City Commission - Regular Meeting

Would you please call the role? Mayor Adam, I'm here. Commissioner McCulla? Yes. Commissioner Fox, here. Commissioner von Lenel here. Quorum of three has been met. Thank you. Um, will you please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Um, this is a work meeting. We have three items on our agenda tonight. The first is an update on the downtown Manhattan, Inc. program. Uh Gina Snder will the executive director will join us.

Can you hear me? Okay. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be talking to you all. you know that I it's my favorite thing to do. I love to update um about downtown and talk about the amazing things that we're doing and all of the the accomplishments that we've had over the year. This is kind of an odd time of year to do this um just because we haven't had so much of the year go by. So, some of the information I'm going to give you tonight is maybe like 10 months back. So, it'll be a culmination of the last 10 months or so. Before I really get started, I do want to introduce just by standing up. Um, we have board members here. If you would please stand.

All righty.

That's Cindy. She's like, she's my heart. She walks around on the outside of my body. She's the biggest cheerleader for downtown. But these are You guys can sit down. Thanks. Um, these are volunteers. They are property owners, business owners, stakeholders in the district. They're very um committed to making and keeping downtown the amazing place that it is. We have five uh staff members and we have three exeicios. In case you don't know what we do exactly, we are a 501c6 predominantly, but we also have started a 501c3. Um, we are tasked with the care and keeping of downtown and that involves many things. You may not know how large downtown is. It's it's actually very it's a lot bigger than most people think. It's not just the two blocks of Points Avenue. It's Third Street to Juliet on Points Avenue and it goes um to the north to include Best Buy and the HY area and down to the South Entertainment District which is Blue Earth Plaza and the um Hilton. So, it's a really large area. We have 338 businesses right now, give or take. Um and yes, we really do have 3,600 parking stalls, contrary to what people think. We strive every day to maintain a careful balance of um retail, dining, service businesses. Uh it's really important that a healthy combination and mix of those businesses exist in the district so that we don't get lopsided too far one way or another. They're all very important no matter what they are. um employees, 3,000 plus of them, eat lunch and dinner and attend our events and um they're they're all everybody's important to the downtown district and overall to the to the um

health of Manhattan and the sales tax dollars that we um generate. This is a quick look at our funding. We have um a variety of funding mechanisms. We do a lot of hustling for sponsorship dollars and donations. We've created a downtown partner corporate program, which is um something that's pretty new. We uh look for likeminded shared value corporations um that believe in the goals and the vision of downtown and we have just four of them so that we can uh partner with them in a really um symbiotic way. Like we we we don't want just their money. We want to be able to do things for them too because we are shared values. So um we're trying to help ourselves with this this um corporate donor program. Um and then the 501c3 we hope uh helps us which is brand new hopes we hope that it helps us get grants secured and it definitely helps those who give us money to um get a tax donation. On average, we do um about 27 events a year. It can be as many as 32, 35. Um just kind of depends. Sometimes we have organizations that come to us and ask us to uh if we'll partner in something and if it's a benefit to our business district, then we then we'll do it. Um but these are pretty standard for us. And um we we get a lot done. We have a very bus we're in our busy season right now. some of our interesting data um that most people like to hear about. We have um most of our visitors which is different. I say visitors and patrons um patrons are usually the people who live in the area and come down there frequently and visitors are people who

come to just visit from other places and um more than half of those people come from from more than 50 miles away which is pretty great. It's nice to know that we have an impact outside of the region. Um 11,000 people live just within walking distance of downtown, which is pretty great. Walkability is a priority for us. It always has been through all of our downtown redevelopment. Sidewalks and safe crosswalks have always been um really high on the priority list. And we're we're proud to to have those safe sidewalks. Food and shopping um have remained at the top of the list for the reasons that people come downtown followed by beverage consumption. Third Thursday is the favorite family event of the year and it is tied very closely with the spirit of the holidays lighted parade which is in complete partnership something we do with the city of Manhattan and Festival of Lights which is a private endeavor as you all know that happens down in Blue Earth Plaza. This year we had a net gain. This is a 10-month about 10 months um worth of data. We had a net gain of six new businesses open. Uh, one of the internal metrics that we use um to tr to judge the health of our micro economy is when we look at small businesses that had the ability to expand into a larger space or to open a second store in the downtown district. And we actually had four of those. We if we have one or more a year, we're we judge that as a pretty healthy thing. Um over the last 10 months or so, we've had four that have actually expanded into larger spaces. Yeah.

Gina Gina, may I when I was reviewing this prior to tonight, um I was kind of surprised at 23 businesses closing, that seemed high and and you know, I was racking my brains for what might be. Are those um some businesses that are not necessarily storefronts that were in office space that we would not see on a day-to-day basis?

And that's actually pretty average. Um those are a therapist's office, like a single somebody who's in a single space. Um still important. You know, they they're paying into the V and eating lunch and dinner downtown and uh bringing people. Their business brings people. We have lots of uh salon spa type uh businesses where it's one or two um women who are doing nails or eyebrows or hair and those come and go. So the good news is though is that we've always had a gain for 15 straight years.

Do you do you know it how many of these might be relocations as opposed to uh just closing alto together? These are strictly closed and did not relocate. Thank you. Yes, Gina. Yes, I know a lot of the second level spaces in some of the downtown properties have been redone, but what percentage uh is needs to be redone as far as not very I would say are most of the second level spaces occupied or used?

Yeah. when I would say in in 2015 we had a really really big moment where everybody was coming downtown and we couldn't keep up with it really which is great. Um, and so the answer to that was to either take a smaller space and turn it into two or three, take a large space and turn it into two or three offices on the or retail spaces on the ground floor or do the same thing upstairs or turn it into residential. And we don't have very much space in the downtown district left to build out. Now, there are certainly some spaces um but I would say most property owners and developers jumped right on it. It was pretty great and it it has continued. We just last year we had a property owner who took one space that was a nonprofit business uh church and turned it into three now businesses. So that's been happening for 101 15 years now. Our commercial occupancy is right about 97% and our residential occupancy is 98%. I would venture to guess that it's closer to 100% but it's so hard to get that number on the residential occupancy which is apartments and above commercial spaces like lofts and apartments above like bourbon and baker type spaces. Um the the reason it's hard to get that number down to a for sure is because the the people move in and out and nobody even knows. It's just by word of mouth. There's so much demand to live downtown that it just happens so quickly. And so by the time I try to go and get the numbers from the property owners, they're just like, "Oh, that person moved out and then I had to

fix a window or and then you know." So, um, this has been consistently on on a, um, upward trajectory for the last 10 years or so. And we do our best to count our employees downtown. It's I'll be honest, it's a very difficult task to do that. Um, we we have some businesses that don't want to participate at all in that in that portion. So, this is a best in guess on how many that we have based on on how we've been counting them over the years. We do a lot of surveying. I'm sorry. We do a lot of surveying downtown and have really good relationships with most everybody who's been there for a while. So, it's um I feel pretty good about that number. I learned I was not supposed to say I feel. So, I'm going to take that back. I think that's a great solid number. Um, last year or in 2025, downtown Manhattan was responsible for 10% of the total sales in the city of Manhattan. And I think that this is something that you all should cling to as um a reason to support the initiatives and the endeavors of downtown. I think generating that sales tax revenue is um our job. I think it's important to the city of Manhattan and also to the region. And um this is from what I've been told a really great percentage when you look at all of the sales um in in the city of Manhattan. I can't get a number of property tax that's generated um annually. It's really difficult to get that number just in the downtown

district, but um it is always couple million. Couple million. The tiff district's just 2 million by itself. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. It's more than two million.

Yeah. Um, and where we come into play with that, I think it's important also for you to kind of um, understand is that the the clean environment, the safe environment, the beautiful environment, the relationship that we have with the city and and the county, the communication that we have, we are taking care of downtown all the time. I mean, we have our eyes out there. We're we're constantly looking to make sure that everything is is vibrant and that creates a demand and people want to be downtown. So, um that's how we kind of play into that. Are you familiar with the Manhattan Town Center C? Is anybody familiar with that? Okay. Um just to date, it's it's right at about $2.8 million. We um it's my understanding that 2.5 or so goes to mall improvements which when we were talking about the um Frost Plaza uh some of that money could be identified to use for um the funding some funding aspects of of the mall plaza. Are you familiar with the mall plaza frost plaza? I don't we haven't really had a chance to talk about it so I'll catch you up. Um, so just a note about this and how I think that this is really important is that it's be based on our partnership and our relationship between DMI and the city and the the uh fact that we have all been working together, you city staff, parks, um just all of these the public works, we all work together to um do the care and keeping of downtown which protects the $350 to $400 million of investment

public and private investment that has gone into downtown. And so it's been an awesome partnership as you can tell just downtown's so great. I'll go over this really quickly because this I have so much to tell you, but I know that it can just go on and on and I hope you've had a chance to like look at all of these things and if you have any questions, please ask me. Um I'm just going to summarize. I think the most important um things to note about our impact in the region is that um we support or lead efforts that generate sales tax and and property tax like we just talked about. Um we advocate for initiatives that benefit small business that could the things like this common consumption area, the dining platforms. I mean it just goes on and on all of the things that we've done together as partners. And also we now manage a second nonprofit which is that 501c3 that I was telling you about. And that makes um giving to downtown uh easier and it allows us to secure grants for special projects. A few of our other um highlighted achievements is uh that we have had 21,000 people visitors visitors. Those are unique to um downtown events in 2025. And um Something I'm really proud of and you should be proud of too is the relationship between downtown Manhattan and the finance department. We work really closely together um on the business improvement district and we've had a 95% or higher collection rate going on now five years. And that is because we have such good communication together and we work really closely together during this whole period of um billing and collecting and just just all the work that's necessary and it's a huge undertaking but to get 95%

collection rate is really good. Side note, we have visited a bunch of sister cities and we do this every other year and we learn we try to learn what are we doing really well and what what could we do better and we have learned um that all downtowns have this kind of funding. It might not be a B but they have like a a taxing um mechanism and that they struggle with their relationship with their with their city counterpart. It's like the biggest hurdle and we just don't have that here which is so awesome. And then um the the thing I can't ever skip over is we have 189 flower baskets, 60 snowflakes, and 42,000 feet of holiday lights. And u couple of years ago, the American Planning Association, the Kansas branch, gave us the um designation of being uh a great place in Kansas. And so we're really proud of that and we love when people tell us that we look like a Hallmark movie.

I'm going to just back Gina. Yes. Backing up to the previous slide about the 501c3. Yeah. So is that a separate foundation? Much like Discovery Center has a foundation, the zoo has a foundation. It's not a foundation. It's not a foundation.

No, it's just a 501c3. It allow it really when so we were formed as a six which is a business association and that doesn't really give you a lot of flexibility in um going after grants like you really can't you're almost prohibited from it. Um, so we toyed with the idea of just becoming a 501c3 and leaving behind the six, but after we talked to Barney's and who are accountants, we we learned that it was just better to have that secondary nonprofit. So they they just work together and it has a separate board and it reports separately and a separate bank account and all that. Okay. So, um these next two pages are just about 10 years of really great kind of that trajectory we were talking about earlier. Um I'll just mention that one of the cool things we did we've done together as partners. um is that we back in 2015, we started down a five-year um plan to add flower baskets and um American flags and uh KState flags and Christmas lights all throughout the district. We we broadened our um scope of what we provide and the beautifification efforts. We added trash cans and our groundskeeper was picking up more area in the district and that was a five-year um expansion plan that we did and it was super successful and you can see it today. Um, quick note that since about 2020, we've really put an emphasis on business relationships and um, I told you about the downtown partner program, but the other really cool thing that has happened is that we have a um, property

owner, his name's Blake Bower. is um the owner of Icon Investments and he has given us at no charge uh space, three spaces where we get to hang art for local artists and we have artist receptions and we have art walks. And to date, these artists have have combined together sold about $40,000 worth of their work, which is so exciting because we don't charge them anything to do it. our property owner doesn't charge us. It's just a really neat thing to do in the community. This year, our goals and initiatives, um hopefully you can at your leisure read through these, but again, just to highlight, um one of the most important things we've done so far this year is we've established a retail committee to do very serious work about strengthening and preserving our retail hub. um retail. It's hard to be a retailer in in this day and age for so many reasons and we never want to get to a point where our retail um environment goes away or starts to fade. So, we've we've got nine really awesome retailers that have come together to uh collaborate on how we can shore up their security. And that's everything from um looking at at succession planning to um a signature event. I mean just the whole gamut and this will probably go on for several years. It's really important to us in our partnerships that we utilize Kate. It's an untapped resource. Um we've been really fortunate that they have um referred to us as their front porch. Um and that we are getting artists and dancers and theater people and musicians and the symphony and the like just all

of these really great students and faculty and staff members from Kate are starting to be involved in in a lot of the events that we do downtown. And it's been awesome. And uh we created a um an initiative called Shop Small First. And it's just another way to constantly be reminding the community how important your local dollar is and to um invest in your local businesses before you really click on that um Amazon. We'll skip what we're doing every day just because I think I've hit most of that and I don't want you guys to go to sleep on me. So, this is the part where um I need your help. And um we've I've tried to make this fairly easy, but I I and I'm not calling anybody out. I just want to bring this to your attention that um we do have hundreds of millions of dollars uh invested in downtown and we want to make sure that we protect it and that we take care of it and we need to get to the curbs and the some of the sidewalks and um they're just you know they're they're just looking old and um in some places there's tripping hazards and that kind of thing. So, this this needs to be addressed and I know that it's on the radar of of folks in city hall, so I'm not worried about it. Um, we do need to begin a pretty major overhaul of our holiday lighting, which um is old and actually we just found out that we cannot order any more matching lights, that they're not making them anymore. Um, so we're going to need some probably some assistance with these big um purchase ticket items. Uh, Houston Street is going to need to have be outfitted with

flower baskets and brackets and flags and all the things that we have in our core downtown. and Houston Street is the core and they it's definitely the area that kind of rolls out the red carpet for the Museum of Art and Light and it's a very used thorough fair. So, um we want to talk about that with you all. We want to begin talking about a parking garage discussion. Nobody's asking for a parking garage tomorrow. We just want to start that discussion. The Metropolitan Planning Organization is working on a parking study for us. Um, and we'll form a parking committee if we need to. We'll take direction from city staff and from you all about how you want to proceed with that. But we do have desire um through our surveys that we do from our stakeholders what and they're just interested and they just want to know more or less. I think the conversation is really important to have. And then um we need to get some funding for Frost Plaza. This has been sitting out there for six or seven years now. And um it's unusable space today. It's the plaza in front of the mall. Basically, it's a set of sidewalks that get you to and from the mall. We can't program it. It's it needs electrical upgrades. We can't put live music or third Thursday vendors. um we can't put a symphony or a small orchestra event there. There's we just can't program this space and um we need to be able to program it because the top desire for 12 years now in our surveys both with to our patrons and also to our stakeholders is outdoor entertainment and live music. We just don't have a space for that. So, those are sort of the things that are on our radar that we hope um we can get on your radar. And that being said, I just wanted to show

you this really cool drone shot from the Spirit of the Holidays lighted parade. This is something that we do together. And um that's what I got. You're welcome. Or I was going to ask real quick about the CCA. Yes. Um, I mean, I know it's relatively new and it seems to be going pretty well. Yep. Um, were there any adjustments you guys are thinking about with it or just

We've had we've had no that I know of. We've had um actually I did check with RCPD. We haven't had any police interaction with the CCA. We haven't had any kind of um incidences that would be scary or bad. Um, it doesn't get used as frequently as I thought it would. mostly it gets used like when we have our events, third Thursday and those kind of things. Um, everybody loves to do that and I I like to keep it that way. So, I think it's it's going really well. We do need to be looking at keeping up on our paint markings because they go away really quickly and that I could see as maybe being a potential issue like if somebody steps over the line and carries their drink further than they should or something. But for the most part, zero problems. Gina, we hosted the um League of Kansas Municipalities Board maybe last month and um had dinner at a downtown establishment and one of the individuals who was visiting from another Kansas city, Kansas metro area, um was asking about RCCA and how it was going. And I was happy to be able to tell them that um based on our last conversation that there had been no incidents and yeah

um people seem to be managing it very well. Yeah, we it's really it's really been great. I hope to find other ways to utilize it like we we have the home care and hospice that does prominate on points and I don't know how that would work all the legalities but there there should be other ways to be able to utilize it and kind of like around surrounded around those events which is neat.

So this might be a more of a question for Mr. Johnson over there. But uh how we can't do anything with points until wear is done and they've got rid of that. But how do you even resurface that street without also rebuilding all the concrete crosswalks and the brick and Yeah.

Sure. Oops. Do you have any questions? No, I just like to say that, you know, um Susan and I and all the other mayors to be will do a lot of welcoming and it's really fun to tell them how walkable our city is. And you know, there's nothing worse than going to a meeting someplace. I mean, Topeka and that old hotel, there was, you know, there was no place to go, that kind of thing. And I've been in Dallas where, you know, the galleria was across eight lanes of traffic. Um, so I think it's it's really a selling point. It really is.

It re it truly is and we have to keep that up. We have to maintain it. We uh we also hosted the Daughters of the American Revolution last two weeks ago and there were quite a number of women who were out um both the evening of their first day of the conference and then it was it coincided with the Flint Hills Festival and quite a few of them were out walking around there as well. Great. cruising into

I love on the day of the Flint Hills fest which May 2nd tradition that that Saturday that first Saturday is so big downtown we have so many things going on and this year we had the museum art and light gala the frog wizard con um outdoor concert the Flint Hills Fest I mean so girls on the run had their race in the morning it's a great day for downtown it's like the the day that kicks off the season it's so fun Thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you.

And we will see if there's anyone who would like to anyone from the public who would like to make a comment or ask a question. Your board is on very good behavior. Not this one.

Uh seeing no one approaching, we will close public comment on this item. Um this wasformational. We have no action to take. So, we'll move into our second item on the agenda. Thank you all for coming out and showing your support for downtown and for your organization. Um, our second presentation is going to be discussing workforce housing sales tax applications. We've just completed our third round of applications and we'll see what came forward. Good evening. Stephanie Peterson, director of planning and development. Um, as the mayor just mentioned, we completed the April round of the workforce housing and sales tax application period. Um, before we jump into the one formal application we received, I just wanted to let the commission know that the way that we approached this was using the current policy. So, our current policy has certain max uh award amounts in it either based on the total project costs, the number of units um and so we did use those when evaluating this project. Uh, additionally, we only accept applications per the policy in April and October, the formal applications. Um, and so we will continue to use those as our guideposts unless the commission uh gives us further direction. We'd be happy to take that um either this evening or at another time, but I just wanted to make sure that uh I know we've had some conversations about changing the policy since nothing official has happened. We did use the policy that's currently in place. Stephanie, if I can ask, I I thought it was kind of back in your court to that we did have a work

session a while ago talking about what we would like to see and what we thought was okay, what changes we might want to see and what was okay. And so, is your staff working on a revision or do you still require additional input from us?

Mayor, I'm check I'll jump in here. Um following that meeting uh staff did not really feel like we had a whole lot of clear direction actually from the governing body that evening. So uh we are not currently working on anything. what our approach is right now is just to uh what one thing we did hear um from commissioners that evening was that as certain projects came forward, you wanted to review all of those um and really kind of view them um oneonone and when it was a worthy project, it might be worth um diving into and looking into a little bit further. But as far as making changes to the policy, um we did not hear any clear direction that evening. If um planning and development director Stephanie Peterson wants to weigh in a little bit, I would welcome her thoughts as well.

Yeah. Uh we did talk about this with Danielle and Jason. Um there were several uh opinions that were thrown out, but we didn't feel like there was a clear three majority in any of those. Some of the items that we spoke about were eliminating the April and October rounds. Maybe um some uh maybe thought that we should go to just open it up all the time. Others had said that maybe we have it four times a year. And so that's kind of an example of where we didn't quite get clear direction on where to go from there. Um, and I know that there was a lot of conversation about the thresholds and if we wanted to cap any projects. Um, I guess I would look at Danielle, but we would be happy to come back uh in front of the governing body with kind of the list of items that we heard to get clarification at some point. Is that

it's up to the commission if you all think that's a worthy task or not or if you all just kind of again as applications um come in um we can certainly do that but so whether it's in a work session or or however we do it I think we need to make changes and you know we I think we all have ideas on what needs to be changed so if that takes a work session to to give those to you to you know what we're thinking Um, I kind of hate to just do it on a as needed basis as these things come up.

I I agree and I I do recall elements of the conversation that were not uh as directive as they might have been and I remember spec some very specific disagreements among the commissioners on ways to proceed. But I do I agree with Commissioner Fox. I think we should um revisit this. Perhaps um if you do have a list compiled of what was thrown out as ideas, maybe that could be put in our mail folder and we can reflect on it a little bit and then schedule a work meeting later this summer.

Yeah, we we can certainly do that. um commissioners and then of course I think over the course of the next several weeks um when we have uh one-on-one conversations with commissioners and administration um we would we can talk about those um at that time as well. So I was going to ask is it appropriate for us to relay to you our thoughts on changes that need to be made? Uh yeah absolutely things we'd like to see. Yeah, absolutely. Please emails, please do. And then um

we can also start to co coales those um ideas amongst commissioners and that will also help us um bring forward some ideas and some approaches if we do see some themes um that are starting to um reduce. Yeah. Um thank you um my my mayor thesaurus over there. Um so if we start seeing some of those themes um produce um we can certainly start to uh put a presentation together for you all for that work session. So I know things have probably changed as you all have learned more um now that uh we've been in your seats now for almost six months. It's kind of wild to think that we're scheduling work section work sessions into June and July. So

Stephanie, I don't know if you remember when we talked about this a year and a half ago when we were first getting started down this path. We um I I did share some some references from the Urban Institute. you might want to either go back and see if you can find those or I can see if I can find them or um look at their website and see again now that we have a little bit of experience under our belts are there references that might be a little bit more germanine for us to consider. Certainly. Yep. Okay. We will bring something back on the policy here in the near future. Thank you.

Uh so we did receive one formal application in the April round. The project is located at Dickens and Wreath. So just a general location map of where that property is right across from Seco Park. Uh with the workforce housing sales tax projects, we do provide a project summary. It's just a quick overview um of what the where the project is, uh what type of housing structure it's requesting. So in this case, there are two single family detached houses that would be a part of this project. Um you can see there further below the total project cost that is estimated based on the application and then what their total request is of $50,000 in workforce housing sales tax. Um in the past a lot of the projects had actually been capped by this 10 uh no more than 10% of the project cost can be from workforce housing sales tax. But in this case, this project was capped by the requirement that no unit can receive more than $25,000 per workforce housing or per unit for uh the workforce housing sales tax. Uh the applicant stated in their application that these are uh proposed to be for sale and then you can see there at the bottom the two different price points um that they plan to sell these at. Um with each and then I will well let me go over this. So, uh, with each of the presentations, we provide you this balance sheet. I went ahead and put in, uh, the pending request here, the last line. So, then you can see how that changes the available cash on hand for workforce housing sales tax. Um, there, uh, we wanted to make you aware and then, uh, I'll ask Randy Dit to come up to speak more to this, um, and to answer any of your questions, but this property is currently without, uh, sanitary sewer service. Uh so the green lines here are our um public um infrastructure. The red lines are private. Um and then there was Brandy can speak more to it, but there is an incident that happened recently that

actually severed service to this property uh which makes it right now um uninhabitable. Um so I'll let Randy kind of speak a little bit more to that. Um and then if there's any other questions that you have for staff and then at that point we'll invite the applicant up to um present what they would like to on this project. Take it away.

Thank you commissioners. Um so and the applicant probably has a little bit more history on this but as we went through this project we found out some certain things about this site that we didn't know out before. First of all, like Stephanie mentioned, this lot when it was developed, it's if you looked at it today, it would be non-conforming because it does not have direct access to public sanitary sewer. Uh it it utilized uh what we call a common shared lateral with these. So these two properties uh basically combined to have one connection. This this uh depiction is really based on what we assume and a little bit about what we think we know about how it works. But essentially this this property to the south had um a failure and then in order to repair it the they lined the lateral and because the property in question connected uh just basically upstream of the existing sewer manhole when they lined it they effectively cut off access uh to that property. Can you I'm sorry, Randy.

I I'm kind of a novice on lateral fields. Sure. What does that mean that they lined the lateral?

So there there's the primary way of repairing a lateral is to dig it up and actually do a repair. uh similar to how the city rehabilitates our sewer manes. We in situ we go in or we have a contractor that can access it via manhole and line a sewer mane basically giving it another uh 50 se 50 years or so of life expectancy. Um now there are plumbers here in town at least one and in the region that have the ability to do that with smaller private laterals. So, as long as they have access from a manhole or a clean out on the property, they can they can mine it with a a resin material that cures and hardens. So, that's what happened with is my understanding is what happened with this property here. Uh, as we looked at this project and this property, several options came about to potentially remedy this. And there there's a lot of stuff in the way in in this area that is likely why this property chose to line their lateral. Uh there's fences, trees, etc. As far as my understanding, the trains a little difficult to get equipment in there to do that that repair. Um, so we've we outlined several options for them to basically get legal service to this property knowing that they wanted to split it and do multiple buildings on it. and really got us to the point where we are today where the options were we could we could um allow them to rebuild a private lateral across this property, but that would require permission from this property owner to do so. The

existing lateral goes through a public utility easement which we always allow private infrastructure to cross easements because obviously they have to connect to our infrastructure that are in easements. But a private homeowner does not have explicit rights normally to utilize a public utility easement I would say in parallel to that easement in order to access public infrastructure that is that they don't have direct access to. So, in other words, they they utilize a public public utility easement in the back of these two properties to access our public sewer. So, that's a that's a a less heavy-handed approach to allow them to basically have a non-conforming solution, but it's an existing issue. So, um and then the other option is to build a public sanitary sewer improvement um within that easement and extend public sewer to the property. So, those are the options that we we gave the owner. They presented that their preference was to build a public sewer. And that's really the extent of our involvement to date. So, that's a little history on on the sewer service for this property and potential options to to get it back into service.

Any questions? I've got a question. So, I visited Josh about this whole project and I stopped at the site and looked at it and I'm just wondering is there another option to take the sewer line from the southwest corner of that site and go west over here to that to that point. I don't think we know paying paying the property owner for some easement. I mean, I look at this as a city blunder from years ago.

Sure. not anything current, but certainly the city back then in the 70s should have never allowed that. Um, so I'm just wondering if that's We don't have all the information necessary to determine if they could utilize that. Yeah, there would need to be a public utility easement. There was certainly a lot cleaner site going west. There were no big tree. I mean, there's a huge cottonwood tree right in the exactly path of problematic either which way you look at it. Um, talked about potentially utilizing Rightway and Dickens as an option.

Um, there's multiple options is you you select between worse and more worse. Randy is aware and I think past commissions are probably aware. There are multiple areas in our community that are similar to this. Some of which are even worse uh situations. Um I don't know if it's always a city blunder. I do think there are developers out there who have done some things to possibly skirt cost and regulations along the way. So I I don't want to take all the blame as a city. Um, but I think there's history and and feedback we can provide you all in terms of what we've done previously to try to rectify some of these situations. There are there are circumstances we're dealing with owners in Colorado and other states trying to get infrastructure lined out appropriately for the people living in the homes. And it's taken a lot of time. So, I don't know if that's what's going to happen here, but I appreciate your your perspective, Commissioner Fox, because there are a number of ways to get there. Some are more expensive than others. Some are more convenient than others, and I think we can help generate those options.

Were Were those two homes, the the project home and the one to the south of it, were they developed at the same time? Yeah.

I I nodding. Yeah, more than likely. Um, when we found these type of situations in the past, usually it's involving numerous properties. Um, the the the the singular properties like this usually happens in the ward districts where all the sewers run through the alleys. But, uh, there's been instances where we corrected this through a partial benefit district. Uh there's been instances where the city um developed an improvement project. Um I can't think of any any instances where we've installed public infrastructure for a singular property. There is there is no specific policy for us on this to to look to to resolve it. Thank you, Randy.

Do you have any additional questions for me or would you like me to have the applicant come up and speak to their project in more detail? I think that would be fine. Josh, do you have a presentation?

USB connection. Good evening. We're gonna hook up a thumb drive here, but I can go and get started. Go for it.

Um, good evening, mayor, commissioners. Josh Brewer, executive director, Habitat for Mandy, the Northern Flint Hills. Um, thanks for the opportunity to talk about this project. This is an exciting, um, opportunity for us. It's our first time working in new construction in Manhattan since 2018. Um, so we've been doing most of our new construction work over in Ogden. This was a um um a really exciting opportunity when uh first uh one of our board members first learned of it that the Oak Grove School um was winding up operations and we had an opportunity to uh purchase that property and renovate it um back into a single family uh occupancy use and um you know we have we have heard in numerous housing discussions about interest in rehabbing older properties. Um, I think a lot of times the issue is, you know, can that project pencil out? Um, and and usually what gets in the way of that is right up front the acquisition cost with the existing uh rehabilitation budget. In this case, because this was a uh a nonprofit um that was winding up their operations, we were able to negotiate a a lower purchase price um $100,000. Uh and you know, we felt pretty comfortable that you know, regardless of what we found on the property, uh we would be able to uh you know, have a a shot at making this thing work. Uh obviously, we've learned a lot about sewers. uh more than I anticipated, but um the Dickens home um to get it back uh to a residential purpose, you know, pretty much we touched all the walls, you know, redid the floors, new kitchen, new bathrooms. Um everything in there was really set up to be a a childcare facility and classrooms. Um we also added an additional uh bedroom in the basement. Um uh we believe that this home was originally uh loaded like the car would

park in the lower floor um from that curb cut uh there on the western side. Um so the the floor was pretty uneven there and so we had to level that out and kind of make it uh back into a an appropriate uh bedroom and and TV room or however they end up using it. Um so that house is going to be a really nice house. Uh ultimately we do feel like that is going to be outside of our traditional um habitat programming. Um so this would be our first time um working on a home that would be outside of those affordability parameters. Um but it would be able to meet the the workforce housing parameters. Uh and then the other opportunity that you know we have on this site is because it's such a large site is to put a second home um there on the western side. Um this is a home that is already framed up. It's in the uh parking lot behind the airport. Um and so this would also be our second time building a home in a modular capacity. Uh, and this home was, uh, designed and has been framed up by the KState architecture students, you know, under competent supervision, of course. And we have one of those students, uh, Mia Young, who's going to talk a little bit about the design choices, um, that they've made in that second home here now.

Hello. It's fantastic to be here. I appreciate you guys for giving me the opportunity to do this. And you as well, Josh. I'm going to switch over here. Okay, good afternoon everyone. My name is Maya Young and in just three days I'll be graduating with my masters of architecture from Kansas State University. Today I'm here on behalf of 40 students and professors to update you on a truly unique design build project happening right here in the Manhattan community with the support of your local Habitat for Humanity crew. This is a project that has reshaped how we think about affordable housing, architectural education, and community partnership. Before I dive in, I want to ground us in the reality of what makes this work necessary. Kansas currently faces a shortage of over 50,000 affordable homes. In Riley County alone, over 54% of renters are costburdened, meaning they spend more than a third of their income on housing. And in Manhattan, the vacancy rate for affordable units sits below 4%, leaving families with limited options and long wait lists. These numbers aren't abstract. their lived experiences for our neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and community members. So, today I want to walk you through three things. First, how our project began. Second, how our Kansas State architecture students designed and built a fully modular home. And third, what this project means for the future of affordable housing in Kansas City. As I speak, I want you to hold one question in the back of your mind. what becomes possible when students are trusted with real responsibility, real collaboration, and real impact. I'm going to continue by playing a video documenting our journey and reading directly from a script so I can ensure accuracy while repres representing the multiple individuals you will see today. See this play? Perfect. Our project began as an entry for an affordable housing competition, a chance to rethink

how Kansas communities could build sustainability and affordability. I apologize, I lost my space. We ensured that every student had a role. We divided into four groups: structure, details, systems, and coordination, and stayed fully invested from day one. We also pulled inspiration from the studios before us who had previously begun early competition concepts. Their ideas became the foundation we refined, tested, and expanded. We were a group willing to put in long hours, collaborate relentlessly, and push each other to pull this off. One of the biggest breakthroughs came from the competition phase. The idea of a net zero modular home. Originally explored for transportation reasons, it evolved into a true strategy for sustainability, replicability, and affordable housing. By combining two modules, we created a design that can transform into one, two, or three bed configurations. A flexible solution for real families with real needs. We wanted to maintain blendable architecture through affordable materials like shiplap without compromising aesthetics. We knew that seamless transitions and openness is what truly creates a functional home. by utilizing a central hearth to run systems through identifiable shiplap material placement from the front entry to the back deck and configuring adaptable color pallets through vertical board and batten sighting that work with the surrounding neighborhood. We were able to find balance. We produced the renderings, the diagrams, the site design, the details and a full blueprint set. And then the real challenge began, building the home. Because of those blueprints, students were coming in on different days and could communicate seamlessly. Panels were built accurately without needing constant advisement. Our professor led the charge and with the support from the fabrication lab, four of us, myself included, completed extensive training to supervise construction. Everyone had a role. Everyone showed up. Everyone put in extra hours. To some, this might not seem like a big deal, but after years of

only drawing buildings, this was the first many of us had ever built something real. It was exciting, humbling, and transformative. Typically, construction happens on site, but because this home needed to be fully modular, we built every wall, every floor, every laminated element and furniture in our shop. With so many eyes on the project, we held each other accountable, safe, and efficient. We traded in what would be expensive labor costs for learning. Once we got past the first few panels, things took off. Students came in during their free time, immediately knew where to jump in. We did everything as a team. Design, build, carry, assemble, learn, communicate, and hurdle. We learned details of ethical building we never would have understood without hands-on experience. And through it all, we never forgot that this wasn't just about learning. It was about giving back. We wanted a design that could be reused, appreciated, sustainable, affordable, and blend seamlessly into the community. Rain or shine, we were out there raising the bar and designing a better future. We documented everything and we had fun doing it. The house is not just a few walls and a roof. It's a commitment from the younger generation, a statement that we care deeply about creating affordable, beautiful, and meaningful design. It represents the future of strong designers who put their community first. And the project didn't end with us. Two new groups of students continued the work this semester through seminars and studio courses. I was shocked in the best way to see how excited they were to join in even when their role was simply building on what we started and I was even more excited more surprised to see how quickly they learned. Today our project stands with completed floors, walls both interior and exterior and a roof nearly ready for its final home. As I close, I hope this project leaves you with three reminders. The younger generation truly cares about their community. Affordable housing is achievable when people commit to it.

When given the tools and time, great things can be shaped. They say, "Give a man a fish. You can feed him for a day. But teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." The same can be said about our students. Not only can this design be a smart way to move forward with housing, but the entire model itself, college students, high schoolers, volunteers, and local community groups can replicate this to be a part of something greater. I really appreciate the opportunity to share with you something that I believe can shape an even better Manhattan. Thank you so much for listening. I would love to hear any feedback, questions, comments, or concerns. Thank you, Maya. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. Definitely.

Okay. Yeah. And and Okay. Yeah. And I just think like I mean you saw how many people are working on that and how many people hours are out on that site. like that is one of the classes that is partnered with us on this project and other projects like it. Um we've also got students from MATC student uh transitioning service members coming out of HBI through Fort Riley JobCore students. Um it really is a community solution to housing and the modular delivery is definitely something we would have not taken on um without the support of architecture planning and design. But in this case, I think it really shows you why having a modular option um can be very uh very strategic. Uh when we first started developing modular, we did it for rural delivery. Um but this also demonstrates how modular can be a solution when you have site condition issues, pre-development issues. Um you know, discover that you don't have a sewer connection. Um the work has not stopped. It's just operating in parallel. Um so that house is is framed uh and um we've been in conversation with code as well about how um how far we can take it um before you know it gets those inspections um and maybe we would develop a process where we develop it or inspect it offsite um which is all learning that we'll need if we want to keep leaning into modular delivery. Um so with that I'm I'm open to any questions about these projects about the proforma that we submitted in your packet. Um our ask is um $25,000 of support per project. So 25 for the rehab, 25 for the new construction. And then I would also ask that u sewer cost uh u be eligible for workforce housing

dollars as well in addition to the incentive. Do we have any estimate on what the sewer costs would be? Just very, you know, ballpark sort of numbers. I think I would anticipate anywhere from 30 to 40,000. Um, we did talk to buyer construction about that. Um, we're currently um getting support on that from from BG and one of my board members uh could speak a little bit more in detail about that and about the process if you really want detailed feedback, but I would guess somewhere in that 30 to 40 range.

Would it be more advantageous to use the funds to fix the sewer from the sewer um funds instead of the housing funds? I would I think that's a policy decision and a policy conversation um that we could have. We could certainly talk through uh the pros and cons of using um our utility funds for that as um uh Mr. Hillers mentioned. Uh we have a lot of sewer challenges across um the city. Um and it would be um that would just be something that we would need to talk through and if that was a policy decision if we wanted to start using utility funds to try to um fix all of those challenges. I'm not sure if we have a good handle on what that would uh financial impact of that would be at this time. So if that is direction that the commission would like us to look at. Um, we we certainly can we can do some research on it, but um I I think that having the workforce housing dollars here um is makes sense um to try to use those um for for this project if that's something that the commission does desire. We certainly have plenty of funds in that um funding stream.

Um what's our timetable on this? I mean, you're obviously building stuff. Um are you waiting for are okay with the workforce housing money or you I mean what where are we on the timeline?

The the public improvement will be the controlling factor there. Um once we get that uh public improvement permitted and you know construction finished on that then the Dickens house would be you know we'd be able to sell that house. Um the other house is going to we're going to need to permit that and uh get the site work completed on that. So for that we'll just need an administr we're likely going to pursue an administrative lot split uh on that site. The other option would be to replplat the site and dedicate a public utility easement. So, there's a little bit of the um pre-development that still needs to be determined, but I think the the controlling factor really is the sewer. Uh this is it. This is a little unusual. We've not had um pre- project presentations all that often. Uh, so I I know we're not making any formal decisions tonight, but what are your expectations from the commission?

Yeah, tonight we're just looking if there is um any feedback that you wanted to provide them about this project um or if um feedback that you want to provide staff um on this and then of course you would have the formal approval of it um at a commission meeting. I think it's the I personally think the project is consistent with our intent with the workforce housing uh policy and our practices to date. Um I commend you for being a for taking on this rehab. Uh the house is looking very attractive. Um, I'm still hoping you can save that big tree before on the lot that when you do the division, but uh I I think my orientation would be to respond favorably towards this. I'm trying to skate here with not making a decision since it's a working session, but uh I don't want to leave you leaving the room and not knowing where we're going with this. So, commissioners, do you have thoughts on this?

So, personally, I'm all for helping Habitat out. I think you do great work, and this is a great great project. U I'm for using the workforce housing tax dollars to resolve any sewer issues versus the the water sewer funds. I think we have a lot of unanswered questions on how are we going to get this sewer line done and do we need to have these lots platted? Does it have to be a plat or can we just, you know, do a lot split? U certainly it's going to take easements for both houses, you know, legal easements for the sewer lines to um so, you know, we need to know the answers to to that. And are we going to be able to to run a new sewer line across the neighbor's property or not. Uh, are we going to get into legal challenges? I think we need some answers.

I I that before

when I visited with Josh, the neighbors were actually out working in their yard and it turns out they were habitat volunteers on previous projects. So, I think they would be favorably disposed to u helping out with the easements. But I think um yes. All right. So if I can speak for the commission, I think the guidance would be for you to come back with a cost estimate of the sewer work. You know, guidance about what your recommendation would be, whether it's going west or going south. Um what would be involved? Um and you know some sort of timeline Stephanie about whether a simple lot division would be possible or if we do need to go through a replatting procedure.

Sure. That decision will be made based on where the easement is and if um kind of how agreeable the property owners are to do that. Um there is a way that they can do the administrative lot split and then we can dedicate the easement through a separate instrument. it just is cleaner when we combine things in a plat. Um there's a couple of setbacks that were platted originally that we could remove just so that they um aren't uh vi in violation of those even though right now it's the building's been there for years. Um so yeah, we can get we can get those answers. Um the only item that I had tagged because this is a unique request from what we've had to date in that there are four sale units. the commission had expressed wanting to have some sort of time frame in which the the houses that are being sold um have either a price cap or who is buying those some sort of control over that. And I just wanted to recirculate that because as we begin to draft the agreement for the workforce housing sales tax, that will be a key um kind of a a key point that has been uh brought up in the past. Um if you recall the um Manhattan Infill um those did have for sale units but they also had an agreement with the state and the state's funding kind of took care of the um 5-year period that they were going to monitor those owner occupied units. So I would just like to see how the commission was wanting to address that aspect. Everything else we should have uh in template form from previous agreements. So, it might be beneficial to come up with some kind of an agreement. Certainly want to see them sold uh to owner occupants and if they're sold at, you know, below market rates, which I have no problem with. I mean, but I think we need to have some kind of a a clawback agreement like Josh does with his repair projects that if they sell within the first year, they only get,

you know, a portion of the profit. If they sell in two years, it's a little more. and so on. Um I think for and as we move forward with our policies, um if we're selling lower priced homes below market, I I think we're going to need that kind of an agreement with with any anything that we do going forward. So, might as well work on that kind of agreement now for this if in fact we're selling it below what they might otherwise.

Yeah, I mean we we could certainly put a a second mortgage on a on a sale, but it would be our intention to put these properties in the community land trust program. So, any any subsidy on this would be stewarded in perpetuity.

So, that actually might I wasn't sorry I didn't know that. Um if it's going to be in a community land trust then that would um that might take care of the requirement of having some sort of clawback um because they would because through that land trust program um or that community land trust program they would be able to they would be restricted on how much of the equity they would get back anyway. So let us um we might let us work with Josh and really figure out how that structure works within our workforce housing sales tax agreement. Um, and we can we can bring that back.

Josh, real quick. Um, how I mean, so the land trust, how long have you guys been doing the land trust? We did the first um we sold our first home uh um with a ground lease in 2023. Um and then we sold our second one a year later. Okay. So, still fairly new, but it is. Yeah. That those are Ogden. Both of those are yeah the ones right across the street from the school and then the other scatter or the other site that we're working on for the CLT is also in Ogden um on off Ninth Street.

And then how much was or what what do you think the if it was fair market for these properties? The asbuilt appraisal we got on Dickens um last year was about it was 350. Um, so we'd be looking at subsidizing this down. I I mean, personally, I would love to I'd love to get it down to 299. I mean, I think that, you know, Habitat's policies, we go off the appraised value and then we start working from there and trying to build affordability. Um, so if that 350 number is is where we're starting, then, you know, then we got to get it down from there. Um, but I I would love to get it below 300 with the land trust. I really I really like it. So,

great. Stephanie, is that enough uh direction I from the governing body? I believe so. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Josh. And good luck and my congratulations uh congratulations on your pending graduation and thank you for your enthusiasm working on this project. Please convey our appreciation to your team members. Our final topic this evening is discussing lane and street closures. Mary may have public comment. I'm not sure.

Where's my big yellow sign? I said I see that you have provided it in the agendas. Thank you. Hoodstone. Is there anyone who would like to make public comment? Please come forward. Scott, after you speak, would you please jot your name down?

Thank you, commissioners. Scott Seal, 1608 Denholm Drive, which coincidentally is just a block or two away from the subject property. Um, I was the one that that uh Oak Grove School approached about connecting with Habitat as a way to pass the legacy of that school on to another nonprofit that could get some use out of it after they weren't able to do so anymore. Um, and I just wanted to we have been kind of at a standstill with that property since about Thanksgiving. It's basically done except we don't have a sewer. Um, which so we have basically a a worthless piece of property at this point in time. And so it's been a it's been a process to figure out how to move forward. And there was a lot of we didn't even really know what was going on. and and that's kind of a so I I think it's really important that we get some forward momentum on this because it has been sitting um and and and bleeding money essentially for for a nonprofit that is cashstrapped to begin with. That's that's a major problem. So, um, I would really like to see a a correct solution moving forward. Um, for what in my estimation was probably something that never should have been done in the first place. Um, who whoseever's fault that is in 1973, I don't know, but it should not have been done that way. I think we I think everybody is in agreement with that. Um, and so we just are looking for a reasonable solution to get this property back online. um and allow for also the development of the second lot to kind of even magnify further that contribution to the community that the the board of the Oakgrove school wanted to do when they made the tough decision to close that

school. Um and could not have been used as a daycare going f forward because it probably shouldn't have been used as a daycare anyway as far as uh zoning and things like that are concerned. So, I think it's an opportunity to to write a wrong from a long time ago and I just from as a board member of Habitat for Humanity and just kind of as a fiduciary for that organization, we need to move forward from this as quickly as possible. So, um just ask for a quick but also uh correct and and culmination of this little endeavor. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Scott.

Yeah. Is there anyone else who would like to make a comment?

Good evening, commissioners. U Brad Boozer, uh 236 Forom Road. I'm also a board member with Habitat. I guess you could call me the uh sudden project manager of this uh situation. I've also uh lending my my professional services as much as I can related to development and whatnot. Uh working with BG consultants trying to get uh both the aforementioned cost estimate that'll be a part of their work in developing the public improvement plan. Um and I I I really want to applaud uh Josh and the rest of the board for wanting to do it for lack of a better term the the right way. Um deciding to go forward with the cost of of doing the public improvement. hope um you know you can support them and us in that and that we could have I don't know finagled something in some other way and shaved a little bit of money off there. But uh Habitat's method of course is that we would like to set up those homeowners for success for the long term. Inevitably in you know 30 or 40 years there's going to be tree roots in that lateral uh you know what what then right and so we're trying to put it back the right way. So, don't have a a lot else to say other than u you appreciate the voice the uh voice of support and look forward to the continued support and I guess if you did have any technical questions I might be able to answer them. Otherwise, uh Veggie, good night.

Thank you. Thank you, Brett.

Thank you, commissioners. My name is Cody. I'm the Rev Holtz. I'm the construction manager for Habitat. I live at 1518 Pierre Street. Um the question of which manhole to connect to, um I think the main reason we would still try to go south is there's already a public easement there. Um if we went to the other manhole, we would be asking a homeowner to dedicate another public easement. Um whereas that one's already there. Um there are more obstacles to to go that way. Um but that was the the thinking there. Um and then yeah, if you have any other questions about process that we've been through, let us know.

So there is a public easement there. There there is a public easement running south between the the two properties below uh the south of the one that we own. Yes. Um, and that is where our current lateral, private lateral was running through the public easement already. Is it running under that tree or is it over to the to the side? Um, I think it to the west runs um it basically runs along the that um fence line. Fence line. Um, and then it kind of jogs right over at the end to connect to the neighbor's lateral before it goes into the

main. Um, and yeah, their their sleeve went through the Y as our um assumption as to why we got cut off in last April.

Thank you, Cody. Anyone else would like to make a comment? Seeing none, we will close public comment on this portion of the agenda. Um, as previously stated, this is a work session. We have no action required beyond guidance we have already provided. And uh, now we will hear from Director Johnson.

Yeah. Good evening, Mayor, Commissioners. Johnson, director of public works. Um, before we get started on lane closure, I do want to have a real quick discussion on the points item. Points was originally scheduled to be milled and overlay this year. Uh, with the wear project, we push that back now to 2028. So, we will mill and overlay at uh, new lane striping and then rebuild those crossings in 28 uh, from 6 to 3. That's the plan as of today. Remember sixth to 7th just got done with the library project so that's relatively new yet so it' be six to 3 any extra that's in 28

as soon as the worm's done. Yeah it probably summer 28. Yeah.

Uh and then real quick then gas tax. There's quite a bit of discussion this week about um pausing or eliminating the federal gas tax. If you recall from our street maintenance discussions, that's about 18 cents a gallon. That 18 cents a gallon uh generates about $2.5 billion a month for the federal gas tax uh for roadways. Federal gas tax has to be used on roadways. It can't be used anywhere else. That's the beauty of the gas tax. Uh so for the average driver, uh that's about a 4% reduction in fuel cost. So, a 20-gallon fillup uh at today's prices, I saw about 415 to 420 coming to work this morning. That'd be about 83.80 for a 20- gallallon fillup. If you took that 18 cents a gallon out, you'd be about $80.20. So, you'd save about $3 on $80. Uh what does that mean to us? So, we do get quite a bit of our street funding through gas tax. Um, if you recall a couple weeks ago, we had an item for federal funds exchange where we exchanged about $700,000 uh for federal gas tax funds. That would now be in jeopardy as well as our CCIP award from a couple weeks ago down on Fort Riley Boulevard. There's about a $500,000 grant from KOT that also could be in jeopardy. Uh, and then we also have about $2.3 million scheduled to be paid for through our gas tax this year, both federal and state. And I haven't separated those costs out, but somewhere in the million to million and a half range, uh, would be that uh, federal gas tax loss. So, of course, very preliminary discussions. We're hearing what everybody's else is hearing through the news. So, I don't want to jump to too many conclusions on that, but um that would be a significant impact to our budget. Uh you'd be looking north of a million, probably close to $2 million in street repairs this year that we would forego.

Would that cut in um the Attabus money that they get from K2 or is that I I don't know how they're funded. I don't want to speak for Adabus. So those projects you just mentioned, those funds are yet to be collected by the government. Correct. So they're they're not already collected. They're cash as you go. Just like we are with our sales tax, which is the one big And remember during the street presentation, I said that's the big downfall of paying cash as you go is you got to have the money in your pocket to go bid it.

Um what KOT has in their pocket and what they don't, we haven't had those conversations yet. they haven't risen to that level. If I hear something, I'll be sure to get an in office memo to city management as quick as possible. Any other questions? Okay. Uh, so this item is lane closure policy and we haven't developed a policy yet. We've got we get quite a few complaints on this and this is something that we've talked about doing for a little while. We do have people in house that can run this. we wouldn't have to add uh staff members, but it would be pretty ownorous. And before we go down the route of developing the policy and uh all the permitting and all the processes, I want to make for sure that this is something that you all are interested in. I I do get quite a bit of feedback about roads being closed and not having uh appropriate signage. So, just real quick, we do receive several complaints weekly concerning lane, street, and sidewalk closures. uh private contractors close public travelways for pedestrian and vehicles at will with little to no warning and no schedule for completion. So this is really become a problem much more in the last 5 to 10 years as we've incentivized especially in the downtown area building from corner to corner. There's really no other place for that equipment material to go. So it has to spill out into the street. Uh if you get into the residential areas with the new homes, the lots are much bigger and a lot of the stuff for the house can be on the lot, but when you get downtown, especially commercial downtown, also apartments downtown, things kind of spill out and they get out into the street and they kind of get all over the place. They certainly block a lot of sidewalks. Um currently, if we get enough complaints and we want to remove a contractor or if something is unsafe, we have to contact RCPD who then engages with the contractor. uh chief of

police has the authority through the STTO to remove them. Again, most first class cities do have some sort of a policy on notification closures. Were one of the few that don't. Almost everybody had at least a permit system where you have to apply for a permit. And on those permits, there's kind of four different requirements for them. They're kind of typical of the lowest level is you just apply for a permit. It's x amount of dollars. That permit says we're going to close the street from this time to this time. That's it. Not a lot of detail to it, but it basically just notifies the city we're going to close it. The second level is a flat fee plus a traffic control plan that they have to put together showing where the detours are going to go and where people are going to be routed to. Third level is both of those two plus they also include a schedule on when they plan to be out of there or out of the way. And then the fourth uh level is those three. Plus there's also a cost per day for closures. Every city does it a little bit different. A lot of them do it based on how long of a closure it is. It requires a lot of staff time to and back and forth with the contractor to determine what those total costs are per day. Uh a lot of cities just had a flat fee, which I really like. It's real simple. Contractors can figure out if I got to close the lane, it's this much. they don't have to worry about measuring this or measuring that. Uh our recommendation would be the level four permit system and this would require the applicant to uh file a permit, pay the fee. We would review the traffic control plan that they submit. We'd also review the schedule and the time of the closure to make sure we don't have overlapping projects that overlap on each other's traffic control. and then they'd pay the fee for how long uh how long they anticipate having those lanes closed. Um our recommendation would be to review that permit every 60

days. So that $50 fee they'd have to renew every 60 days. That kind of gives us a control of if they aren't doing what they say they're going to do. It kind of gives us some leverage to help correct that action, but that's certainly up up to your purview. So the scope only private construction were required to get a permit. Projects that the city bid and contracted would not be required. So think of Anderson or street maintenance. Projects that are private investment or maybe installing public infrastructure in the ride ofway would require a permit. So think about a fire line or the case we just had. If they were going to close Dickens, but they were installing a sewer lateral, they'd still have to pay for that uh Dickens closures. other government entities that are closing city streets would need a permit. So 383, KSU, uh any other federal or state entities, projects that are franchise utilities would need a permit. And we do have a permit system already for utilities, but it involves digging and underground installation. There's nothing in there for street closures, and we did that on purpose because we wanted to crawl before we could walk with the system. Uh now we would look to also require utilities to get that permit. Waterline connections, fire connections, those would require permits. Uh permit review and processing we believe could be handled inhouse with our existing staff that manages that rightaway program. Again, we would recommend paying per lane per day. So that would incentivize contractors to complete street work quickly and not store equipment, trucks, and materials on streets or rightway. We we don't want to incentivize them to have private parking spots in front of their buildings. Uh maximum length or renew renewal could also be added if that's what the commission chose. So just real quick, a typical two-lane closure. So this is what a a regular traffic control plan that should be submitted and should look like. It's obviously not simple. It's a

lot of work and that's why a lot of people don't submit them. You got your advanced warning, your road close, your yields, your traffic control sign here with your yield or stop to oncoming traffic, and then your end. So, there's, you know, there's a couple thousand dollar worth of traffic control there. Probably could be up to $5,000 just for that traffic control. Again, in this example, because you're closing just the one lane, it'd be $250 per lane if that's on an arterial collector. Uh 150 for a local. And just for uh everybody's information, these are our collectors and arterials in the city.

Uh obviously the reds are the collectors and arterials and yellows and then um your lower your lower streets really aren't shown. They're these in here. These are your locals. Brian, sorry. Just for consistency on on that slide, you're saying that local streets would be 150. Can you go back to um an earlier slide? I thought said 100. Oh, okay. Yep. Right there. Yeah. So,

yeah. And we could do either whatever whatever the commission wants to do. Um, but these would be your 250 a day streets, your arterials, collectors. These are the ones that are 10 to 15 to 20,000 vehicles a day. So, when you divide your cost per day, you're looking at pennies per vehicle that you're requesting people to go around in barricades and and drive extra distances. It's really only, you know, pennies per vehicle. So, this is a typical four-lane closure. Again, this one would be 250 and 100 or 150, whatever you determined. Again, here's your traffic control plan. Pretty detailed. This is actually a traffic control plan we have for Anderson. Um, this is this one is pretty intense. This is probably 15 to $20,000 of traffic control, but this would be for a full closure of Anderson. So when we talked about Anderson full closure a while ago, uh actually no, this is for Browning. This is the Browning closure for the summer. So when we close Browning this summer, this is what traffic control plan looks like. So

very in-depth, very detailed. Um takes a lot of a lot of time to put these together and and they are quite expensive. So these are just a few examples of what we see out and about with incorrect traffic control. So, you can see no no signage here. No lane closure signage here. That keep right sign is about the size of an envelope. And I'm sure why, you know, people under 20 can read that. I certainly can't. Um, and then you also have these height restrictions. So, if you had an over height vehicle or oversized vehicle, you actually could potentially hit these arms and that guy go for a ride. This has no barricades along the trench here. This is a sidewalk. So, this should be sidewalk closed with some uh barricades and fencing here. This has absolutely no signage up front here saying closed. No detour signs, just a couple of barricades that say go around. And then this is another one for sidewalk closures. So, with that, I'll stand for questions. Again, we're we're looking for direction and feedback. If this is something you want to pursue, Commissioner Morrison sent me some notes. He's certainly interested in it. Um, but if this is something that three of you want to shove until later, we can certainly do that.

I think it makes sense.

One more item actually. So, at $250 a day, I did do the math on the wear. So the wear project we originally talked about closing the entire 400 block of points from fourth to fifth. If we were to close points for a year both lanes it would have come up to about 0.5% of their total budget. So why 250 a day sounds like a lot it does to me. When you look at the total of a construction budget it is fractions of a percent. So full closure on points would have been half of 1% of what the worm construction budget is. So, personally, I think something needs to be done because as you say, since zoning or building regulations started allowing to lot line to lot line, they've encroached in street

and sometimes it seems like they just kind of take their time and use it for storage. Yeah, it's a lot easier to store next to the building than it is to store it. need some incentive to get the job done. And yeah, the street opened up. I see a head nod and a head nod. I see three at least three head nods. Who who decides where this the sidewalk closed sign should be? Like there's one um at um points and 11s 11. Okay. To tell you that the sidewalks closed at you know clear down at the bank. I mean

so the sidewalk closure sign should go at the closest crossing to the closure. So is that because there's a light at 11th and that's Yes. Okay. Yeah. Because we're trying to get those pegs to cross at a light as opposed to an open street. Correct. Because you can walk, you know, like three more blocks blocks. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. We're trying. You got to remember that those are set up for ADA. So, you're setting them up for somebody that can't see that three blocks that the closure is. So, they feel that closure and they know to turn. Okay. Would current projects be grandfathered so that

that is a great question and that's something I've debated for a while. Uh my initial thought would be probably but then maybe they grandfather them for three months and then if they're not completed in three months then they need to get a permit some way to incentivize if you're on the street to keep working so you get off the street. Maybe we give them 180day grandfather clause. I I don't want to do the the full grandfather because some projects are going to go for two or three more years. We could also look at an effective date of the changes in the ordinance and some some projects may not be able to wrap it up by then.

Well, I'm thinking of like the the uh Hartford project. Yeah. Wear them. And the wear them. And maybe those projects you could do just the fee and a traffic control plan and not charges per day. So at least we have a schedule of when that's going to get gone. And if their traffic control starts showing some signs of wear and tear, we've got a permit to make them go out and redo their traffic control. Would would that be posted? I mean, you said you get complaints from the public about not knowing what when completion dates are. So, would that be posted on our the city website? So,

we do. So, we have a we have a street closure that we send out every Friday that has all the closures for the next week. Um, so we would start posting that and then we'd also put it on our social media. Also, uh, the big thing is for emergency services. You know, you don't you don't want a firet truck to go down 11 Street and then find out it's closed and nobody knew. Brian, have you elaborated on your management of this? Did you touch on that early?

No, not in a lot of detail. The one bullet point said we would handle it in house. We have a current ride ofway program with a person in there that issues permits. We think that they can go ahead and take this workload. Also, if the workload becomes overwhelming and the pro and the uh policy pays for itself, we could look at adding another person or a temporary person or part-time. But we think with our in-house staff, we can both review traffic control plans and issue the permits for the foreseeable future. Is this something that once and I I understand from Danielle's weekly update the issues with the Opal program right now with losing your support staff,

their support staff. Um, is this something that could be administered through that? We would, our intent would be to administer through that. Uh, we've looked at some other cities and kind of how they've set up their permitting system. We think it'll work well in Opal. We haven't approached those folks yet because obviously we got to develop a policy first to figure out what our permits are going to have in them, but we think we certainly could. Okay, we will be back before the end of the year then. Uh thoughts on the lane closure cost? Do we want to charge, not charge? Okay,

I think you're what you I think your uh ideas were pretty valid, right? the 250 and the 150. Okay, that's what we'll come back with. Thank you. Um, we'll have public comment. Is there anyone who would like to make any remarks as I'm looking at the person in the audience most likely to be affected?

Um, Blade Mages 2000 hunting. Uh, evidently here on behalf of Wormhaul tonight. Uh, came for the DMI meeting and stayed for the party. uh won't miss a chance to pitch fundraising. So that math that Brian just crunched, while it's point4%, that's still 180K. Um for a nonprofit organization like us or not even nonprofits, but for significant projects, you might just consider some kind of system that um takes into account community benefit because a lot of these really long-term projects also have really long-term impact for the community. So maybe there's some kind of scaling or some kind of tearing. Um just kudos to the city. They've been fantastic to work with. Uh in terms of the traffic plan, we realize it's a big cumbersome project right in the middle of downtown and we appreciate the public's patience and uh excited to reopen it. But yeah, if we got to if we got to pay that bill, we're coming after coming after you, Larry, for uh for your donation. So thank you guys.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to make a comment? All right, we will close public comment. Commissioners, any last thoughts on Danielle? Yeah, the only thing I would just add um on this conversation, I'm sure you will start to hear um from our contractors and other um interested stakeholders in this conversation. So, as you hear feedback and gathering feedback on this conversation, please don't hesitate um to let us know in the next few weeks because we will be working on um that ordinance based on the feedback you all gave this evening. So, as soon as we can hear some of that additional information, it' be helpful. I'm sure we will hear it as well. Thank you,

commissioners. If there's nothing else is do we have a motion to adjurnn? Second. All right. All in favor say I. I. Thank you. Thank you for your listening tonight, your comments. Let me know if you know need any more information about it.