends or conference?

Yeah, it's a printing expo. And so she's going with the people that we're hearing from. So I'm sending her there, and her job is to find our giant new flatbed printer. Because you can get, like, if you sign up to buy it there, you can get, like, 25, 30% off.

Trade show.

Trade show prices. Oh. And NASDAR, the company that distributes, is right here.

It's amazing. One of the ways, no, it's this way. You're right. It's east.

It's on the east stage.

Yes.

Jay used to get ink from them, I believe. They have a really, really cool shirt and screen printing thing on display and that's our brand new.

You literally put it on like

It looks like it prints on really thin acrylic.

And then it goes on a shirt, burns it on there. No more of that, you know, five color, scrape this one, put this screen on there, scrape that one. He's a master.

I saw last night, you saw the pictures I sent in the dark.

We had our trucks backed up under the grandstands with those lights on.

We forgot any portable ones.

They just weren't shining high enough. And I saw 850 or something.

Come back and do it.

So how many more days of this? To get it all done, I know you have to be there very close. We're in a race for the lifts. So...

starting friday or saturday literally turns into a city out there with everybody getting everything ready and so like core electric comes there to turn everything on and then all the refrigerators and everything is up top all the concession stands so they're all working everybody needs a lift next

right before the race.

So that's why we're doing everything this year. They rent them from Foley.

So you're wanting to be done by the time of the race? We're trying to be done by maybe we'll be out there on Saturday. Not Saturday because it's family day. That's right. What time will you guys meet? Probably 7.

It was perfect last week.

Leaving at 7 was perfect. And we're taking late night. He asked if he couldn't go again. And he goes, I'll be at your house early.

Because last week he showed up 10 minutes early and I said, I like the kid that knows early. There she is.

Exactly. I know. And then, I already followed him, didn't I?

Oh, I'm following him.

And then he sends me a text today and says, hey, I'd really love to go this week. I've freed up my calendar. I know I can go. And I'm like, great.

Oh, I've been that late around.

And then he goes, I've been out for so many years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And you can come in the back way

Because right about 9 o'clock, turning into the ag parking where there's just a ton of tailgates and plenty of parking if you're getting there at 9 o'clock. It's very much casual. I'll drop you a pin. It's so easy. Because if you go up and you try to park it, it's the agriculture center where they, you know, they're growing corn and everything else. Just tons of green space.

It turns into a massive parking lot. So, we were pausing at about 9 o'clock last weekend.

We almost called you guys last night. We did.

You don't want to know what she was... I was going to say, what name was she going to use? Hey.

I'm doing all right, Ron. How are you? Good.

I had a rapid cut. No, I did not. I got hurt. And then the next day,

I was tan, so it was different. And then I finally got urban again. Do you want to take pictures? Actually, can you start the stream off in the kitchen? The YouTube screen? So we're good. Can we just take a picture now? Sure.

Just in case. I left mine in Linux.

Pam has one here.

Yeah, so if you give me a phone number, I can use your phone.

It's way easier. I've got a show up for you. Oh, here. Oh, here.

I guess so. We are like the case. I got it.

It would be 27, 26 years. Well, we only need one. Oh, in 2029, that would be 30 years. I'm walking around here right now. I was going to say, he went that way. Okay, 26 this year. Too far away?

Sorry. So that, he started with that. Oh, did he? He started with that.

But that, let me see. Hello. Hi. I'm Pam. I'm Sherry. You knew who we're missing. Yes. Okay. Where are you? Right here. Yeah. We have Ron to clear us out.

There we go. All right. I'm going to take a couple. There we go. All right, surely one of those is good. Thanks, guys.

Who wants your cup? Not too. uh-huh very good

How you doing, buddy?

How you doing, man?

Good to see you. Thank you for taking care of that tree. I'm sorry. I had to call. I was thinking about it.

I was thinking about it. By the time I got back, I was thinking about it. Okay. Now, I thought that Martin said they saw it earlier, so they were getting crazy about it. Thanks so much.

I'm going to walk with you. Of course.

Thank you. Welcome to here.

The broadcast is now starting. All the meetings are in listen-only mode.

. . . Thank you. I must recall it. Yes. So what color are you wearing? Oh, yeah, it's black.

I got this thing.

You've got the light right now. Yeah, I see her. Go ahead and see.

Hi. Yeah. He does. If Lindsay walks in in blue. If Lindsay comes in in blue, you should be offended.

I got a goal? Yeah.

Good job. Well, if I remember correctly, this was an experiment. How are you guys? Thank you. Thank you.

Is this for what I want?

Joe is going to bring you a bell.

Thank you. Thank you.

Oh, yeah. You? You going just for Saturday?

Yeah.

I don't know. I think they were like two bucks.

I bought like four agents all at once.

Yeah, this time of year, it's volleyball. We were 10 rows up on the 30th grade. She sat with us. like maybe in the third quarter. So come out in the student section, see what we're doing, and follow you.

I want to hear from you. Yeah. So I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Mhm. Yeah. Somebody's ringing. What?

I would like to call the September 17th DeSoto City Council meeting to order. We'll start with roll call please.

Lane.

Here.

Sabo. Here. McCracken.

Here.

Bradley.

Here.

Patterson.

Here.

All are present today. All right. I would invite you all to please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of

indivisible, with liberty and justice.

All right. Thank you. Our first item tonight is a proclamation declaring Constitution Week here in DeSoto. Whereas our founding fathers, in order to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity, did ordain and establish a Constitution for the United States of America, and whereas it is of the greatest importance that all citizens fully understand the provisions and principles contained in the Constitution in order to support, preserve, and defend it, and whereas the 239th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution provides a historic opportunity for all Americans to realize the achievements of framers of the Constitution and the rights, privileges, and responsibilities it affords, and whereas the independence granted to American citizens should be celebrated by appropriate ceremonies and activities during Constitution Week, September 17th through the 23rd, 2026, as proclaimed by the President of the United States of America. Now, therefore, I, Rick Walker, Mayor of the City of DeSoto in the State of Kansas, do hereby proclaim the week of September 17th. through the 23rd, 2026 as Constitution Week in the city of DeSoto, and I urge all citizens to reaffirm the ideals the framers of our Constitution had in 1787 by celebrating the freedoms guaranteed to us through the United States Constitution. Thank you for bringing that forward. All right. Our next item tonight is our consent agenda. Tonight in our consent agenda, we have approved the minutes from the September 2nd special city council meeting. Item B, approve pay ordinance number 1027. Item C, approve donation requests from Starside Elementary PTA. And item D, authorize mayor to sign skid steer lease documents. Is there any item anyone would wish to remove from the consent agenda for further discussion? Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda, sir.

Second. All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please.

Patterson?

Yes.

Bradley? Yes. McCracken? Yes. Sabo? Yes. Lane? Yes. Motion carries.

All right. Our next item is call to public. Members of the public are welcome to use this time to comment about any matter relating city business not listed on tonight's agenda. The comments that are discussed under call to public may or may not be acted on by the council.

During this meeting, there is a four-minute time limit.

Please stand and wait to be recognized by the mayor. Anyone wish to address the council? Yes.

Marie Caldwell. City Council and members of the public, as time goes on, many residents, including myself, continue to struggle to understand why the concerns of community members seem to be consistently overlooked. Yet decisions continue to be made involving developers with limited track records, active litigation histories, or projects that many residents believe may negatively impact the long-term health and character of our community. Through core request discussion with my contacts at the state capitol and a review of past meeting minutes, I have begun to uncover information that raises additional questions. Tonight, I would like to share some observations and ask for clarification from the city leadership. In a July 2026 podcast, John Peterson reportedly stated that he owns water rights at Ad Astra. accurate, what impact would that have on DeSoto's future water supply and management plans? Additionally, there has been discussion of rail service in the area despite previous assurances that rail development was not being considered. Can the city clarify its current position on this rail infrastructure? Finally, if we continue to add industrial activity and infrastructure to this area, what becomes of the vision for parkland and environmental preservation out there that residents were promised? I also reviewed the Planning Commission meetings from January 25, 2022, where a proposal to rezone the now BL property to M1 Industrial Zoning was considered and ultimately voted down. What circumstances changed that decision and the current direction being pursued? What new information justifies the different outcomes? When residents asked city officials, especially Mayor Mike, whether or not there were agreements or ongoing discussions involving terror power, we were told that the city's involvement consisted of a letter of interest submitted to the state. However, records obtained through court requests and other avenues suggest a much longer and more extensive history of communication and coordination. First, there was a trip to the state of Washington, which is the headquarters of TerraPower. February 2025, an email was sent to KDC to Mike for NDA concerning TerraPower. February 2025, there was a correspondence between Mike and Patrick about the MNDA with TerraPower. March 25th, an email concerning Gumdrop, which was a radiopharmaceutical company along those same lines. In October 2025, Tim Holwerson sent an email discussing that these companies often work with power plants. April 2025, an MOU of understanding was sent by TerraPower for the mayor to sign. April 2025, KDC, Paul Hughes' emails Mike Kelly stating the MOU for TerraPower is going around for signatures. June 25, email from Mike Tirana about TerraPower. September 25, Whitney and the Mayor were speaking about how it would be easy to play dumb to questions concerning TerraPower and preparing for when the state announces TerraPower to their short-term list. September 20, 2025, KDC, Evergy, and TerraPower entered into an agreement. November 25, Chuck Hunter, Mayor Mike were in an email conversation titled, Congratulations about having a get-together to celebrate the one-year milestone of working with Evergy, TerraPower, and the KDC. This means TerraPower started at least in November of 2024. November 2025, the city of DeSoto announced they were sending a letter of interest and only a letter of interest. Lastly, I would appreciate knowing when my name is going to be shared with a developer when I request a CORA. Given this timeline, residents deserve answers. If discussions, agreements, NDAs, MOUs, and coordinated efforts were underway for months or years before the public announced it, why were residents led to believe that the city's involvement was limited to a simple letter of interest? Residents have repeatedly asked the city to slow down, improve oversight of development agreements, establish stronger policies regarding NDAs and public disclosure, and ensure that major decisions are made in the open. Instead, many feel their concerns are minimized, delayed, or dismissed. I am asking the City Council tonight to provide straightforward answers, commit to greater transparency, and demonstrate that public input matters. Trust is not built through secrecy or selective disclosure. It is built through honesty, openness, and accountability to the people you are elected to serve.

Anyone else in the call to public?

Dolly Holloway, 8530 Hilltop Road. It is easy to play dumb, apparently. Dumb about the ownership of TerraPower, such as Bill Gates of Microsoft, a company with direct ties to an increase in hyperscale data centers across the country. It's easy to play dumb about the success of TerraPower's trajectory as a functional company. TerraPower has not built a single facility. It has snatched up land with federal ties and remediation work in at least one other state, Pennsylvania. They've signed exclusive contracts to sell power to Meta from at least eight of their future facilities across the U.S. that are not even up and running yet. Could we be one of those facilities? Does our city research these companies and provide transparency to us, the citizens, regarding these development partners? The facilities that TerraPower receives federal funding for are cooled with natrium, which is a form of salt. There are exorbitant costs associated with these types of advanced nuclear facilities and reactors and long-term timelines to successfully building and running them. The facility in Wyoming alone is estimated to cost $4 billion, with only half of that funded by Department of Energy grants. What will we use in the meantime to power data centers, battery plants, and the continuing development of our population? Is it more gas? Is it more coal-powered plants? Well, I guess we can just move fast, break stuff, and ask questions later. That's what Silicon Valley does, and it works great for them, right? It's easy to play dumb. When citizens have legitimate questions about the future of our town, our lives, and even our children's lives, it's so easy to play dumb. Sorry, but does that mean spending months coordinating with PR firms, lawyers, and developers about how to spin nuclear power as the solution to the growing needs of what the city admin views as increasingly important corporate sponsors like Beale, Digital Realty, Panasonic? It is so easy to play dumb when the choices you make don't affect you personally because you have an exit plan from the slow-moving horror show happening on land still under active remediation. When the city doesn't think citizens need environmental impact studies because they're too costly. When we're told these developments are happening whether we like it or not. when our paid staff talk about concerned citizens like problems to be managed rather than people to be heard. It's easy to play dumb about TerraPower being discussed by Astro with the city since at least 2024. It's easy to play dumb about country club celebrations and TerraPower HQ visits. It's easy to play dumb, but what about playing ethical for a change? Don't the citizens of this town deserve more than playing dumb?

Anyone else on their call to public?

Hello, I'm Regina Clark at 8372 Frederick Court. I was not planning on talking tonight. I want to really thank council. You guys spent a lot of time getting yelled at by us. Council member McCracken and Patterson, you stepped in at a moment's notice to help. Bradley and Zabo, you joined recently and I appreciate the effort. But what I request that you do is stop gaslighting the city. If there's something that happens, explain why it's happening. Explain that you heard our concerns and you don't care about the concerns because this is why you think your decision is better. We're fine if you can explain what's going on. Stop hiding stuff. Just be transparent about it. If you don't want to be held to these agreements, but legally you're obligated to, then tell us. Ask your citizens for help if you need help and you signed a bad agreement. Just stop hiding stuff and that's all. I've been to so many of these meetings. I've watched online. And we give our commentary to everyone and no one cares. And they just say, well, it's going to happen. You don't want growth. We want growth. We want responsible growth. We want transparent government. And we just don't want to be gaslit and be told that we're making stuff up. Thank you.

Anyone else want to call the public?

Sarah Vanden Creek, DeSoto resident. I started to write something today and then I spent most of my day going out and getting signatures from many people and having many, many, many conversations. And I don't begrudge the position that many of you are in, being asked to think about things that you weren't even part of the decision. And I would love to be able to be in the room with the people that made those decisions, because they're really the ones that I should ask those questions of. I feel like we continually ask, or let me go back. We continually give you resources that we have found research, papers, articles, discussions, lots of information. And what we're asking for is feedback. So if you have some amazing resource that's going to convince us that this is good for our city, I ask you to please share it. I've been directed to the one little page back and forth flyer. I've been directed to the website that has a couple of blurbs about the benefits. But most of the benefit that I see is money. It's about millions of dollars. And how do you qualify that when you have families and people, the environment, when you can care about how our plants are growing, how do you qualify that? We are asking, we are giving lots of time, we are giving lots of energy, we are not being paid, we are taking days off work, we are putting ourselves out there to try to get the answers, and we're not getting any real answers. It's, well, you know, we're called names. were called things online, and that I don't really care about. When I walk into a meeting, though, and the person that's presenting uses the word threats and then quickly changes it right after I walk in the meeting to concerns about the city, I want to know, am I one of those threats? Am I one of those people that you consider a threat to the city because I've asked for some records, because I've asked the questions that people want to ask? And then tonight I stopped by a citizen's home and he tells me about how when there was a meeting for staff, about the data center that was coming in, I'm guessing probably Beale, because it was the first one. And he asked the question, well, what about the people that live here? And the response from Mr. Brungardt, who's not even here tonight, on the night of a budget meeting night, our city administrator, his response to him is that citizens don't have a voice in this. The city council and the mayor make the decision. That's what he told me tonight at about 5.30, that the city administrator told people that work in our city that the citizens don't have a voice. You are our voice. We rely on you because some of these people, they don't care what we say. They're flat out telling people they don't care. And when we ask for information, we're not given any information and we're brushed away, literally brushed away. Thank you.

Anyone else under call to public? All right, seeing none, I will move on in the agenda. We do not have any old business, so I'll go to item 4A. Consider ordinance number 2697, rezoning 1,118 acres from RUR to M1 at the corner of Astro Parkway and 111th Street.

All right, thank you, Mayor and Council. Yes, you're correct, there is a large rezoning. This is the fourth request for ASTRA development to rezone property out of the Sunflower site. Previous requests have all been about the same in size. There's been about 3,000 acres that have been rezoned to M1 at this point. Still a vast majority of the property. There's 9,000 acres. 2,000 will go to Johnson County Parks, so there's quite a bit of property that's Still re-zoned RUR, which carries the county zoning. So this request before you is about 100 acres. Went through the perfunctory process and out letters. In this case, the only two that got letters were Johnson County Parks and the Kansas Board of Regents. And you can see on the map, Edgar, Brandon, if you can fast forward, that's the track that's being considered for rezoning. So you can see there's a spot in the middle. That is actually an Evergy substation that was rezoned and has been constructed. And that was about three years ago when that took place. And that is the Atlantic substation. We did have a public hearing for the Planning Commission. You do have the minutes from that meeting in your packet. I have had a few calls on the rezoning, not necessarily against rezoning, but more so against data centers. Go through the zoning compatibility factors. As you know, this area is... Really fairly remote as far as a lot of activity is concerned. There aren't many residences nearby, if any at all. None of them got any rezoning letters for this property since they were well beyond the 200 feet required. But the primary uses around it are the parkland, there's the Martin Marietta Quarry, Desoto Water Treatment Plant is in this area, and of course then K-State's Board of Regents, they've got their forestry area, which also abuts this potential rezoned area. Compatibility proposed zoning with permitted uses. Most of the uses in M1 require large space. That's what this property's been looked at since the ammunition plant closed. The reuse was always intended for job growth, for recreating. economic activity within the city of DeSoto, and this is the point where the developer has asked for an additional request for rezoning. Has the property been restricted under its existing zoning? No, but it is its own RUR, rural ag, and as a site that used to be M2, heavy industrial, M1 is a good category for this property to be rezoned. Like the time has remained vacant. Well, the plant closed about 40 years ago, 40 plus years ago, so it has been vacant for this time. It is now becoming prime economic development area, and the applicant is asking for a rezoning change. The extent that there's a need in the community for the uses that the proposed zoning has been targeted in the city's comprehensive plan for many, many years. The state of Kansas has been involved in the Department of Commerce in pursuing and promoting this site as well as the Soto Chamber of Commerce and economic development agencies. The adequacy of required utilities, as I mentioned, the DeSoto Water Treatment Plant is in the northeast corner. So all the activity or the utilities do exist, but they don't exist throughout the site. There are, with the construction of the Panasonic Plant, sanitary sewer is within reach of this location. Also, there's plenty of electricity from the development of the energy substation in this area. Fire service is greatly improved with the new fire station. Won't see a whole lot of activity from the sheriff patrols for this area as it is underdeveloped at this point. But there will be some necessary patrols by sheriffs in the future as development does occur. Lexington Avenue and Evergy Way have been improved. Astor Parkway is being improved south about to the water treatment plant. So there are a lot of utility improvements and roadway improvements in the area. To the extent the proposed zoning would adversely affect the area, the site has convenient access to Astor Parkway and Edgerton Road, Evening Star and Lexington. There is concern about 95th Street and Sunflower Road usage. They've been recently overlaid, but they don't meet our collector or arterial standards. And we have... Because of the improvements to Evening Star, Edgerton, and Lexington, there is adequate access points to K-10 Highway for heavier truck traffic. Environmental impacts with the proposed zoning stated the properties when we go through this process will require for noise studies, potentially photometric studies. We also require a landscaping plan, screening, buffering. There's a lot of things that go into it. But at this point, just the simple use of the land use change designation on a map really has little or no impact on the environmental components of this property. Detrimental properties that may be detrimentally affected could be some of the Clearview City and Prospector's Point. There's also housing development going across on the north side of Astor Parkway. However, I stated there is good capacity or actually excellent capacity on Lexington Avenue connecting Lexington through Averagey Way to Evening Star plus access on Edgerton Road as well. relative gain to the public health and welfare from a denial of the rezoning. As I mentioned, we have, the city previously has studied this area, has wanted economic development, has wanted growth, has wanted to see a reuse of a, basically a brownfield site into something productive. So this would stop this, a denial would stop this potential progress that we've been making working with the developer. something that's been in Lexington City's comprehensive plans and strategic plans for quite some time. Staff's opinion that this is a appropriate rezoning request, we did. taken the issue to the Planning Commission, held a public hearing. As I said, you have the minutes from the meeting. There was some discussion on maybe there should be some commercial uses considered, but the developer felt like those could come a little bit later as more crossway road networks are being constructed. Right now the plan is to have 111th Street cut through, 127th, 135th, and of course 143rd Street goes through right now, but that is just in the south of the site. So with that, I'll stand for any questions you may have, but the Planning Commission did make a recommendation to approve the rezoning request.

Okay. Questions from council?

It appears in the documentation that All of the golden criteria were considered and found positive, is that correct? In this case, they were, yes. And it appears that based on documentation, the use is consistent with the future land use plan and the city's master plan? That is correct, Councilman. Thank you.

I'm not sure who would ask or who could do this, the golden criteria. Can you give kind of a short version of exactly what that is for those that may not know?

Sure. I included in the packet a memo. But what the golden criteria are emanate from a Kansas Supreme Court case from some time ago. And essentially, what the court said was that in considering a rezoning request, planning commission and the governing body needs to consider certain criteria. And there's no particular weight given to any one criteria, but what the court said is that it must be shown that those criteria were considered by the body. Because if the case is challenged in court, the court would need to know what criteria the counsel used in deciding whether it was appropriate to rezone. In each rezoning, Brad, our city planner, goes through each of the criteria set out by the court case, things such as character of the neighborhood, infrastructure. There are a number of them. But he goes through each one of those and gives his professional opinion as to whether those criteria have been met. So you have that packet. that you have that report in your packet. And as I explained in the memo, the appropriate way to handle your deliberations is if you agree with professional staff's recommendation, then you can simply point to that report in the packet. If you disagree, then you're being asked to state that but also share as part of your motion that you disagree with the report what criteria you find are lacking or what criteria you disagree with the city planner on. And that's just so we have that as part of the record. So in the event that is challenged later in court, the court would have that as a record. Happy to answer any other questions, but that's my best summary of the golden criteria.

Those were each of the factors that Brad went through in his presentation. Can you scroll back to the map? The other thing I wanted to point out is the area immediately east of this, that's the parkland to be dedicated. It is a process that is very time intensive, getting it through all the government channels. I know parks are... If you participated in any of the park master planning, you saw the intended vision for that property. And they're anxious to have that, but it is a slow and deliberate process to get that from the GSA through to... It actually has to, I believe, go to Astra and then to Johnson County Park. So it's... not that it's being delayed or held up by the developer. It's a function of time that government actions take, I guess. The other thing I wanted to clarify is I believe all the physical cleanup activity on this site is complete. Is there someone from the representative developer that can confirm that? Would you mind coming to the podium? Make sure I'm correctly stating that. Would you state your name for the record?

Sure, Vince Cousy with the Polsadelli Law Firm. That's my understanding as well, is that all the remediation activity with respect to the 1,100 acres to be rezoned has been completed. Okay, thank you.

I just wanted that clarification.

Does that include the former nitric acid regeneration plant and sulfuric acid regeneration plants that are there in the very southern, southeastern corner there that's sort of two squares? I know that there's still some buildings remaining. Yeah, I'm not sure on that, Councilman.

I'm sorry, the government remediation, the DOD, or the Army's remediation, the developer still has to remediate by demolishing buildings, but the EPA-controlled remediation is physically complete. Thank you. Any other discussion, any questions? Go ahead.

So zoning is I think a topic of interest in general anyway. Like is there a reason, do we know there's a reason that this has to be rezoned at this time? Like is there something that's coming or why it might not have been rezoned with another time? I'm still trying to get that as far as I know, like there's a mention about there's no environmental impact for rezoning, which is true, but there's been more discussion now about what falls into various zoning areas. And so it may not be environmental concerns for rezoning, but there might be concerns once an industry decides to that falls under the M1 zoning, then they fall under that, then that's where there might be a concern. And that just would go through a different process once that happens?

So when in considering rezoning, technically you're really not supposed to focus on any one potential use after the rezoning. You have to consider every use that is allowed under the M1 zoning. Brad, I don't know if you can summarize what's allowed in M1, but you have to assume that with the rezoning, any of those uses could be pursued by the landowner. But zoning is not a condition, like you can't approve rezoning with a condition that, well, you don't put a data center. That's not our prerogative. It's either You rezone it or you don't. And if you don't, like I said, you have to point to the criteria, the golden criteria. And the court has been very specific that you have to focus on those criteria. So things outside of those criteria really are not appropriate to make your decision on.

I think the guidance is that our comprehensive plan future land use map has considered this entire area of the former ammunition plant outside of the areas that will be dedicated for parks or transferred to parks as either light or heavy industrial. And this rezoning request is in conformance with that vision, that future land use map. It actually is all going to the light industrial versus some of it was contemplated as heavy industrial in that future land use plan from 2025.

but this would just be the light industrial.

The request is to make this entire site light industrial, even though some of it was considered or marked on that future land use map as possibly being heavy industrial, a more intense use that would have more impactful or dirty type industrial uses allowed.

Especially since it is close to the Kill Creek Park area. I guess that was my thinking.

Yeah. I have a question for Brad. You mentioned the use – was it KU or K-State or – K-State has a forestry – Do you know roughly where that is over there?

It is in the – sort of on that diagonal, actually. It's about a south of a – the northern end of it is 127th Street. 135th, you'll drive right into it through their gates. So it does extend up a little ways from that location, about almost a mile. So that takes it up to right to about 127th Street. Right there on that bottom edge? Yeah, well, it doesn't show it very well. Maybe the previous slide, but you can kind of see how it...

Sort of butts up against it?

Yes.

All right.

Other questions? Comments? So it was a unanimous decision, recommendation by the Planning Commission for approval of this rezoning?

That is correct, Mayor.

Brad, one more comment, kind of a question. This track used to be M2 with its previous use, correct? All the way until it was...

Well, when the Army had it, it was obviously heavy industry, but it was not in city limits.

It was county, and I don't know what it was. I don't recall what it was.

Yeah, I don't know if the Army really had to pay any attention to that. But as the mayor referenced, and I know the land use plan is in the packet. It might be buried farther down, but it shows where that area was considered for.

Yeah, there it is.

Yeah, that's it. So that sort of darker gray area is the area that was shown as heavy industrial or is still shown in our current land use plan. And that little blue rectangle square is the water treatment plant. And this actually shows where K-State is. It's actually, I think they own this piece right here. They go all the way up to here. It's actually the Board of Regents that owns that. K-State uses it for their forestry.

And they actually have some open houses out there every year. It seems like they share what they're doing out there. Gardening stuff or different ideas. But they do have some open houses out there on an annual basis, as I recall. K-State folks. Any other discussions? Are we ready for a motion?

I'll make a motion that based on the unanimous approval by the Planning Commission, at least the unanimous findings positive in favor, that we approve the rezoning as noted in the council packet.

Do we have a second? Second, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please.

Sable? Yes. Patterson?

Yes.

Bradley? Yes. McCracken? Yes. Lane? Yes.

Mayor Walker? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Item B, considered adoption of 2027 budget. Brandon, are you presenting tonight?

Yeah, I will do my best mic impersonation today. I don't know if you guys had a chance to catch it, but... Just be Brandon. Fair enough. The mayor's minute today, I think he did a really good job covering this topic, so I'll just hit some of the high points. Most important thing, I think, in this proposed budget is it's built on an approximately 6% reduction in the current mill levy of 12.94%. The goal is to keep the city portion of your property taxes for the average resident property taxpayer essentially flat, so we reduce the mill levy by 6%. The budget also uses revenues generated from industrial revenue growth, permit fees, sales tax, and development fees. Pressure on the property owners. It includes $50,000 for... a law enforcement feasibility study to help us evaluate future service options without committing to a city police department. It funds a shared fire protection service officer with the fire district and an additional park staff to keep our parks maintained. The CIP has major infrastructure improvements and investments, including a restroom at the Riverfest Sports Complex, a $1 million street maintenance program, a splash pad in our parks, and our continued sidewalk replacement program. Overall, the budget lowers the mill levy, maintains services, and advances community priorities. A lot of work went into this, from department heads to Bonnie to Patrick, myself, mayor and council, and obviously Mike, who's not here, we all know he did the heavy lifting on this. So with that, Mayor, I will turn this back over to you, and we'll kind of walk through the five-step process.

All right. I guess the one thing I would like to point out is that while we try to keep it... Flat for everyone. Not everyone was limited to a 6% reappraisal. So I, for one, will be seeing a slight increase based on this because my house appraised at more than exceeded that 6% on my reappraisal notice. So we do the best we can to make average for everybody so that there's no increase and We're not collecting any more property tax from our residential properties in 2027 than we did in 2026. I think with that, we're ready to open the revenue-neutral budget hearing piece. Is that correct?

Yeah.

Revenue-neutral rate hearing, right?

Give kind of a brief summary of what that is.

All right. So unless anybody has any opposition, I will now officially open a hearing on exceeding the revenue neutral rate. If you wish to make comment concerning this, please come to the podium and state your name and address. Thank you. All right. I'm not seeing anybody that wants to talk about exceeding the revenue neutral rate, so I'm going to close the public hearing on the revenue neutral hearing. Thank you. So our next topic then is to consider resolution 2101, exceeding the revenue neutral rate. We have to take this official action so that we can formally adopt our mill rate that would exceed that revenue neutral rate.

Yeah, this is step two of the kind of five-step process.

Any questions for Brent? Did you want to make any presentation regarding this or any specific questions anybody has?

I was just going to give kind of an overview. For those that aren't budget nerds like myself, what the revenue neutral rate actually is. Let's go through it. So the revenue neutral rate is essentially a property tax rate or mill levy that would raise the same amount of property tax dollars from previous years based on current year. assessed valuation for properties. So essentially, if the city adopts a mill levy above that amount, it must hold a public hearing, which you just held, and take a vote to exceed the revenue neutral rate. So in 2026, the city collected approximately 4.6 million in property taxes and levied a mill of 12.94. The state calculated revenue neutral rate for 2027 is 10.8 mills, which would be a reduction of approximately 2 mills or 16%. The rate in DeSoto is particularly low because of Panasonic. The growing value is included in the calculation, and much of that tax revenue goes back to the TIF and cannot support general city services. So instead of proposing the 12.17 mil levy, so instead the city's proposing a 12.17 mil levy. a reduction of about 0.8 mils, which is, again, the average residential valuation increase for 2026. That decrease is set to basically allow your average resident to pay the same amount of property tax as they paid in 2026. as they pay in 2027. Some will pay less if your increase is less than 6%. Some will pay more, like the mayor just pointed out, if your increase is a little, is over 6%. But your average taxpayer in DeSoto will pay the same amount to the city of DeSoto as they did previously. So with that, Mayor, I think that basically covers the revenue-neutral rate, and I think we're ready to have our discussion about the resolution.

All right. All right, the resolution's in your packet. Does anyone have any questions regarding the resolution? Points for clarification? Are we ready for a motion?

I just want to ask to clarify for those who aren't aware. Mill rate going down in DeSoto doesn't mean that your property tax overall bill will go down. It could still go up based on, like you said, the valuations.

Yeah. Yeah.

But based on the county's or other taxing jurisdiction's needs.

Yeah. We always say, you know, we are about 10% of your property tax bill. That decrease that we have could go somewhere else. But what you pay to the city on your average homeowner would be about the same.

And even if we reduced our mill levy from the city to zero, people would still pay property taxes.

Yeah, people would still pay property taxes, yes. For the portions the city has no control over. Yeah, for your county, your school district, the library, Johnson County Community College, there's several jurisdictions.

Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that for people who may be watching and not quite understanding that. And the other thing I had was I still voice my opinion that I think it's ridiculous the way the R&R rate is calculated using TIF money and still encourage us to pursue that with the state as a legislative amendment because it is not fair to us.

Yeah, we are not the only one that, you're not the one that thinks that. There are cities around that think the same thing.

Thank you.

That's all.

All right. Any further discussion? Are we ready for a motion on resolution 2101?

Make a motion that we approve resolution 2101 as entered in the council packet.

Second.

All right. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Roll call, please. McCracken? Yes. Bradford? Yes. Patterson?

Yes.

Yes.

Motion carries. All right. Our next item then is to have our official 2027 budget hearing. Any introduction to this part of it?

I think we've covered it. I think this is the sixth or seventh presentation. All right. Put it back over to you, Mayor.

Now I will officially open the budget hearing. If you wish to come make comment about the City of DeSoto's 2027 budget, please come to the podium, state your name and address. Okay. I'm not seeing any takers, so I'll close the public hearing. Our next item then is to consider Ordinance 2698, Adopting the 2027 Budget. Any introduction for this? I think we've been going through this over the last six months. Any questions before?

No one wants to go through everything on the line?

I do have Mike's presentation, but I don't think anyone wants to do that. Okay, just checking.

I know I didn't.

All right. So ready for a motion to approve ordinance 2698 adopting our 2020...

I move to approve ordinance number 2698, the 2027 budget.

Second. As presented. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion?

Roll call, please. Bradley? Yes. Patterson? Yes. Lane? Yes. Sabo? Yes. McCracken? Yes. Motion carries.

All right. Our next item, item C, consider ordinance 2699, issuing IRBs for phase two of residences at Lexington. Patrick?

Yes, counsel. You previously approved issuance of these IRBs in the amount of $40 million for the residents at Lexington. You did that by a resolution of intent. So tonight's action is done any time there's a resolution of intent. This is the final step where the bonds are actually issued by the city. There is no city financing at issue here. These are not city funds. Rather, this is funding by the developer through the bond. recommend approving or making a motion to approve ordinance 2699 authorizing 40 million in investor revenue bonds for phase two of the project. Happy to answer any questions. All right.

Any questions for Patrick on this proposed ordinance?

I just have a question. I'd be curious to get a number from that time when they started to now, any of those, like, the housing benefits as far as number of completed units, how many are occupied, or rental rates? You know, try to get that information from when it first started. Are we to the point of what they said they were going to be at this point? It's more just discussion. I don't think anybody's here. Yeah.

Well, Dustin had a conflict. He wanted to be here. I'm sure he would be happy to provide that information, but I don't know the information.

Yeah, I can't speak to that directly. It looks like they're finalizing construction on the last two buildings, so early leasing was very positive, but I have no idea what those numbers would be.

All right. Thanks.

Just to be clear, Patrick, this is just a debt channel. It's not, there's zero liability to the city, and if they default, there's still no liability to the city. That's correct. Okay, yeah.

I'll make a motion to approve ordinance 2699 authorizing $40 million in industrial revenue bonds for phase two of the project.

Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Bradley? Yes. Patterson? Yes. McCracken?

Yes.

Sabo?

Yes. Lane? Yes. Motion carried. All right. Our next item, item D, consider resolution number 2102 for additional six acres of RHID for limestone development.

Yes, counsel. The development, the grotta development, they are pursuing... some rezonings to change their development plan at Kill Creek and K-10. Part of their changes there, they've requested two additional spots that they would like to qualify for RHID, which essentially acts as a TIF, allows them to recover some expenses. The first step in being able to do that, we have to make a request through the Kansas Department of Commerce that they approve those areas for RHID. So the resolution before you is simply making that request to Commerce to approve these two small areas for RHID. You will then have... documentation that comes back before you where you would approve or, you know, you can make a decision on whether you are fine approving RHID for these two areas. So that will come later after we get a feedback from the Department of Commerce. So I recommend making a motion to approve Resolution 2102 as written. Brandon, can you scroll down to the map, please? Mm-hmm.

I can see the pieces that... The only question I had is if the rezoning creates areas that are non-compatible with RHID that would be within the boundary of that district, is that an issue for us later on? What do you mean incompatible? Well, for instance, a use that would not be eligible for RHID. Is RHID eligible for commercial construction as well as... No, it's residential. So is there, not knowing what their future plan is, is there a potential? I guess my point is, is there a reason to have this follow the rezoning so that we have certainty of the boundaries of the district?

We do have a rezoning request for this, and that track is going to be rezoned to R2, so it will be a residential district. So I don't think that will be a concern. But it hasn't been approved yet.

But it includes both of these pieces?

Yeah, now that piece is the old roadway. That is zoned commercial, that piece right now. That one's going to stay commercial, I'm pretty sure. But it's going to be a part of their roadway and it will tie into that whole that corner as you can see it's basically going to be two two-thirds commercial and then the whole area the third that's to the east is being proposed as r2 yeah i think what they would say is that road serves the development so it's an expense related to the residential aspect so that's why they're

qualifying or want that as RHID.

I guess my concern was also the unshaded perimeter that is bounded by the red line. Is the current RHID district or am I making an inaccurate assumption there?

No, we're leaving the RHID that was already approved.

So this is currently an RHID, right? Correct. So if they redevelop and part of this becomes commercial, is that a problem if this area that's RHID is in what ends up being a C1 or whatever? I don't know what. And I'm sorry, I haven't reviewed their rezoning application yet.

Could be. The only thing I would say is by commerce, Given it's green light, it doesn't require us to approve it as RHID. So that question will come before you after the rezoning is completed.

Okay.

I think we're good.

Other questions?

I'm just curious as far as are there impacts one way or another by revising RHID?

I think the intent of this is he's planning housing in that dark shaded area that wasn't single-family housing before on the new plan. So it would be to the benefit to have that in the RHID district to help defray the cost of that sewer extension and other things. It's offsetting some of those other costs to bring utility services and roads to the property.

That's correct. I attended a meeting that they had at the senior center last month confirming that. And this is for residential track, approximately 72 units, single family homes.

Okay. Other questions?

No, I think Joe answered mine. The It said they indicate they're changing, so the change is that they want to add 72 single-family homes?

The change isn't to add 72, but it's to include that shaded pink area.

That will increase the number?

Yes.

Right. It actually is probably more shifting single-family from one part of the site to another. Is that correct?

Yes.

I didn't go to the meeting, so I...

It was very beneficial. I believe there were probably 12 residents that attended with some pretty good feedback.

I do think it's fair, though, that... There are some significant changes coming with the rezonings. I think that'll be clear once those go before the Planning Commission and come here to you. So I just want to be clear, it's not just a little tweaking. There are some significant changes that he's making out there.

And this doesn't improve any economic incentives or anything like that at this time?

Not at this point, no. Okay. Good point, Danny.

This is merely to send to Commerce to get their blessing on the creation of this little additional RHID district. That's right. Okay.

I'll make a motion to approve Resolution 2102 as written.

Second. All right. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? Roll call, please. Lane? Yes. Sabo? Yes. Patterson? Yes. Bradley? Yes. McCracken?

Yes.

Motion carries. All right. Item five, executive session. We don't have one, so we'll go to item six, advisory reports. Brandon, I'll let you lead off. Anything for the group tonight?

Just a reminder, on September 29th, we have our community center master plan open house consumer center from 530 to 730. We're going to unveil our draft plan for the public's input. We are working on getting some food vendors in there. I know it's around dinner time. And the mayor has generously donated some coffee as door prizes. So we'll have more information on that in the next week or so as we finalize those details. And then the only other thing I have is if you have some time, you might want to drive out by Riverfest and look at the soccer project. It's starting to kind of take shape out there. So worth a little pit stop out there. Outside of that, that's all I have, Mayor.

All right. Thank you. Patrick. Nothing for me. All right. Brad, anything for the group?

I just want to remind everybody, we're having on the 21st at 530, we're having our comprehensive plan steering committee meeting.

Okay. Joe, city engineer.

I'll come up and say the other thing.

So beginning next Tuesday, we'll start the city's in-house overlay program. So two big projects are Waverly Road south of 95th Street and then Waverly Road from, I think, 83rd to 90th Street will be the two bits. And then we've got some smaller streets within town off of Penner. But that will start next Tuesday. Hopefully take us about a week and a half, two weeks to complete.

Okay. Thank you, Joe. All right. Council comments. Danny, you want to start us tonight?

uh yes mayor i want to thank the crew for their diligence on we had for some reason unknown the southbound lane of cedar creek was blocked by tree foliage and the tree fell across there and we gave it to the street department by the afternoon the southbound lane was cleared and i wanted to thank them for their diligence and taking care of something that just all of a sudden happened.

All right.

That's all I have. All right, thank you.

Lindsay.

I just wanted to thank everybody tonight, and I know that Mike is not here, but the work on the budget was tedious for a long time, so thank you to everyone who was involved in that. And then I also wanted to bring up briefly, because I know it's been a topic of discussion, but the intersection at Lexington and Pinner, just to acknowledge, just based on some things that I saw online tonight, that it has been included in the comprehensive plan. It's been talked about. We talked about it at our retreat last month, and it's in the plans to address. So I didn't want people to think that it was being ignored or not addressed. especially with the school traffic time.

Rhonda.

I also want to thank the street crew, Joe, your whole team. Where'd you go? Thank you. The whole team from the streets and parks during the DeSoto Days week. For them, it's not just a weekend because there's pre- during and post stuff, and they just did a great job. And I'm sure they all love getting my text messages or Joe's text messages. Hey, we need this. Hey, can you help with this? And they're always so kind and gracious, and hopefully they'll be getting some treats tomorrow. So just as an extra thank you, but they always just do a really great job, especially in 100 degree heat. So thank you.

All right. Thank you. Zach, anything for the group tonight?

Yeah, I also wanted to thank Rhonda and Joe for their work on the Saturday's council or committee, completely separate from their council duties. And despite the extreme heat, I still think it went pretty well. And I just want to say for those of you who did not come out to throw balls at the dunk tank and dunk the mayor and I, you missed your opportunity to extract your vengeance in the dunk tank. Next year, you'll have the opportunity again. To dunk someone from the city. Yeah, I want to say thanks about that. And I do want to bring up that we're coming up, I think to the end of our scheduled I think our schedule went through September and I think we have to set them for October, November. Just something to think about at the next meeting. One of the things that I've gotten some feedback from a few residents that said that, and I don't know how feasible it is, but once a month is not enough. It's not the right time. I mean, I don't think we can accommodate everyone's schedule, but just something that maybe we can consider some other times or dates or something. Just in the back of our minds, something to think about.

Thank you. And that's all I have for now. Thank you.

Joe. I'll echo some of Rhonda's comments to Joe and his team. I'd like to give a special shout out to Martin. For anybody that did attend DeSoto Days, on Saturday we had an interesting event with the Ferris wheel. blew a major hydraulic line, and I think there was about 50 or 60 gallons of hydraulic oil all over 83rd Street, and it was a mess. And Martin was up here Sunday morning with a guy just going to town on trying to clean that up. Before we had our DeSoto Days return of our car show, Mayor, you missed it. We had about 112 cars. It was phenomenal showing, but back to Joe's crew and just the city crews, you know, big, big help in Nate Johnson as well. camera and all those guys were just putting in extra hours and the heat was no joke for anybody that was there and had to sit in that all day. Just huge thanks to all the vendors and everybody that keeps supporting DeSoto Days and keeping the small town community feel that we all love. That's it time there.

Well, I'm going to just do an echo that I'm going to echo Lindsay. Uh, we haven't forgotten 83rd and Lexington. It is, it's on the, it is on the list. We want to get, um, that we'll be moving forward. Some sort of plan to consider that. I'm sure. Um, I echo Zach. Thank you guys for your work on the DeSoto days committee. Uh, he can't do anything about the heat, but it's a great event. Uh, fun to have the fireworks there on Friday night. That was a blast. Um, You know, I could have used a few more ball throwers for the dunk tank because it felt pretty good to get dunked in the tank on Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock. But just a great effort. Thank you both for your work. And I think I'll just end there. Motion to adjourn.

I move we adjourn. Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye. Almost an hour.

A little over. Not bad.